Traumatic Outcomes of Girls’ Street Gang Exposure: Exploring the Role of Perpetrated Violence and Sexual Exploitation Victimization

Abstract

Increasing scientific evidence suggests that youth involvement in street gangs is positively associated with multiple trauma-related symptoms. These symptoms may be explained by high exposure to violence, both as perpetrators and victims. While studies have documented the associations between gang involvement and violence exposure, as well as traumatic outcomes, it is still unknown whether perpetrated violence and/or victimization explain the traumatic outcomes of gang involvement. Notably, girls in gangs are at a higher risk of certain types of victimization, such as sexual exploitation. In the current quantitative study, data from 107 girls from a larger longitudinal study on adolescent girls placed in residential care centers in Montreal, Canada, were analyzed. Recurrences of exposure to street gangs, perpetrated violence, and sexual exploitation victimization were self-reported over a period of four and a half years, from adolescence to emerging adulthood. Trauma-related symptoms were measured in emerging adulthood. Correlational analysis indicated that all key variables were positively associated. Mediation analyses were performed to clarify the respective contributions of perpetrated violence and sexual exploitation victimization to the traumatic sequelae of involvement in a gang. The results indicated a total mediation effect of sexual exploitation victimization on the associations between gang involvement and symptoms of self-disturbance and post-traumatic stress in emerging adulthood, as well as a total mediation effect of sexual exploitation victimization and perpetrated violence on symptoms of externalization. These results corroborate the deleterious effects of violence exposure among girls involved in street gangs, both as perpetrators of violence and victims of sexual exploitation.