Female Gang Membership and Desistance: Motherhood as a Possible Exit Strategy? A Quantitative Analysis of Fleisher and Krienert (2004)

Abstract

This study sought to evaluate differential gang processes as they vary by gender through a quantitative analysis of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, 1997. Specifically, this investigation explored the role of motherhood as a potential exit strategy for female gang membership, which had been previously examined in the qualitative work of Fleisher and Krienert (2004). In fact, Fleisher and Krienert (2004) noted that sixty-three percent of their sample had attributed pregnancy or "settling down" as the primary reason for desistance. All in all, this investigation found no support for Fleisher and Krienert's (2004) assertions of the causality of motherhood as a potential desistance mechanism, nor for the magnitude of their sixty-three percent finding.