Working with girls in gangs, US

CYP Now has teamed up with the Churchill Fellowship to publish a series of articles summarising key findings from studies undertaken worldwide by Churchill Fellows (see below). This is an abridged version of #Girlsandgangs Girls, Gangs and Their Abusive Relationships by Samantha Jury-Dada. While undertaking the research Samantha worked for public sector consultancy Impower, she now works as a strategic domestic abuse manager at a local authority.

UK CONTEXT

More than four fifths of juvenile offenders in the UK are male, so youth justice agencies tend to focus on the needs of this group. However, it means that females are seen to be able to “fly under the radar”, as their needs are not identified and met.

Since the high-profile exposure of child trafficking rings in England, there has been a sustained effort to tackle forms of child sexual exploitation and abuse. A shared theme between the girls that were sexually exploited and those being used by gangs is an initial dysfunctional relationship.

Young women and girls play a varied role in gangs in the UK, in some they are merely girlfriends asked to hide weapons, store drugs and provide support to the gang. In others, girls are active members. My Fellowship was primarily focused on the former group. However, what soon became clear was that these young women and girls can be both victims and perpetrators, which makes supporting them even more challenging for services.

US CONTEXT

My work learned from gang intervention programmes in the US that had similar gang contexts to the UK – gangs who have little notoriety outside of the areas they are based, who may have symbols or signs to identify one another but not on the level of international gangs that dominate American headlines. According to the professionals that I met with, cities such as Philadelphia, Baltimore and New Orleans have never had a real presence of the major national gangs, instead street gangs based on zip codes or family affiliation dominate areas.

The Fellowship comprised a five-week visit to New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington DC, North Virginia and New Orleans. There were also phone conferences with representatives from organisations and government agencies that worked in cities across the US. I also observed three juvenile cases, visited a juvenile justice services centre and met legal professionals on both sides of the court.

IDENTIFYING GIRLS

In New Orleans, the average age of a male on the police gangs database was 17, whereas the average age for a female was 20. This reflects an issue with identifying women and girls. Police officers hypothesised that in the past they may have stopped a car and thought that the female “was just a girlfriend” and therefore did not warrant official acknowledgement and recording. This is an issue particularly in the US, where access to services is predominantly through the criminal justice system, but the impact of austerity means this is becoming truer of the UK too.

The Metropolitan police has over 3,000 people registered on their gang database. Yet of these, only 18 are women. This simply cannot be the case when we know that 90 per cent of county lines gangs are using females. It suggests that the Metropolitan police has the same issues with recognising women and girls as the police in New Orleans.

It does not have to be this way. In Los Angeles, the gender split in their intervention and prevention services is 40 per cent. There are differences in gang culture, population and demographics but they are working hard in communities to engage young women and girls to participate in their programmes.

WORKING WITH GIRLS

Those who have worked in domestic abuse will be familiar with the all-consuming fear that victims experience due to their belief that their abuser is able to see everything they do, who they speak to and where they go. Often, this manipulation is a key tool for the abuser to maintain control over the victim's life, long after they have separated. In the modern age, this fear is not irrational, and technology has facilitated that stalking behaviour. For victims of abuse who go out with a gang member this fear is compounded. Not only are they intimidated by their partner, but by their partner's friends, family members and the gang.

Numerous people argued that traditionally, domestic abuse services were designed to support an “idealised” version of a domestic abuse victim – white, middle class, educated and no criminal record. The women and girls affected by sexual exploitation, human trafficking and abuse from gang members often do not fit that mould. Therefore, specialist services and programmes needed to be developed to understand the needs of these women and the services that they require. An example is the North Virginia Gang Taskforce, which works with women and girls predominantly from El Salvador. Services for this cohort needed to be bilingual and understanding of the sensitivity in that community due to immigration enforcement. For those women and girls, reporting their abuse would bring the police into their community and could result in deportations. This results in a reluctance to ask for help or engage in services once a need has been identified.

Another factor to consider is the normalisation of sexual abuse for some of these young women and girls. Unfortunately, some of them consider their sexual and domestic abuse as the consequence for being in a gang, and do not see themselves as victims.

The Alliance of Concerned Men in Washington DC has a female worker that runs programmes to work with women and girls in neighbourhoods affected by community violence. She advertises the programme to these women by describing it as “self-love” rather than a domestic abuse intervention. This means that she gets people involved who would not consider themselves victims.

