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A Research Paper by Annie Trinty

Published 11/11/25

Introduction:

Criminologists know that people form and join gangs to seek protection and improve their own socio-economic standing. Gangs form along ethnic and family lines to combat marginalization in a country with rampant white supremacy. One would think, then, that criminal gangs would also form along the lines of gender and sexuality. Individuals who are marginalized for reasons other than race would form groups with other members from the same demographic and begin acting to collectively improve their conditions, sometimes in ways unsanctioned by the law. However, exceedingly few examples have been found of gangs operating with the explicit purpose of empowering women, not even simply empowering individual female gang members. This paper will explore the most likely explanations for why that is. Make no mistake: there are many women involved in gang activity and other forms of organized crime, but they continue to be in the minority, few achieve the same roles and notoriety as their male counterparts, and they still operate within a heavily patriarchal criminal ecosystem.

Data Collection Errors:

It is important to keep in mind that women in organized crime face prejudice not only from other gang members, but from law enforcement and criminologists as well. Because of this, what is known about female gang members may be inaccurate or incomplete. Findings do suggest that females were relegated to more auxiliary roles prior to the 1980’s, but in early studies of gangs, researchers also made the mistake of categorizing instances of female gang membership into stereotypes: sisters and girlfriends who were protected by their relationship to male gang members, hoodrats and sex toys who were simultaneously members and victims of gang activity, vamps who stayed on the periphery of gang activity and aided in administrative tasks, and “tomboys” which described any female showing ambition and aggression mirroring male gangsters. Camila Atías’s 2003 report describes the competing theories of “Liberation Hypothesis” in which women and girls enrich themselves by navigating a patriarchal gang culture, and “Social Injury Hypothesis” in which girls from vulnerable backgrounds are recruited into gangs to be further victimized; neither model can present a complete picture alone for the motives and outcomes of women joining gangs. (Atías 11)

Additionally, many guidelines for identifying gang activity were designed around the behavior of male-dominated gangs, and because of this, female-led activity is underrepresented in findings. Women’s chapters of national and transnational gangs are certainly represented in women’s correctional facilities, but these gangs tend to have very nuanced relationships with prison security and are very effective at keeping the peace, resulting in almost no gangs in women’s prisons being identified as “Security Threat Groups” (STGs). Compared to the easily recognizable actions of male gang members, female gang activity more heavily relies on retaining and communicating pertinent gang knowledge, and this passive role is much less obvious to officers. Both in schools and in prisons, destructive female groups faced the problem of being overlooked by security and teachers as “cliques” up until as recently as 2004, causing the girls being harassed by these groups to go ignored. (Lauderdale 5) For a long time, female prison gangs were described as “pseudo-families”, where incarcerated young women cut off from external ties to friends and family would slot themselves into some ersatz role within the group such as mother, daughter, “father”, or sister, parodying the heteronormative family unit. It is true that women and girls join prison gangs for a sense of community, but more recent findings suggest that the differences between male gangs and female “pseuto-families” may be more arbitrary than previously thought. (Evans) Lastly, in the rare occasions female prisoners do form together to commit crimes, they do so typically with much more clear goals than their male counterparts, and this objective-driven approach makes it more likely the crime will be successful without detection.

Most Women do not Join Gangs for Feminist Reasons:

Almost all young women are introduced to gang life through associations with either male relatives or boyfriends. This is true of both the statistical majority of low-ranking female members, as well as many high-profile historical figures such as Enedina Arellano Felix, Virginia Hill, Griselda Blanco, and Maria Liccardi. The fact is that almost all large, well-known criminal gangs are still at their core patriarchal institutions, and most women who become involved in these gangs do so out of a sense of loyalty to their family or ethnic group, not out of interest for themselves as women. “Marianismo” is the feminine counterpart to “machismo”, and emphasizes the submissive role of women in some Latin American cultures. The only exception to this may be the Almighty Latin King and Queen Nation (ALKQN), which amended its name and gang constitution in the mid 1990’s to assert some degree of equality and leadership opportunity for its female members. Although the ALKQN oath still requires female members to swear loyalty to “their kings” and places motherhood as the most important way a female member can contribute, the values of the ALKQN can chafe against traditional concepts of marianismo in a way that make the ALKQN attractive to second-generation Latin American immigrants specifically. Gang members interviewed by Camila Atías cited the ALKQN as a means to bridge the gap between traditional Puerto Rican and Dominican identities and the ambitious, individualistic ideals of white American feminism, even for Latin Americans living in the middle class. (Atías 12)

