Street gangs and coercive control: The gendered exploitation of young women and girls in county lines

This article explores young women and girls’ participation in gangs and ‘county lines’ drug sales. Qualitative interviews and focus groups with criminal justice and social service professionals found that women and girls in gangs often are judged according to androcentric, stereotypical norms that d...

Full description

Saved in:  
Bibliographic Details
Authors: Havard, Tirion Elizabeth (Author) ; Densley, James A. 1982- (Author) ; Whittaker, Andrew (Author) ; Wills, Jane (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
Published: 2023
In: Criminology & criminal justice
Year: 2023, Volume: 23, Issue: 3, Pages: 313-329
Online Access: Volltext (kostenfrei)
Journals Online & Print:
Drawer...
Check availability: HBZ Gateway
Keywords:
Description
Summary:This article explores young women and girls’ participation in gangs and ‘county lines’ drug sales. Qualitative interviews and focus groups with criminal justice and social service professionals found that women and girls in gangs often are judged according to androcentric, stereotypical norms that deny gender-specific risks of exploitation. Gangs capitalise on the relative ‘invisibility’ of young women to advance their economic interests in county lines and stay below police radar. The research shows gangs maintain control over women and girls in both physical and digital spaces via a combination of threatened and actual (sexual) violence and a form of economic abuse known as debt bondage – tactics readily documented in the field of domestic abuse. This article argues that coercive control offers a new way of understanding and responding to these gendered experiences of gang life, with important implications for policy and practice.
ISSN:1748-8966
DOI:10.1177/17488958211051513