ABSTRACT
Organized criminal groups are male-based cliques. So, what role do the women in the gangs play? This chapter will deal with the topic of women’s roles in criminal organizations. In most of the gangs, the women are supposed to be subservient, expected to be girlfriends, wives, and mothers who must cater to the men. While the roles of women might vary from gang to gang, a common pattern across all the gangs is that women are assigned submissive roles. Also, there is a double standard in virtually all the criminal organizations, whereby the males are allowed great sexual latitude, while any woman who commits adultery is punished, since it is seen as a breach of loyalty. Overall, women have no power within the gang. There are exceptions. In some clans, the wife of the capo will often take over the family business if the husband is either jailed or killed, and in other clans, there have been examples of women leaders who are as brutal as their male counterparts. In the last decades, all-female gangs have emerged, espousing traits that resemble those of the male gangs, However, these are sporadic, lasting typically only with the first generation of female gangsters, disbanding after. These will be discussed as well in this chapter.