Many young women who are exposed to gang life suffer from unstable backgrounds. Rates of physical and sexual abuse are high, and many struggle from hunger, educational challenges, health problems, and homelessness. During Atías’s interviews, one Latin Queen recounted the story of how she was introduced to the gang when a King intervened in a beating from her stepfather. Intervention programs have shown that meeting women’s material needs, supplemented with proper education on safe sex, consent, financial independence, and general self-esteem, are effective at changing the trajectory of young female gang members’ lives. Until then, some Latina women will rely on the ALKQN to pool resources and share the work of childcare and other community upkeep. (9)

Lastly, crimes such as prostitution and sex trafficking are at odds with the values of all but the most fringe sects of feminist ideology. Unless the girl is a relative of a male gang member, girls are usually introduced into gang life as the subjects of prostitution or other sex games. A boyfriend will lavish her with gifts and attention during a “honeymoon period”, and then once that period ends, he will pressure her into crime and sex with other members of the gang. Women are mostly utilized in nonviolent aspects of gang activity, such as lookouts. Many women victimized by human trafficking graduate to the duty of recruiting and indoctrinating younger women into prostitution schemes. A handful of the most notorious female gangsters rose to prominence by leveraging their administrative and social skills into positions as money launderers, such as Mery Valencia and Virginia Hill. These opportunities typically open up for female gangsters after male gang leaders are incarcerated and need organizational work done by a proxy outside the prison system. In the rare cases feminist-minded figures rise to prominence, they often end up overpowered by male rival gangs and the larger patriarchal norms of gang culture: Stephanie St. Clair was famously forced out of her Harlem territory by Dutch Schultz at the tail end of the prohibition era; in 2019, a video was released of the members of Mexican all-female contract-killer gang “The Flacas” being beheaded by the rival “Zetas”. (Columbian Organized Crime Observatory)

Differences in Prison Culture:

In the case of street and youth gangs, most members join during adolescence or young adulthood, but the majority will naturally desist as they age out. The main nexuses of sophisticated, adult-run organized crime in America are prison gangs. Many national and transnational gang names dominate or even control medium and maximum security prisons, and as a result, when young male street gang members enter the carceral system, they are under pressure to show bravado and join an established racial gang to protect themselves from the pervasive violence of the facility. In studies, women are no less likely to organize themselves into small social groups than men, and in women’s prisons there is still pressure for “new fish” to ally themselves with a preexisting racial clique, but the atmosphere in women’s prisons tends to be less overtly violent on average. When women do join gangs in prison, they report doing it more for a sense of camaraderie than feeling a need for protection. Typically, when a member of a mixed-gender street gang is introduced into a women’s prison, she will attempt to establish herself with similar bravado to her male counterparts. However, where male prison culture pays attention to these assertions and responds with aggression, female inmates tend to respond to the peacocking of young street gang members with indifference, and over time the street gang member adjusts and abandons her aggressiveness. (Lauderdale 12)

There may be biological factors which explain the differences between male and female aggression, but more likely gang violence is less common in women’s prisons because women take their parole and furlough privileges more seriously. In the majority of American cultures, there is more emphasis on family responsibilities for women than there is for men, and because of this, even though members of national and transnational gangs are housed in women’s prisons, most female gang members will pause their affiliations and rivalries while imprisoned. Women do not have the same pattern of rejoining their gang after being released as male criminals. Just because female convicts are on average less violent than male convicts, however, does not mean there are no violent female gang members; when outliers do present themselves, they can be highly dangerous as they are deliberately trying to match the intimidation of male criminals. Also, white women affiliated to the Aryan Nation tend to be more hostile than nonwhite gang members. Aryan Nation charters prescribe a clear role for female members, though the role is intrinsically antifeminist, and the quasi-religious appeal of white supremacist movements attracts and maintains an older demographic of members than the average street gang. (11)

Women’s Extremist Groups:

