Girls' Talk: The Social Representation of Aggression by Female Gang Members

VioLit summary: OBJECTIVE: The goal of this article by Campbell was to study accounts of fighting given by female New York street gang members to their peers. METHODOLOGY: A quasi-experimental method was employed for this study. The study was a two year empirical investigation of three New York City gangs. These were all known to the Gang Information Units of the police. The girls studied were 15-30 years of age. One gang was black and Hispanic, and two of the gangs were mostly Hispanic with some white and black members. Each of the gangs had a membership between 13 and 15. There were 64 cases of fighting; the accounts were tape-recorded and coded. The investigator interacted with the account-giver only when clarity was called for. Nineteen variables were coded with absent information coded as missing data. The variables coded were identity of opponent (gender and gang/nongang), reason for fight (criminal act, intra-gang, inter-gang, domestic, integrity or loyalty), location of fight (public/private), observers present, number of protagonists, number of opponents, who started the fight, weapon carried (lethal/nonlethal/none), whether the fight involved biting, involved kicking, involved scratching, involved slapping, involved other assaultive acts, whether a weapon was used or threatened, how the fight ended, who abandoned the fight, whether the police were involved, and who was the winner. Descriptive statistics and factor analysis were used to analyze the data. FINDINGS/DISCUSSION: Descriptive statistics found that the targets of aggression were not limited to other gang members or only to females. A small portion of fights were immediately related to the gang membership. The largest category of reported fights were related to domestic violence among romantic partners. Damage from these fights ran the spectrum from slapping to hospitalization. Integrity and loyalty were as important as gang issues in fighting. Fights were found more predominantly in public places with observers present. Most of the fights were one-on-one. In half of the fights, no weapon was carried, but when a participant had a weapon, it was most likely to be a lethal one and was generally used. Punching and kicking were most often used with slapping (considered a more female act) also being frequent. Only 16% of the fights ended as a result of serious injury. Participants were most likely to end the fight, but the opponent was seen as leaving first, and the protagonist was seen as the victor. The police were involved in only 14% of the fights. Factor analysis revealed a factor that was clearly a weapon-no weapon factor which measured the carrying and using a weapon. Along the dimension were intermediate forms of assaultive behavior in between. This dimension did not significantly differentiate the reasons for the fight. The other two factors found did, together, differentiate the reasons for the fight. The first factor was called a group-personal dimension with intergang fights loading positively and personal integrity and crime fights loading negatively. The intergang fights were characterized by fighting gang-member opponents, lethal weapons, having observers, and a tendency for the fight to be abandoned by the opponent or by both parties. Integrity fights were more of a solo affair involving other nongang females, not involving weapons, and being abandoned by the protagonist or ended spontaneously by those involved. These were said to be affairs of honor where the willingness to fight was more important than injury. Intergang fights were seen as matters of public honor that needed to be fought out before observers. These fights had a momentum that made honorable abandonment impossible, and weapons involvement meant a greater likelihood of injury. Integrity fights were found to be subject to restraining rules of fighting. The other factor was the victim-nonvictim dimension. Domestic and crime fights loaded positively. Additionally, the absence of observers, a single victim, and a larger number of protagonists loaded positively. These involved the lack of observers who might intervene. The intragang fighting was on the other end of the spectrum. There was no victim as both parties entered into the fight consensually. These non-victim fights were more likely to be associated with private locations. The author stressed the fact that these were representations of fights, not necessarily matters of fact. Age was seen as a critical variable as membership has aged in the last few years. Gender was also seen as a factor in social presentation because, for example, men would be less likely to get public prestige for beating up their partners. Fights over personal integrity were said to be quite common among girls, and individual modes of fighting in response to personal attack were frequent. The girls were also said to portray themselves as someone who could take care of themselves, as demonstrated by weapons use. Much of the fighting was found to be outside the purview of the criminal justice system. EVALUATION: This study serves as a direct investigation of a topic that has been very much ignored in criminology: women's aggression. A large number of accounts serve as the sample. There are some cautions that must be taken, however. It is not clear how the coding was done, and no measures of coder reliability are given. Additionally, these accounts represent what was gathered from New York City girls in gangs. The limitations of the sample in terms of geography and the gang context must be taken into account when drawing conclusions from this study. Though the author takes time to note that these are accounts and not necessarily factual, much more could have been done with this analysis to examine the account-giving process. Qualitative analyses of these data could lend much to such an examination. Overall, this study provides a beginning for more replicative study. (CSPV Abstract - Copyright © 1992-2007 by the Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence, Institute of Behavioral Science, Regents of the University of Colorado) Juvenile Offender Juvenile Violence Juvenile Female Juvenile Aggression Juvenile Gang Female Aggression Female Violence Female Gang Female Offender New York Adult Aggression Adult Female Adult Offender Adult Gang Adult Violence Fighting Behavior Social Organization Physical Assault Incidence and Prevalence Physical Assault Causes Physical Assault Offender Physical Aggression Aggression Causes Aggression Incidence and Prevalence Violence Causes Violence Incidence and Prevalence Language: en