How Prevalent Are Female Gangs In The United States (Essay Sample)

FEMALE GANGS IN AMERICA
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FEMALE GANGS IN AMERICA
Introduction
Research done by the national gang centre in 2010 indicates that gangs have been in existence in the United States for a long period of time. But it became a major problem in the United States in 1980’s. Gang activities mainly, begun in some of the major cities like; New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago.  Later they started to penetrate to rural areas (Glapa, 2011). The word gang is used to refer to organized outlawed groups that engage in criminal activities like; carjacking, murder, drug trafficking and robbery. Gangs are caused by social economic difference and exclusion of some people especially youth from middle-class culture (Newton,.2008). Research about gangs has for a long time concentrated on male participants than female.  Many researchers tend to ignore female gangs. This paper is going to unearth the participation of women in gang activities in America.
For many times in the United States, female gangs were left out and all the focus was on their male counterparts.  However, research shows that there has been a tremendous increase in the recent years of female gangs in the United States. According to the national representative survey of youth, female gang members are nearly 30 %( Glapa, 2011). This is an indication that the numbers of females joining gang groups is on the increase in America.
In early years, female gangs were seen as sex objects by their male counterparts. Reports indicate that female gangs were readily available for sexual encounter especially from their fellow members who were men.  Female gang involved themselves in group sex as their main role in the group. Male gangs felt that women gangs are there to be exploited sexually. This made men to take advantage on the women gangs (Moore, 2001). However, in the recent past studies show that female gang commits minor crimes than male gangs. Compared to men, female gangs commit fewer crimes. They are less violent than men gang members. The female gangs tend to concentrate on property crimes and sometimes they get involved in offense related to status (Glapa, 2011). This does not rule out the fact that some female gangs engage in violent acts of criminality in the United States of America.
Female gangs have also been linked to drug trafficking. According to California department of justice, in 1997 women were involved in drug offense than men in Los Angeles County.  The majority of the people arrested in connection with drug offenses were female gangs. The major cause of arrest of women was drug offenses (Moore, 2001). Drug dealing was more prevalent among female gangs than men. This shows that women gangs also participate in harmful and deadly criminal activities in America though on a lower level.
It is important to point out that there are general characteristics that are connected to gang members. Statistics show that gangs have similar characteristics depending on their criminal behavior.  These characteristics vary when it comes to gangs organized base on ethnic, racial or gender backgrounds, however; the difference is minimal (Shoemaker, 2013). Characteristics of female gangs do not seem to differ so much from that of their male counterparts. There is close relationship in terms of character.
Female gang members tend to make marks on th...