Girls, Gangs and the Digital Street: Understanding Online Interactions of Women/Girls Involved in Gangs

• In Event: Poster Session

Abstract

With the advancement of technology, social media has become an important part of gang interactions. While we know that women/girls involved in gangs use social media, the extent, use and interaction methods remain understudied. Using Chicago Latina/o gang social media activity as a case study, this research addresses this gap in gender knowledge. Specifically, using quantitative web scraping techniques, we complied two years of data related to Chicago gangs and its members (4818 posts and 37,000 comments) from a public Facebook page to study the online activities of women and girls involved in gangs. From this data we coded language used by women/girls involved in gangs in gang interactions. Results support findings in previous research examining offline interactions of girls and women; online girls and women strive to be “one of the guys” and interact in ways that are similar to boys and men.

Author

• Margot Doyle, University of Oklahoma