In addition, many law-enforcement officers interviewed by Insight conceded that girls are able to get away with more criminal activity. Cops are less suspicious of a girl driving by with a baby in the back seat, says Mike Knox. Some females are lured into gangs by the promise of financial reward, identity and status, according to Kristen Lindberg, author of the Chicago Crime Commission report on girl gangsters. Lindberg also notes that females are more likely to hold down a respectable job at the same time that they are involved in gang activity, also making them look less suspicious. Some of the police officers with whom Lindberg spoke said they seldom question the girls at crime scenes.
Females seem to put up with a great deal of mistreatment by their gang leaders.
I found that many of the girls had come from extremely exploitive and abusive backgrounds, says Hahn. When the gang leaders treated them poorly, they thought this was normal behavior. Teen-age mothers often join gangs to provide a surrogate family for their children. Other girl gangsters don t want to be subject to the authority of the boys. They join girl gangs because they have become tired of being the ones committing the crimes, running the drugs and putting themselves in danger, says Hahn.