The Adolescent Girl Gang Involvement Phenomenon

As of 2000 there were than more than 24,500 gangs in America and over 772,500 gang members; 46,350 of which were female (6%) (Egley, 2002). Half of all gang members are juveniles and 39% of youth gangs have female members (Egley, 2002). Girls have been joining gangs sense the 1920's (Barnes and Mason, 2001) and are "...often used as 'punching bags,' impregnated, poorly treated, and abandoned" (St Cyr and Decker, 2003: 426). Girls are the fastest growing group in the juvenile justice system (Bloom, Owen, Rosenbaum and Deschenes, 2003). However, the system was designed to handle boy offenders and is not sufficiently prepared to deal with the increasing number of girl offenders (Bloom, Owen, Rosenbaum and Deschenes, 2003). The juvenile justice system is lacking in the knowledge, resources and programs necessary to specifically deal with prevention and intervention of adolescent girl gang members. This is despite that fact that "...gang membership has more long-term harmful effects on females that on male gang members" (St. Cyr and Decker, 2003: 425). A community oriented gang prevention program if properly designed would have a significant impact in preventing adolescent girls from becoming involved in gangs (Monette, 2007).

For the purposes of this proposal adolescent girls will reefer to girls in the 12-17 age rang, specifically American girls of all ethnicities. A gang will be defined as an organized peer group with common interests including territory control and/or illegal/ delinquent activity, including status offenses. Girls involved in gangs will be defined as girls who identify themselves as gang members or girls who regularly associate with a gang and have had any part other than victim in any illegal/delinquent behavior associated with that gang.