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NCJRS Abstract

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NCJ Number:	184398

Title:	Chicana Gang: A Preliminary Description (From Female Gangs in America: Essays on Girls, Gangs and Gender, P 48-56, 1999, Meda Chesney-Lind and John M. Hagedorn, eds. -- See NCJ-184395)

Author(s):	John C. Quicker

Date Published:	1999

Page Count:	9

Sponsoring Agency:	Lake View Press Chicago, IL 60657

Sale Source:	Lake View Press P.O. Box 578279 Chicago, IL 60657 United States of America

Type:	Report (Study/Research)

Format:	Book (Hardbound)

Language:	English

Country:	United States of America

Annotation:	This essay discusses Chicana gangs in the East Los Angeles, CA, area.

Abstract:	Data for this study were gathered from interviews with school personnel, teachers, probation officers, youth workers, police, administrators and youths themselves. The chapter focuses on four areas that most succinctly portray the major characteristics of the gang: the relationship of the girls’ to the boys’ gangs, how one becomes a gang member, the process of decision making and gang loyalty. The chapter examines girls acting as assistants for boys’ gangs and girls as auxiliaries to boys’ gangs. There was considerable ambivalence on the part of both sexes concerning the acceptability of girls as affiliate members of boys’ gangs. As a rule, girls requested gang membership, either personally or through friends who were already members. Female gangs tended to be democratically functioning units. Decisions that concerned the group were usually accomplished via open votes. Perhaps the most impressive quality of the groups was their overwhelming emphasis on group loyalty. The gangs were not only a primary group but perhaps the most important primary group in the girls’ lives.

Main Term(s):	Juveniles

Index Term(s):	Behavior patterns; Ethnic groups; Female gangs; Gang member attitudes; Gangs; Gender issues; Hispanic Americans; Hispanic gangs; Home environment; Juvenile gang behavior patterns

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