Gangs: Don’t you know it’s different for girls? Young Women, Their Violence and Sexual Victimisation

Violent youth crime generates significant media and public attention, particularly “gang”, or group, related crime and gun and knife crime. When young women are involved in violence, as perpetrators or instigators, this receives disproportionate coverage, drawing on a discourse of girls being “just as bad as the boys” (Burman et al.:2003, Miller:2001). Alongside this interest in girls’ participation in violent crime there is also a growing body of anecdotal evidence that young women involved in violent offending, and also those involved in or on the periphery of street based group offending, have an increased risk of experiencing sexual violence. However, there is currently a lack of UK based empirical research addressing this form of gendered violence. In response to these concerns the nia project has initiated the Safe Choices project, as well as supporting research into connections between young women using violence and their own sexual victimisation.