Getting Played: African American
Girls, Urban Inequality, and
Gendered Violence
Jody Miller, Ph.D.
Rutgers University
Funded by the National Consortium on
Violence Research (Norman A. White, CoPI)
Table of Contents
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Chapter 1: Perspectives on Gender and Urban Violence
Chapter 2: Gender ‘n the ‘Hood: Neighborhood Violence
Against Women and Girls
Chapter 3: Playin’ Too Much: Sexual Harassment in School
Chapter 4: Respect Yourself, Protect Yourself: Sexual
Coercion and Violence
Chapter 5: The Playa’ and the Cool Pose: Gender and
Relationship Violence
Chapter 6: Conclusions and Recommendations
Neighborhood Studies of Crime &
Inequality
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Resurgence in recent decades – but relatively
silent about gendered dimensions of
neighborhood violence
But urban African American girls’ risks for nonfatal violence is nearly equal that of their male
counterparts (Lauritsen, 2003)
-and women’s risks for ‘gender’ violence are
higher in distressed, racially segregated
neighborhoods (Benson et al., 2003)
Methodology
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Qualitative in-depth interviews
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35 young women, 40 young men
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African American, residing in distressed
urban neighborhoods in St. Louis
Purposive sampling – youths “at risk” or
involved in delinquency
Drawn from local community agency &
alternative public high schools
Select Neighborhood Characteristics
Respondents’
Neighborhoods
St. Louis
City
St. Louis
County
82.6%
51.2%
18.9%
$24,806
$32,585
$61,680
Percent Poverty
33.8%
24.6%
6.9%
Percent Unemployment
18.0%
11.3%
4.6%
Percent Female-Headed
Families with Children
43.1%
28.8%
10.7%
Percent African
American
Median Family Income
Source: U.S. Census, 2000
Youths’ Neighborhood Descriptions
CLESHAY: Terrible. Every man for theyself. Ghetto in the
sense of raggedy, people uncool to people, just outside,
street light never come on, police don’t come in after
four o’clock….Heavy drug dealing. They loud, they
don’t care about, you know, the old people in the
neighborhood or nuttin’. It’s been like, females, it was a
ten year old girl who got raped recently and kilt and
didn’t nobody—our walls in our neighborhood thin, so I
know somebody hear her screaming—[but] didn’t
nobody, you know, even try to help the girl or nuttin’
like that.
Youths’ Neighborhood Descriptions
MAURICE: A lot of gangs, lot of drugs, uh dirt. Dirty, like the
streets are polluted. That’s it. A lot of abandoned houses,
lot of burned up houses. ‘Cause of the drugs and the gangs I
guess….Vandalism, they get into a lot of fights, bring
property value down, you know, people don’t take care of
they houses. And you know, don’t nobody really wanna
live there no more so everybody starts to move. That’s why
a lot of abandoned houses. Then, when it’s a lot of
abandoned houses that means the block cold, that mean not
that many police around. So that’s when dope people move
in on that block, you know what I’m saying, go open they
shop there. And whenever they go do that, then, you know
what I’m saying, lots of crackheads start moving in, lot of
gangs, you know what I’m saying, lot of shoot-outs.
Spatial Clustering of Neighborhood
Disadvantage (see Krivo & Peterson, 1996)
TISHA: It’s not different [from other neighborhoods] at all.
They all do the same thing. The neighborhood is the
neighborhood [laughs]. It’s all the same, all the way through.
RAYMOND: In every neighborhood there’s drug activity and
gang activity.
TAMI: It’s mostly every neighborhood got drug dealers in they
neighborhood. Or people that be shootin’ and stuff.
RENNESHA: On the north side…it’s all the same. The same
stuff go on everywhere I guess. I mean, it’s probably just a
different [gang] color they going against.
Gendered Dimensions of
Neighborhood Descriptions
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Young Women  “they”
Young Men  “we/I” – even when critical
TISHA: It’s people standing all around outside, people sellin’ drugs, all
that kinda stuff. They’ll even come sit on yo’ front [porch]…. When you
not there, they’ll come sit on yo’ front and be sit[ting] like they stay
there. You could come sit on yo’ front, they’ll come over there and try to
talk to you.
LAMONT: [The neighborhood’s] bad. A lot of drugs. They influence the
kids. We see them with these fancy cars and all this money, riding
around in these cars. And that’s what we want, that’s what we thinking
in our heads.
Neighborhood Violence Against
Young Women
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Perceptions of Gendered Neighborhood Dangers
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Neighborhood Violence Against Women
1. Witnessing Violence Against Adult Women
2. Sexual Harassment
– adult men/adolescent males
3. Sexual Assault & Coercion
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Gendered Risk-Avoidance Strategies
Perceptions of Gendered
Neighborhood Dangers for Girls
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Vulnerability to Sexual Violence
-congregation of men in public spaces
-environmental dangers
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Women as Weaker
Young Women’s Behavior as Creating
Vulnerability
Vulnerabilities to sexual violence
ANTWOIN: [It’s safer for males] ‘cause like the females, all the dudes be
wanting to try to freak, you know, have sex with ‘em, all that kinda
stuff.
