Crime Solicitors

The Centre for Social Justice (CJS) has said that girls who operate within gang culture lead "desperate" lives in which "rape is seen as a weapon and carrying drugs and guns is seen as normal". Deputy policy director Edward Boyd said a CJS report had uncovered a “brutal underworld” for girls in gangs.

The CJS is hosting a conference on girls in gangs on Monday (24/03/14) to address the issues of gang culture and its impact on young females.

The CJS says that girl gang culture largely goes "unnoticed" - and is calling for youth workers to be embedded in hospital trauma units to help the authorities identify victims of gang culture among girls.

BBC News reports that some girls involved in gang culture are as young as eight years old - and they may be asked to carry drugs for older gang members.

Current Secretary of State for the Department for Work and Pensions, Iain Duncan Smith, set up the CJS when he led the Conservative Party. The think tank carried out research with the London youth charity XLP. Researchers questioned former gang members government agencies and voluntary organisations about the role of girls in gangs. The report Girls and Gangs found that teenage girls are being pressurised into having sex with boys as young as 10 as part of the initiation for young males into gangs - and young female adults who are associated with rival gangs are targeted and in some cases are forced to take part in sexual acts involving a line up of men from another gang.

The report also found that pushchairs are used to hide drugs and weapons for gang members - and women generally are more likely to be used as "mules" for transporting weapons and drugs because they attract less police attention.

Young adult women and girls in gangs are also subjected to physical violence in gang culture - in one case, a schoolgirl who had criticised a gang member was abducted and sexually assaulted by nine male members of the gang.

The report also found that some schools turned a "blind eye" to female pupils involved in gangs in case addressing the issue impacts on the school's reputation. Gang culture was also found to be harmful to the education of girls who become involved in it. A head teacher who responded to the study said:

"We can't compete with the attraction of fast cars, sex and drugs."

Deputy policy director of the CJS, Edward Boyd, said:

"They live in a parallel world where rape is used as a weapon and carrying drugs and guns is seen as normal."

Mr Boyd told BBC News that police policies on stop-search may be leading to an increase in girls carrying drugs and weapons, as 90% of individuals stopped and searched by police are males.

Duncan Lewis Crime Solicitors

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