Street Gangs and Coercive Control: The Gendered Exploitation of Young Women and Girls in County Lines

Journal article


Havard, T., Densley, J., Whittaker, A. and Wills, J. (2021). Street Gangs and Coercive Control: The Gendered Exploitation of Young Women and Girls in County Lines . Criminology & Criminal Justice. https://doi.org/10.1177/17488958211051513
AuthorsHavard, T., Densley, J., Whittaker, A. and Wills, J.
Abstract

This paper 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 paper 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

KeywordsViolence against women; abuse; gangs; coercive control; exploitation; county lines
Year2021
JournalCriminology & Criminal Justice
PublisherSage
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)https://doi.org/10.1177/17488958211051513
Publication dates
Print11 Nov 2021
Publication process dates
Accepted23 Sep 2021
Deposited06 Oct 2021
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