WEST TEXAS & NEW MEXICO FEMALE GANG MEMBERS

West Texas & New Mexico female gang Members Aggression

Abstract

The majority of research on gang membership has been concentrated on the male population. When West Texas and New Mexico female gang membership is examined, it is usually in reference to them as sex objects or their secondary roles in the gang. Minimal work has been done to examine the etiology of West Texas and New Mexico female gang membership. This study presents themes of West Texas and New Mexico female gang membership which emerged from in-depth structured interviews with fifty West Texas and New Mexico female gang youths in a residential treatment facility. Demographic material, family structure, initiation rites, and criminal behaviors are examined. In addition, specific implications for social work practice and research are explored.

Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION4

LITERATURE REVIEW7

Social Psychology of Gangs8

Deviant Behavior and the Methodological Challenge10

RESEARCH METHOD12

Design12

Sample13

RESULTS14

Education14

Family Life and Neighborhood16

Gang Initiation19

Reasons for Joining Gang21

Gang Association23

Physical and Sexual Abuse24

Criminal Behaviors26

DISCUSSION28

Implications for social work29

CONCLUSION33

REFERENCES35

BIBLIOGRAPHY39

West Texas & New Mexico female gang Members Aggression

Introduction

Serious criminal behavior committed by West Texas and New Mexico female gang members has steadily been increasing for the last two decades, and is becoming increasingly common (Campbell, 1987; Spergel, 1992, Taylor, 1993). Campbell's (1984) research indicates a greater increase in serious criminal activity among West Texas and New Mexico female gang members than their male counterparts in the decade of the seventies. Serious crimes by females increased by over 50% between 1968 and 1974, while the males arrest rates for serious crimes rose less than 10%. Between 1960 and 1978 arrests of females under 18 years old increased by 265% for all offenses and 393% for violent crimes; arrests of males for violent crimes increased by only 82% during the same time period (Giordano, 1978). Taylor (1993) reported that the West Texas and New Mexico female gang members of the 1980's took a more comparable role as they became more liberated and independent. He stated that like their male counterparts, "West Texas and New Mexico female gang members now are hard-core and deadly" (p. 45). Fishman (1992), who has studied West Texas and New Mexico female gang membership since the 1960's, reported that "West Texas and New Mexico female gang members today have become more entrenched, more violent, and more and more oriented to male crime" (p.28). Although statistics indicate juvenile females are becoming more extensively involved in serious unlawful activity, West Texas and New Mexico female gang members have largely been ignored (Convey, Menard, & Franzese, 1992). As Chesney-Lind (1989) states, the academic study of gang behavior has, for all intents and purposes, been the study of male gangs.

The majority of material written about West Texas and New Mexico female gang membership is incomplete and outdated, most being written in the 1970s or earlier. Thrasher's (1927) initial study of over a thousand Chicago gangs contains only one page discussing female participation. The extensive theories explaining male participation in gangs include poor economic conditions (Perkins, 1987; Zatz, 1987), drug ...