Having researched street gangs, violence and drug supply networks for more than a decade, I was conscious that most gang research focuses exclusively on male offenders. So, I recently collaborated with colleagues on a much-needed study of female gang members.

With Robert McLean, Simon Harding and James Densley (from the University of the West of Scotland, the University of West London and Metropolitan State University in Minnesota, US, respectively), I interviewed a small group of young women, in their late teens to early thirties, about their encounters with gangs in the west of Scotland.

Most talked about experiencing poverty and social disadvantage during their formative years. Some had parents who were dependent on alcohol or drugs. These young women’s adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) had led them to seek out a surrogate family within the context of street gangs, which usually had mixed-gender membership.

Some of the women also admitted that they had developed a physical attraction to men with “bad boy” reputations, and this drove them into the gang context. They subsequently became involved in criminal activity as a direct consequence of sexual relationships with male gang members.

One young woman said that after her relationship with her boyfriend broke down, she discovered he had incurred debts in her name relating to the purchase of drugs, car finance and loans. This meant she had to seek financial assistance from another female gang member, storing illicit drugs in her home in return for money.

Another, Kay*, told us that her boyfriend had been running a drugs operation and later became involved in money laundering. She had agreed to support him by helping to prepare drug supplies and store them in the family home, but he gave her little of the proceeds, despite using drug money to buy new clothes and shoes for himself. Other young women told similar stories of being pressured by criminally oriented boyfriends.

A recent report by the Centre for Youth and Criminal Justice at the University of Strathclyde suggests that relationship issues often feature strongly in girls’ offending behaviour. So, at the senior secondary stages, modern studies and drama teachers could collaborate with local youth agencies and community police officers to create case studies that illustrate the potentially negative consequences of gang involvement, with a particular emphasis on relationships. “Choices and consequences” role-play activities can help young women to explore and recognise the possible repercussions of romantic relationships with active offenders.

A scenario-based approach can give girls the insight to recognise the signs of negative relationships, dishonesty and deceit as they emerge. This helps young women not only to protect themselves but also to intervene to support other young women who are facing similar experiences.

In its Get it Right for Girls guidance, the EIS teaching union draws attention to the continuing detrimental impact of misogynistic attitudes. Allowing these to go unchecked can lead to disproportionately low levels of participation by women in public life, including in business and politics.

However, schools can play a role in preventing young women from becoming coerced into the drug trade by partners during adulthood, and from being exploited in the way our research participants described.

Mitigating groupthink

Explorations of groupthink among children and young people in relation to gender can be combined with peer anti-sexism education in subjects such as modern studies, RE, English, history and PSE. Schools, then, can ensure that girls grow up with the confidence to avoid exploitative relationships with men. This can prevent them from being drawn unwittingly into criminal activity on men’s behalf, and encourage them to instead aspire to participating in employment and public life.

The women we worked with did not always get involved in gangs and the drug trade because of romantic relationships, however. Tracey* viewed gang activity as a means of “providing for the family”. She admitted that she did not really like being involved in drug distribution but said she did it to provide for her younger siblings.

Tracey’s mother had suffered from ongoing ill health and struggled to gain stable employment, and her father had never really engaged with her or provided for the children at home. This led Tracey to take on a primary caring role for her brothers when she was a teenager. But she struggled to make ends meet. Her uncle, who was already connected to criminal networks, encouraged her to get involved in the drug trade, and she eventually progressed from storing his drugs to running her own local supply network.

Preventing the escalation of difficult family circumstances that could result in young women seeking economic support from criminal activity via family/kinship ties needs to be a priority for schools. The Scottish government has highlighted that a “family learning” approach can be a successful means of ensuring that fathers engage with their children more, thereby improving parental confidence and parenting skills. Such strategies can also help to improve family members’ educational attainment and employment opportunities. By bringing families together and encouraging the transfer of skills from parent to child, and from child to parent, schools can help to break some of the cycles of disadvantage.

