Please choose your delivery country and your customer group
This project is a weaving together of two specific interests and one social concern. The author's interests are in the changing nature of gangs resulting from their emergence and growth in new cities, and the place and meanings of gang affiliation among young women in these contexts. Her concern is with the detrimental effects recent punitive crime policies are having in the lives of young people: these policies are resulting in a disregard for the social and economic contexts that cause youth crime and gang participation. We are in a time of change as scholars studying gangs. The 1980s and 1990s have witnessed monumental national growth both in gangs, and in the renewed academic study of gangs. My study adds yet another layer to this critically important project. The goals of the study are to provide a detailed picture of female gang membership, and in particular to focus on a city in which gangs are a relatively new phenomenon. The project is the first prong of a larger study comparing female gang involvement across cities with differing socioeconomic and cultural contexts, and with differing histories of gangs. The focus of this text is Columbus, Ohio. The project includes comparative survey interviews with 21 gang members and 25 non-gang girls, census tract analyses for both groups, and in-depth interviews with the gang members. It explores the correlates of gang involvement among girls, the life contexts shaping their participation in gangs and the meanings they attribute to it, the structures and activities of these gangs and girls' roles within them.