Female participation in delinquent gang activities

Data on female participation in gang and non-gang delinquent activities were collected from black male delinquents in Los Angeles County Juvenile Hall by Shimota and Klein in the mid-1960s but never published. These data are presented, and are reanalyzed to show how females were systematically excluded from the planning and action phases of delinquent activities. An unexpected finding from the research is that female presence at the site of a delinquent activity had a suppressing effect on that activity. This material forms a baseline for contemporary, post-women's movement studies of female juvenile delinquency.