In Tracey’s case, closer involvement with her family at an earlier stage might have helped schools to collaborate with social services and place an emphasis on reducing offending risks. The use of a family learning approach might have helped to encourage Tracey’s father to provide more active support to her and her siblings, and it might also have given her mother renewed confidence and resilience. It might have further enabled Tracey’s teachers, in collaboration with family learning and social workers, to spot the emerging signs of her uncle’s negative influence much earlier.

Some of the limited research exploring female involvement in drug supply has suggested that young women tend to occupy low-level roles in the chain. For instance, criminologist Fiona Hutton’s 2005 paper (“Gender, drug dealing and risk”, Addiction Research and Theory) suggests that young women often become exposed to victimisation by aggressive male competitors in the drug-dealing context. Hence, it is rare for women to lead male-dominated gangs or networks involved in the supply of drugs.

Leaders of the pack

However, some of the young women we interviewed suggested to us that, by the time they reached their mid-to-late twenties, they had begun operating at the top of male-dominated gang structures.

Tracey suggested that she eventually regarded herself as “her own boss”. While she acquired drugs such as cocaine and ecstasy from her uncle, she also indicated that she went on to establish her own “customers”.

Another young woman, Karen*, explained to us that her gender was an advantage because few people suspected she would be running a drugs operation. She could often tell from the facial expressions of potential clients that they were thinking: “She’s a woman - obviously [there must be] a guy behind the scenes.” This, she believed, could sometimes help to protect her identity as a gang leader and initiator of drug transactions.

The women also indicated to us that they believed they had an advantageous position over male gang members and dealers. They were less likely to engage in violent confrontation with rival dealers than men, thus reducing the likelihood of drawing attention from the police.

Karen highlighted that most of the men she had worked with were “full of bravado”. By contrast, she felt that being a woman helped her to stay focused. Several of the women we spoke to agreed, indicating that men were more inclined to become involved in assaults on would-be rivals and clients who failed to pay their drug debts - and that young women were less distracted by an appetite for violence.

As researchers, this reinforced to us an observation made by Harding in his previous work: that young women tend to advance within gang structures as a result of skill rather than physical violence.

Young women like Tracey and Karen were clearly very aware of the skills they possessed and the advantages they could gain over young men, but perhaps lacked the confidence and courage to draw on these skills and aspire to achieve in non-criminal contexts.

There are several implications here for leadership education in schools. A recent attitude survey by Girlguiding Scotland found that just 54 per cent of participating females aged 11-16, and only 35 per cent aged 17-21, felt that they had the same chance of being successful in their future careers as boys did. Meanwhile, just half of the females surveyed said they felt inspired by a role model often or most of the time.

SQA’s level 5 leadership award encourages pupils to develop knowledge of leadership styles, skills and qualities, and to understand the impact a leader can have on others and on the success of an activity. Teachers can take a proactive role in encouraging and supporting senior female pupils to engage with this award.

During assemblies and whole-school events, schools should consider bringing in established female leaders from business, politics and elsewhere to inspire female pupils to become the leaders of the future. This could help them to avoid being drawn into darker, more delinquent leadership roles.

Empowered life choices

Research by the University of Glasgow’s Susan Batchelor has highlighted the contribution of gendered norms and inequalities to the development of female delinquency. The family, peer and community contexts of her research participants were often characterised by male domination and pervasive control over girls and women. This ultimately limited their life choices and their options.

Batchelor has recently argued that one way some young women resist negative gender stereotyping and feelings of powerlessness is to engage in stereotypically masculine forms of offending. Our insights confirm this, and illustrate the way in which some young women may succumb to male domination and control, while others react to it by becoming leaders in the field of drug supply.

Schools can play a valuable role in supporting young people and their families to challenge the gender inequalities that may perpetuate both female victimisation and criminal innovation in the context of gangs. It is essential for teachers to draw the attention of both male and female pupils, their families and peers to the continuing presence of male domination and control, while also nurturing positive leadership skills among young women. The protection of young women from the continuing risks associated with gang- and drug-related crime may depend on this.

* Names have been changed

Ross Deuchar is professor of criminology and criminal justice, and a former assistant dean of education at the University of the West of Scotland. He tweets @rossdeuchar

This article originally appeared in the 25 October 2019 issue under the headline “Top girl”