Self-esteem building was a key element of the North Virginia interventions, giving girls a “better picture of themselves”. They argued that some of the young people they work with believe that they deserve a bad life and have no hope. The programme gives young people the opportunity to hope for a better future for themselves.

Girls in the criminal justice system are not the culturally accepted view of what it means to be a victim. These girls occupy a grey space between victim and perpetrator, where they may legitimately be responsible for a crime such as drug dealing or physical violence but are also being victimised within the gang through an abusive relationship or sexual violence.

EFFECTIVE TECHNIQUES

Finding credible messengers: In Baltimore, Garnel, the site manager for Safe Streets East, had been in prison for 20 years, for several different gang-related charges. Now, he is a community leader working with young people to stop them going down a similar path. Other gang intervention projects such as Grasp in Denver had male and female outreach workers that had the ability to build trust with young people. They are living examples of what life can be like from choosing an alternative path.

The first step for an intervention service is getting people engaged in the programme. This means recruiting both males and females from the community who can forge relationships in places that statutory services normally struggle to reach.

Female outreach: Most of the organisations met with during the Fellowship worked predominantly with boys and men. However, they all acknowledged that there was an increasing need to have staff that can work and relate with female gang members and associates. They believed that to broaden their appeal, they needed to hire more female outreach staff who were able to connect with girls experiencing violence.

Safe Streets East spoke about the power and influence of women in the community and their role in stopping violence. This was echoed by those working in Los Angeles, who had numerous female community intervention advocates across the city who were sometimes safer in a neighbourhood than their male counterparts.

CONCLUSIONS

The first step in tackling gender-based violence associated with gangs is to acknowledge that these women and girls exist. Services cannot continue to be commissioned as though gang violence is an issue that only affects males. These young men have sisters and girlfriends who are at risk and are currently invisible to services.

As local authorities continue to face budget cuts, responsibility for tackling youth violence will fall to the police and the communities themselves and will become more reactive rather than proactive. However, investment in the right areas can result in communities having the resources and tools to take back control and improve the lives of those in their area.

Having credible messengers, who understand the lives of these women and girls is crucial. Many women are currently taking on this role in their community, without pay or resources.

Agents from the FBI put it eloquently when they said that all the work that goes into tackling gang violence is “giving a neighbourhood the opportunity to reclaim their community”. This is a recognition that no one agency can tackle this issue alone, it is a collaboration.

https://girlsandgangs.uk/

IF PROJECT HELPS SEATTLE YOUNG WOMEN STOP OFFENDING

The If project started when Detective Kim Bogucki asked a group of female prisoners: “If there was something someone could have said or done that would have changed the path that led you here, what would it have been?”

This question led to the If Project which works with women to break the cycle of offending, using their own insight into their behaviours. The project has multiple services including youth and community outreach programmes that focus on prevention, a mentoring programme for incarcerated women and prison workshops.

Elements of the programme that make it successful include:

• Co-production with the community
• Formerly incarcerated adults assisting with prevention work
• Staff that can identify with young people at risk
• Gender responsive programming – an acknowledgement that men and women need different services
• Customised planning with their service users – no broad-brush approaches
• Setting goals – if they can't be achieved, redirecting them to something that uses the same skills.

The programme has been so successful that there has been an award-winning documentary made about the project, the women involved and the impact that it has had.

Detective Bogucki explained that in addition to the programme being effective with young women and girls, the documentary is shown to men and boys so they can see the effect of their treatment of the women and girls in their lives. It has been successful in shining a light on the impact of their abuse and their offending behaviour, especially as some of those in prison were there because of their boyfriends.

ABOUT THE CHURCHILL FELLOWSHIP

The Churchill Fellowship is a national network of 3,800 inspiring individuals whose mission is to find the world's best solutions for the UK's current challenges.

Up to 150 Churchill Fellows are funded each year to visit the world's leading practitioners and projects on a topic of their choice – from social policy to healthcare to education and more – and bring back new ideas for their communities and sectors across the UK.

Any UK adult citizen can apply, regardless of qualifications, background or age. Fellows are chosen for their potential as change-makers, not their past track record or status.

Find out about fellows and their ideas at www.wcmt.org.uk