This paper, based on data from interviews with a selective sample of self-identified gang females, compares the practices and characteristics of three gangs, highlighting the interrelationship of drugs, delinquency, and social context. Using themes developed from the classical gang delinquency study of Walter Miller in 1958 (Journal of Social Issues, XIV, no. 3), this paper argues that just as he was able to discern major “focal concerns” among lower-class gang males, the same might be said of gang females. However, during the era in which Miller was writing, gang females were still considered mere “appendages” of male gangs and left unanalyzed. This paper refocuses attention on the importance of gang female agency, showing how the degree of autonomy obtained by gang females is shaped by the entrepreneurial success of their delinquent activities, especially in the field of drug sales.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
AndersonElijah1990Streetwise: Race, class and change in an urban community. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
2.
ZinnMaxine Baca1989Family, race and poverty in the eighties. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society14(4):856–874.
3.
BeckerHoward1963Outsiders: Studies in the sociology of deviance. New York: The Free Press.
4.
BiernackiPatWaldorfD.1981Snowball sampling: Problems and techniques of chain referral sampling. Sociological Methods and Research10(2): 141–163.
5.
BonacichEdnaModellJ.1981The economic basis of ethnic solidarity. Berkeley: University of California Press.
6.
BrownClaude1965Manchild in the promised land. New York: Signet Books.
7.
BurowayMichael1991The extended case study method in ethnography unbound. Berkeley: University of California Press.
8.
CampbellAnn1991Girls in the gang. 2d ed.London: Blackwell.
9.
Chesney-LindMeda1989Toward a feminist model of female delinquency. Crime and Delinquency35(1):5–29.
10.
CohenAlbert1955Delinquent boys: The culture of the gang. Glencoe: The Free Press.
11.
CrichterChas1976Structures, cultures and biographies. In Rituals and resistance, eds. HallS.CritcherC.JeffersonT.ClarkeJ.RobertsB., London: Hutchison and Co.
12.
DenzinN.K.1989Interpretive interactionism. Newbury Park, Calif.: Sage Publications.
13.
DouglasMary1982In the active voice. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
14.
DurkheimEmile1933The division of labor in society. New York: The Free Press.
15.
FaganJeffrey1992Set and setting revisited: Influences of alcohol and illicit drugs on the social context of violent events. Paper presented at the Working Group on Alcohol-Related Violence, National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, Washington, D.C.
16.
FineMichelle1994Working the hyphens: Reinventing self and other in qualitative research. In Handbook of qualtitative research, eds. DenzinN.K.LincolnY.S., New York: Sage Publications.
17.
FontanaAndrewFreyJ.1994Interviewing the art of science. In Handbook of qualtitative research, eds. DenzinN.K.LincolnY.S., New York: Sage Publications.
18.
GoldsteinPaulBrownsteinH.H.BellucciP.A.1989Crime and homicide in New York City, 1988: A conceptually based event analysis. Contemporary Drug Problems16:651–687.
19.
HarawayDonna1991Simians, cyborgs and women: The reinvention of nature. New York: Routledge.
20.
HarrisMary1988Cholas: Latino girls and gangs. New York: AMS Press.
21.
LauderbeckDavidHansenJ.WaldorfD.1992Sisters are doin' it for themselves'; a black female gang in San Francisco. The Gang Journal1(1):57–70.
22.
LiazosAlexander1972The sociology of deviances: Nuts, sluts and perverts. Social Problems, vol. 20, Summer: 103–120.
