Hanser and Gomila (2015) state: “For many juvenile youth, adult gang members serve as role models whose behavior should be emulated from as possible to become full-fledged gang members because of the prestige, respect, and sense of belonging that being a gang member provides them” (341). Other reasons why young girls join gangs are lack of family support and various types of violence in their lives. Hanser and Gomila (2015) noted that “young girls’ participation in sexual activity, substance abuse, and violence was clearly linked to gang membership” (p. 348). Sexual abuse is one of the main reasons young girls join gangs. Young girls living in urban ghettos are more likely to be victims of sexual abuse and join gangs to cope and escape the realities of poverty. Young women will experience more difficulties than young girls, before being fully accepted as full members of the gang. As noted previously, sexual abuse was one of the main reasons young girls joined gangs; however, the sexual abuse does not stop there as it continues to occur throughout the life of their gang (Hanser & Gomila,