Presents classic and new work by gang researchers, challenging traditional scholarship about women and gangs in the US. Sections are linked by a series of interpretive critical essays that lodge chapters within the larger framework of historical and contemporary research on girls, gender, and gangs. Themes of sections are historical perspectives, emerging theoretical perspectives on gender and gang membership, "doing gender" in times of economic and social change, and girls, gangs, and violence. Chesney-Lind is a professor of women's studies at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Hagerdorn has studied gangs in Milwaukee for 15 years, and is an associated professor in the criminal justice department of the University of Illinois-Chicago. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)