One of the Guys: Girls, Gangs, and Gender - Tapa blanda

"The topic of young women's participation in street gangs and violence has generated much heat and little light-until now. Dr. Miller's use of multiple theoretical and methodological lenses produces a comparative perspective that is rare in social research. Her sophisticated analyses of the impact of gender on gang girls' lives contributes to our understanding of how gang involvement shapes these girls' experience. One of the Guys is surely one of the best scholarly works about gangs."--Cheryl L. Maxson, University of Southern California "We have long known that girls are in gangs, but very little first-hand research on their lives, their choices, and their differences has been available. For this reason, Miller's detailed work on girls in gangs not only fills an enormous scholarly void in gang research, it also provides those that are working with this problem with solid, careful information on the painful bargains that girls in economically marginalized and violent neighborhoods are forced to make every day."--Meda Chesney-Lind, University of Hawaii at Manoa

One of the Guys examines the causes, nature, and meaning of female gang involvement. Miller situates the study of female gang membership in the context of current directions in feminist scholarship and current research on both gangs and female criminal offenders. Unique in its approach, this book is a comparative study that examines both gang members and nongang members to provide an accurate picture of the nature of gang life. The author draws on interview from two contrasting cities, St. Louis, Missouri and Columbus, Ohio. While both cities have relatively new gang histories, their socio-economic conditions are notably different. The book opens with a foreword written by Malcom W. Klein, a leading authority on youth gangs. Miller examines how and why girls join gangs; the nature of girls' involvement in gangs; how gang involvement shapes girls' participation in delinquency and their risk of victimization; and the ways in which gender affects their gang experience. Miller concludes by drawing out implications for gender and crime and the study of female lawbreaking. Written in a lively and personal sytle, 'One of the Guys: Girls, Gangs, and Gender' includes rich, extensive interviews offering fascinating excerpts from the girls themseleves. Miller examines these dialogues in order to exploe gender identities within gangs. 'One of the Guys: Girls, Gangs, and Gender' is an ideal text for courses which focus on juvenile delinquency, women and crime, gang activity, and female lawbreaking.