Abstract
This chapter addresses the issue of sexual violence experienced by ‘gang associated’ girls and young women. Research conducted in the UK suggests that gang-related sexual violence is distinctive with its own set of characteristics and motivations. Whilst not disputing that ‘gang members’ sexually abuse girls and young women, it is argued here that the sexual violence experienced by associated females is not reducible to the ‘gang’ and that a more fruitful approach to understanding the violence enacted against them involves an exploration of the gendered dynamic of youthful social interactions more broadly.
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Notes
- 1.
See T. Young, ‘Girls and gangs: “Shemale” gangsters in the UK’, Youth Justice, 9 (2009), 224–38 (Young 2009); T. Young, ‘In search of the shemale gangster’, in B. Goldson (ed.), Youth in Crisis? Gangs, Territoriality and Violence (Abingdon, 2011) (Young 2011); J. Pitts, Reluctant Gangsters: Youth Gangs in Waltham Forest (Bedford: 2007) (Pitts 2007); M. Chesney-Lind, The Female Offender: Girls, Women and Crime (London, 1997) (Chesney-Lind 1997); K. Joe Laider and J. Hunt, ‘Accomplishing femininity among the girls in the gang’, British Journal of Criminology, 41 (2001), 656–78 (Joe Laider and Hunt 2001); J. Miller, One of the Guys: Girls, Gangs, and Gender (New York, 2001) (Miller 2001); J. Miller, ‘The strengths and limits of “doing gender” for understanding street crime’, Theoretical Criminology, 6, 4 (2002), 433–60 (Miller 2002); J. Miller, Getting Played: African American Girls, Urban Equality, and Gendered Violence (New York, 2008) (Miller 2008); J. Moore, Going Down to the Barrio: Homeboys and Homegirls in Change (Philadelphia, 1991) (Moore 1991).
- 2.
See, for example, Pitts’ Reluctant Gangsters and C. Firmin, Female Voice in Violence Project: A Study into the Impact of Serious Youth and Gang Violence on Women and Girls (London, 2010) (Firmin 2010). The authors of this chapter recognise that the concept ‘gang’ is problematic and acknowledge tensions in the debate around the definition. We direct readers to other sources – such as S. Hallsworth and T. Young, ‘Street collectives and group delinquency: social disorganisation, subcultures and beyond’, in E. McLaughlin and T. Newburn (eds.), The Sage Handbook of Criminological Theory (London, 2010) – that address this conceptual conundrum and critically evaluate what is meant by this term since we are unable to fully consider, and give due credit to, the varied positions here (Hallsworth and Young 2010). For the purposes of this piece it is important to stipulate that the term ‘gang’ is being used as an umbrella to describe street-based groups or ‘street collectives’.
- 3.
Young, ‘Girls and gangs’, 224–38
- 4.
A. Campbell, The Girls in the Gang: A Report from New York City (Oxford, 1984); Moore, Going Down to the Barrio; Miller, ‘The strengths and limits of “doing gender”’, 433–60 (Campbell 1984).
- 5.
Miller, Getting Played.
- 6.
See also L. Trickett, ‘Birds and sluts: Views on young women from boys in the gang’, International Review of Victimology, 22 (1) (2015), 25–44 (Trickett 2015).
- 7.
A. Valdez, Mexican American Girls and Gang Violence: Beyond Risk (New York, 2007) (Valdez 2007).
- 8.
Ibid, p. 2.
- 9.
Ibid, p. 111
- 10.
Pitts, Reluctant Gangsters; Firmin, Female Voice in Violence Project; C. Firmin, ‘This is It: This is My Life’: Female Voice in Violence Final Report: On the Impact of Serious Youth Violence and Criminal Gangs on Women and Girls across the Country (London, 2011) (Firmin 2011); H. Beckett, I. Brodie, F. Factor, M. Melrose, J. Pearce, J. Pitts, L. Shuker, and C. Warrington, ‘It’s wrong…. but you get used to it’: A Qualitative Study of Gang-associated Sexual Violence Towards, and Exploitation of, Young People in England (London, 2013) (Beckett et al. 2013); Centre for Social Justice, Girls and Gangs (London, 2014) (Centre for Social Justice 2014).
- 11.
Firmin, Female Voice in Violence Project, p. 13.
- 12.
C. A. MacKinnon, Toward a Feminist Theory of the State (Massachusetts, 1989) (MacKinnon 1989).
- 13.
H. Beckett, I. Brodie, F. Factor, M. Melrose, J. Pearce, J. Pitts, L. Shuker, and C. Warrington, Research into Gang-associated Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Violence (Luton, 2012) (Beckett et al. 2012).
- 14.
Valdez, Mexican American Girls and Gang Violence, p. 121.
- 15.