Howell and Griffith’s “Gangs in America’s Communities” provides reasons for differentiating street and youth gangs from political extremist groups. Nevertheless, if there were criminal groups acting with the stated goal of advancing a feminist agenda, that would be relevant to the discussion of how the perceptions and behaviors of female criminals are evolving. The reality is that there has not been a historically noteworthy example of violent extremism since the suffragette bombing and arson campaign in the 1910’s. During the 1960’s and 70’s, W.I.T.C.H. (the Women’s International Terrorist Conspiracy from Hell) formed in New York City, but while this group called themselves radicals, their activities were mostly limited to staged protests and threatening letter writing campaigns. Today “radical feminism” persists as a niche but divisive ideology online; for the past decades, the movement has been fractured by infighting over the place of transgender people within the radical feminist paradigm. Still, there have been no recent incidents of crimes committed to further a women’s liberation agenda. There are a few direct examples of how activist figures have influenced female criminals: one of the Latin Queen members interviewed by Atías cited both Gloria Steinem and Lolita LeBron as role models, the latter being a Puerto Rican nationalist who attacked the U.S. Capitol in 1954. However, this connection is tenuous, and it would be more correct to say that the gains made by second-wave feminism have indirectly shifted the gender politics of organized crime from the 1980’s onward. (Radical Women)

Conclusion:

The American public is undoubtedly fascinated with the notion of women in organized crime, specifically because it subverts the expectations of a statistically male-dominated institution, and this fascination can be seen in the popularity of works of fiction such as 1996’s “Bound” and 1997’s “Bella Mafia”. The reality, however, is much less glamorous. From the 1950’s to the 1980’s, researchers such as Frederick Thrasher identified females as only participating in gang activity in auxiliary roles, and field interviews suggest this is still largely the case fifty years later. Women with familial ties to male gang members are sometimes given the respect and opportunity to take over administrative duties for the gang, but most other women who become involved in organized crime end up as victims of prostitution. Women’s prisons do not create the same culture of gang cohesion as their male counterparts, and while it is possible for a woman to rise through the ranks as a profitable drug trafficker, the strict hierarchies of larger Latin American cartels still emphasize the importance of masculinity. What can be done about the issue is not rocket science: Young girls are less likely to fall in with gangs if there is a robust social safety net for both their parents and any children the girls may have. Domestic violence can be combatted in part by providing education to both victims and offenders on safe sex and the rights of women. The federal government must prohibit discrimination in the workplace, so that women and girls have means of upward mobility within the framework of the law. Antiracism policies must be upheld, to address the dual marginalization of nonwhite women specifically. Given the current conservative political climate in America, including hispanophobic and antifeminist legislation and sentiment, it is unlikely any of the above suggested improvements will be put into effect any time soon. Instead, the lives of women in poverty are expected to get worse. Whether gang culture will respond by doubling down on its traditionalist values, or the recent political agitation will change the roles of women in crime to become something new, remains to be seen.

Works Cited:

Atías, Camila Salazar. “‘QUEENS´LOVE ALWAYS AND FOREVER- AMOR DE REINA’ – LATINAS WHO CHOSE TO JOIN THE ALMIGHTY LATIN KING AND QUEEN NATION.” “QUEENS´LOVE ALWAYS AND FOREVER- AMOR DE REINA” – LATINAS WHO CHOSE TO JOIN THE ALMIGHTY LATIN KING AND QUEEN NATION, University of Stockholm , Sociologiska Institutionen, 2003.

“Female Criminal Leadership and Differing Use of Violence.” InSight Crime, Columbian Organized Crime Observatory, 16 Aug. 2024, insightcrime.org/investigations/female-criminal-leadership/.

Forsyth, Craig J., and Rhonda D. Evans. “Reconsidering the pseudo-family/gang gender distinction in prison research.” Journal of Police and Criminal Psychology, vol. 18, no. 1, Mar. 2003, pp. 15–23, https://doi.org/10.1007/bf02802604.

Lauderdale, Michael, and Michelle Burman. “Contemporary patterns of female gangs in correctional settings.” Journal of Human Behavior in the Social Environment, vol. 19, no. 3, 17 Apr. 2009, pp. 258–280, https://doi.org/10.1080/10911350802694766.

“Radical Women.” Radical Women, radicalwomen.org/. Accessed 11 Nov. 2025.

Ramsey, Geoffrey. “Mexico Captures First Female ‘Zetas Boss.’” InSight Crime, 24 Apr. 2023, insightcrime.org/news/brief/mexico-captures-first-female-zetas-boss/.“Top 5 Women of Organized Crime - the Mob Museum.”