The Only Edited Volume on
Female Gangs Ever Published
If you think the Stereotypes of the past were bad, click here and listen to Bill O'Reilly on Fox claim that lesbian gangs are threatening democracy, freedom, and yes, men! O'Reily's subsequent "apology" for mis-statement here.
Female gang members are either ignored, sensationalized, sexualized, or demonized. |
Myth 1 Female gang members are either Tom Boys or Hos. Fact 1 Female gang members, like males play an assortment of gender roles |
Myth 2 Female gangs are becoming as violent and dangerous as males Fact 2 The ratio of male to female violence has been steady over decades |
Myth 3 Girls must "pull a train" or sleep with all the male gang members to join a gang Fact 3 Maybe this is every male gang member's dream, but it's far from reality. Many girls form their own gangs with their own initiation rituals |
Myth 4 Girls may not be as violent as boys, but they are getting more violent Fact 4 Rates of violence for both males and females in most cities are less than half of their early 1990s rates and less than in the 1970s |
The Chicago Crime Commission has published one of the most lurid and sensationalist distortions of the nature of female gangs in print. A few pages of their report is printed here in pdf format as is an html version of Hagedorn's polemical response: Girl Gangs: Are Girls Getting More Violent?