Firmin, Female Voice in Violence Project.
- 16.
Miller, Getting Played.
- 17.
Ibid.
- 18.
Following Hallsworth and Young’s ‘Street collectives and group delinquency’, the term ‘on road’ is used rather than the gang. This is because we consider it to be a more facilitative concept with which to understand the complexity and fluidity of urban street life. The generic term ‘gang’ is replete with racial and stereotypical representations of the ethnic, urban underclass and, arguably, of limited use for understanding street-based criminality and violence. In contrast, Hallsworth and Young’s concept ‘on road’ allows for a more nuanced interpretation of a subculture that encourages a ‘street sovereignty’ (Hallsworth and Silverstone, 2009) where young people engage in a world of badness (Gunter, 2010) as it conceives the gang as one component of a complex ‘road’ culture. To be ‘on road’ could include being in ‘a gang’ but it is also an existential way of being in the world for young people in disadvantaged urban neighbourhoods. It is defined as: the ‘hood’ or the ‘ghetto’ where young people, worn down by marginalisation and exclusion, struggled to survive in a society they believed did not care or cater for their needs. At its most extreme, the hood – and by extension ‘the road’ – was a place where young people adopted a ‘hood mentality’, a fatalistic attitude to life that held ‘no dreams, no ambition, no drive; no nothing’. See also S. Hallsworth and D. Silverstone, ‘“That’s life innit”: A British perspective on guns, crime and social order’, Criminology and Criminal Justice, 9 (3) (2009), 359–77 (Hallsworth and Silverstone 2009); A. Gunter, Growing Up Bad: Black Youth, Road Culture and Badness in an East London Neighbourhood (London, 2010) (Gunter 2010).
- 19.
J. W. Messerschmidt, Crime as Structured Action: Gender, Race, Class, and Crime in the Making (London, 1997), p. 178 (Messerschmidt 1997).
- 20.
Joe-Laider and Hunt, ‘Accomplishing femininity among the girls in the gang’, 656–78.
- 21.
At the heart of this code is a set of informal rules of behaviour organised around a desperate search for respect that governs social relations (Anderson 1999). E. Anderson, Code of the Street: Decency, Violence, and the Moral Life of the Inner City (New York, 1999) (Anderson 1999).
- 22.
See Miller, ‘The strengths and limits of “doing gender” for understanding street crime’, 433–60, who criticised the work of Messerschmidt in relation to girl’s agency and gangs.
- 23.
J. W. Messerschmidt, Masculinities and Crime: Critique and Reconceptualisation of Theory (Maryland, 1993) (Messerschmidt 1993).
- 24.
S. Harding, The Street Casino: Survival in Violent Street Gangs (Bristol, 2014) (Harding 2014).
- 25.
Harding, The Street Casino; S. Hallsworth, The Gangs and Beyond: Interpreting Violent Street Worlds (Basingstoke, 2013) (Hallsworth 2013); J. Densley, How Gangs Work: An Ethnography of Youth Violence (Basingstoke, 2013) (Densley 2013); A. Fraser, Urban Legends: Gang Identity in the Post-Industrial City (Oxford, 2015) (Fraser 2015).
- 26.
Harding, The Street Casino, p. 223.
- 27.
See Firmin, Female Voice in Violence Project; Firmin, ‘This is It: This is My Life’; S. Berelowitz, C. Firmin, G. Edwards, and S. Gulyurtlu, ‘I thought I was the only one’, The Office of the Children’s Commissioner’s Inquiry into Child Sexual Exploitation in Gangs and Groups (London, 2012) (Berelowitz et al. 2012); Beckett et al., Research into Gang-associated Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Violence; Beckett et al., ‘It’s wrong … but you get used to it’; J. J. Pearce and J. Pitts, Youth Gangs, Sexual Violence and Sexual Exploitation: A scoping exercise for The Office of the Children’s Commissioner for England (Luton, 2012) (Pearce and Pitts 2012).
- 28.
Beckett et al, Research into Gang-associated Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Violence, p. 8.
- 29.
Harding, The Street Casino, p. 239.
- 30.
L. Trickett, ‘Birds and sluts’, 25–44.
- 31.
Some of the data presented here was collected as part of a collaborative research partnership between Tara Young and Child and Women Abuse Studies Unit.
- 32.
B. Skeggs, ‘Situating the production of feminist ethnography’, in M. Maynard and J. Purvis (eds.), Researching Women’s Lives From a Feminist Perspective (London, 1994) (Skeggs 1994).
- 33.
J. T. Bertrand, J. E. Brown and V. M. Ward, ‘Techniques for analysing focus group data’, Evaluation Review, 16, 2 (1992), 198–209 (Bertrand et al. 1992); B. F. Stanton, M. Black, L. Kaljee and I. Ricardo, ‘Perceptions of sexual behaviour among urban early adolescents: Translating theory through focus groups’, Journal of Early Adolescence, 13 (1993), 44–66 (Stanton et al. 1993); J. Norris, P. Nurius and L. A. Dimeff, ‘Through her eyes: Factors affecting women’s perception of and resistance to acquaintance sexual aggression threat’, Psychology of Women Quarterly, 20 (1) (1996), 123–45 (Norris et al. 1996).
- 34.
D. L. Morgan and R. A. Krueger, ‘When to use focus groups and why?’, in D. L. Morgan (ed.) Successful Focus Groups: Advancing the State of the Art (Newbury Park, 1993), pp. 3–19 (Morgan and Krueger 1993).
- 35.
See T. Young, M. Fitzgerald, S. Hallsworth and I. Joseph, Groups, Gangs and Weapons: A Report for the Youth Justice Board of England and Wales (London, 2007) (Young et al. 2007).
- 36.
J. Ritchie and J. Lewis, Qualitative Research Practice (London, 2003) (Ritchie and Lewis 2003).
- 37.
R. White, Youth Gangs, Violence and Social Respect: Exploring the Nature of Provocations and Punch-ups (Sydney, 2003) (White 2003).
- 38.
A ‘bezzel’ is a woman who engages in fellatio with a man. A ‘link’ is a girl who is a casual, sexual acquaintance; a ‘sket’ is a street term for ‘slag’.
- 39.
P. Reeves Sandy, Fraternity Gang Rape: Sex, Brotherhood, and Privilege on Campus (New York, 1992) (Reeves 1992).
- 40.
‘Bocat’ is a euphemism for cunnilingus and ‘give brain’ is another word for fellatio.
- 41.
Beckett et al, ‘It’s wrong … but you get used to it’.
- 42.
Valdez, Mexican American Girls and Gang Violence; Miller, Getting Played.
- 43.
E. Goffman, Stigma: Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity (Englewood Cliffs, 1963) (Goffman 1963).
- 44.
A. Giddens, Modernity and Self-Identity: Self and Society in the Late Modern Age (Cambridge, 1991), p. 28 (Giddens 1991).
- 45.
J. Young, The Exclusive Society: Social Exclusion, Crime and Difference in Late Modernity (London, 1999), p. 66 (Young 1999).
- 46.
Ibid, p 72.
- 47.
Ibid, p. 73.
- 48.
E. Goffman, The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life (New York, 1959) (Goffman 1959); Goffman, Stigma.
- 49.
Such problems are also seen in the prosecution of rape and sexual abuse. See J. Lovett and L. Kelly, Different Systems, Similar Outcomes?: Tracking Attrition in Reported Rape Cases across Europe (London, 2009) (Lovett and Kelly 2009).
References
E. Anderson, Code of the Street: Decency, Violence, and the Moral Life of the Inner City (New York, 1999).
H. Beckett, I. Brodie, F. Factor, M. Melrose, J. Pearce, J. Pitts, L. Shuker, and C. Warrington, Research into Gang-associated Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Violence (Luton, 2012).
H. Beckett, I. Brodie, F. Factor, M. Melrose, J. Pearce, J. Pitts, L. Shuker, and C. Warrington, ‘It’s wrong….but you get used to it’: A Qualitative Study of Gang-associated Sexual Violence Towards, and Exploitation of, Young People in England (London, 2013).
S Berelowitz, C. Firmin, G. Edwards, and S. Gulyurtlu, ‘I thought I was the only one’, The Office of the Children’s Commissioner’s Inquiry into Child Sexual Exploitation in Gangs and Groups (London, 2012).
J. T. Bertrand, J. E. Brown and V. M. Ward, ‘Techniques for Analysing Focus Group Data’, Evaluation Review, 16, 2 (1992), 198–209.
A. Campbell, The Girls in the Gang: A Report from New York City (Oxford, 1984)
Centre for Social Justice, Girls and Gangs (London, 2014).
M. Chesney-Lind, The Female Offender: Girls, Women and Crime (London, 1997).
J. Densley, How Gangs Work: An Ethnography of Youth Violence (Basingstoke, 2013).
C. Firmin, Female Voice in Violence Project: A Study into the Impact of Serious Youth and Gang Violence on Women and Girls (London, 2010).
C. Firmin, ‘This is It: This is My Life’: Female Voice in Violence Final Report: On the Impact of Serious Youth Violence and Criminal Gangs on Women and Girls across the Country (London, 2011).
A. Fraser, Urban Legends: Gang Identity in the Post-Industrial City (Oxford, 2015).
A. Giddens, Modernity and Self-Identity: Self and Society in the Late Modern Age (Cambridge, 1991), p. 28.
E. Goffman, The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life (New York, 1959).
E. Goffman, Stigma: Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity (Englewood Cliffs, 1963).
A. Gunter, Growing Up Bad: Black Youth, Road Culture and Badness in an East London Neighbourhood (London, 2010).
S. Hallsworth, The Gangs and Beyond: Interpreting Violent Street Worlds (Basingstoke, 2013).
S. Hallsworth and D. Silverstone, ‘“That’s life innit”: A British Perspective on Guns, Crime and Social Order’, Criminology and Criminal Justice, 9, 3 (2009), 359–77.
S. Hallsworth and T. Young, ‘Street Collectives and Group Delinquency: Social Disorganisation, Subcultures and Beyond’, in E. McLaughlin and T. Newburn (eds.), The Sage Handbook of Criminological Theory (London, 2010).
S. Harding, The Street Casino: Survival in Violent Street Gangs (Bristol, 2014).
K. Joe-Laider and J. Hunt, ‘Accomplishing Femininity Among the Girls in the Gang, British Journal of Criminology, 41 (2001), 656–78.
J. Lovett and L. Kelly, Different Systems, Similar Outcomes?: Tracking Attrition in Reported Rape Cases across Europe (London, 2009).
C. A. MacKinnon, Toward a Feminist Theory of the State (Massachusetts, 1989).
J. W. Messerschmidt, Masculinities and Crime: Critique and Reconceptualisation of Theory (Maryland, 1993).
J. W. Messerschmidt, Crime as Structured Action: Gender, Race, Class, and Crime in the Making (London, 1997), p. 178.
J. Miller, One of the Guys: Girls, Gangs, and Gender (New York, 2001).
J. Miller, ‘The Strengths and Limits of “doing gender” for Understanding Street Crime’, Theoretical Criminology, 6, 4 (2002), 433–60.
J. Miller, Getting Played: African American Girls, Urban Equality, and Gendered Violence (New York, 2008).
J. Moore, Going Down to the Barrio: Homeboys and Homegirls in Change (Philadelphia, 1991).
D. L. Morgan and R. A. Krueger, ‘When to use Focus Groups and Why?’, in D. L. Morgan (ed) Successful focus Groups: Advancing the State of the Art (Newbury Park, 1993), pp. 3–19.
J. Norris, P. Nurius and L. A. Dimeff, ‘Through Her Eyes: Factors Affecting Women’s Perception of and Resistance to Acquaintance Sexual Aggression Threat, Psychology of Women Quarterly, 20, 1 (1996), 123–45.
J. J. Pearce and J. Pitts, Youth Gangs, Sexual Violence and Sexual Exploitation: a scoping exercise for The Office of the Children’s Commissioner for England (Luton, 2012).
J. Pitts, Reluctant Gangsters: Youth Gangs in Waltham Forest (Bedford, 2007).
P. Reeves Sandy, Fraternity Gang Rape: Sex, Brotherhood, and Privilege on Campus (New York, 1992).
J. Ritchie and J. Lewis, Qualitative Research Practice (London, 2003).
B. Skeggs, ‘Situating the Production of Feminist Ethnography’, in M. Maynard and J. Purvis (eds.), Researching Women’s Lives From a Feminist Perspective (London, 1994).
B. F. Stanton, M. Black, L. Kaljee and I. Ricardo, ‘Perceptions of Sexual Behaviour among Urban Early Adolescents: Translating Theory Through Focus Groups’, Journal of Early Adolescence, 13 (1993), 44–66.
L. Trickett, ‘Birds and Sluts: Views on Young Women from Boys in the Gang’, International Review of Victimology, 22, 1 (2015), 25–44.
A. Valdez, Mexican American Girls and Gang Violence: Beyond Risk (New York, 2007).
R. White, Youth Gangs, Violence and Social Respect: Exploring the Nature of Provocations and Punch-ups (Sydney, 2003).
J. Young, The Exclusive Society: Social Exclusion, Crime and Difference in Late Modernity (London, 1999), p. 66.
T. Young, M. Fitzgerald, S. Hallsworth and I. Joseph, Groups, Gangs and Weapons: A Report for the Youth Justice Board of England and Wales (London, 2007).
T. Young, ‘Girls and Gangs: “Shemale” Gangsters in the UK’, Youth Justice, 9 (2009), 224–38.
T. Young, ‘In Search of the Shemale Gangster’, in B. Goldson (ed), Youth in Crisis? Gangs, Territoriality and Violence (Abingdon, 2011).
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Young, T., Trickett, L. (2017). Gang Girls: Agency, Sexual Identity and Victimisation ‘On Road’. In: Gildart, K., et al. Youth Culture and Social Change. Palgrave Studies in the History of Subcultures and Popular Music. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-52911-4_10
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