BRITNEY: It be all grown men standing out there…drinking and smoking
weed, selling drugs and everything….You know, and when you walk
past trying to go to the [gas] station, you don’t know what they can do,
what could happen….If you walking by yourself and in the dark they’ll
probably approach you and want to, you know what I’m saying, do
something with you….If you don’t want to give it up, they’ll probably
try to take it.
FELICIA: When I’m coming home from work at night or be coming out
from my friends at night…you gotta enter through the back, which is a
alley. And it’s like, there’s one parking lot and then there’s another
parking lot….You know, by me being a girl I try…to keep the gate
closed and move up the steps as soon as I can. ‘Cause there’s no telling
what’s gonna happen coming through there.
Women as weaker
JAMELLAH: It’s always safer for males. They could protect
theyself better than a female can. That’s in any
neighborhood….A man is more likely to try to do
something to a female anyway, ‘cause we not as strong as
a male.
JAMES: Dudes, I mean, they can pretty much handle
theyself and they ain’t gotta worry about nuttin’, they’re
safe. Females, somebody [can] overpower them. I mean,
strength-wise, it’s easy to take something from them
‘cause there ain’t too much they can do for theyself.
Young women’s behaviors as
creating vulnerabilities
KRISTY: Dudes be safer than the gals…‘cause I mean, they don’t be
walking around in hoochie clothes and stuff. They don’t be giving
people the wrong idea about what they want.
TISHA: When they out there wearin’ all them tight clothes and all
that, you know, they get a bad rep. They can be raped, anything
like that.
EUGENE: [Girls face] like people comin’ and rape them or
something. ‘Cause girls wear short stuff and…fellas think, well,
dawg, you know, I’m fina get up on [that], I’m fina touch on her or
something….They gotta look [at] what they wearing and when
they sending signals like that.
But some ambiguity  ill-fit with
personal experiences
LASONDRA: These girls sometimes, you just should see what they
wear. They look like they just want somebody to touch ‘em.
….But sometimes you don’t have to dress that way. Take me for
instance, I have on baggy pants and a long t-shirt. They’ll still try.
‘Cause that’s how I was [dressed when I was raped]. I had on
some baggy pants with a boys’ shirt, everything.
But some girls, they just want attention. They just wear stuff like
all the way up to here and shirts up. I just look at them girls, I be
like, it’s sad. They look like hookers. You know, and when they
wear that stuff, they make the boy think, “aw yeah, we gonna get
this.” They take it if they want it. ‘Cause the girl might let ‘em or
might not let ‘em. She gotta know it’s the way she act and the
way she dress.
Witnessing violence against adult
women
TISHA: It’s this girl next door. I don’t know if she a crackhead or
what, her boyfriend just always beatin’ her up. She always comin’
[over], like, “call the police for me.” But then when the police get
there she don’t wanna press charges or nothin’ like that. I don’t
know, I guess she stuck on stupid. She like getting beat up I
guess.
GAIL: Lil’ drunk, alcoholics be fightin’ up the street….Crackheads,
drunks, you know. We’ll be laughin’ at ‘em or whatever.
…One time I seen a man hit a woman with a bottle. But again,
they was drunk, you know….She was running down the street
talkin’ ‘bout some, “he tryin’ to kill me, he tryin’ to kill me!”
(laughs)….And he—bang—just stole [hit] her [with the
bottle]….[She] kept yellin, “oh, he gon’ kill me, he gon’ kill me!”
And knowin’ us, we just laughin’.
Witnessing violence against adult
women
KRISTY: The people next door, the girl like 17, the dude
about 25. I guess she had said something to him, and the
next thing we know everybody out on the front, watching
him pull her up the street by her hair. It was [hair weave]
tracks everywhere. We was laughing.
….But then when the girl ended up in the hospital we
was like, man he shouldn’t had did that. But then, we
should’ve did something too, you know, we seen him
beating on her, we could’ve stopped him. It was more
than enough of us.
Kristy, continued
INTERVIEWER: So how did you react to that when you
saw it?
KRISTY: I mean, it was shocking. Kind of funny. ‘Cause
she was getting whooped. But the result of it was,
whew!
INTERVIEWER: Did you do anything about it?
KRISTY: No, I ain’t feel like it was my place, you know,
ain’t have nuttin’ to do with me.
INTERVIEWER: How did other people react?
KRISTY: Code of silence. They didn’t say nuttin’. They
just watched.
Sexual harassment by adolescent
young men
CHERISE: When we be playing or something, they try to touch me on
the fly….I don’t know what they might be thinking, but maybe they
might try to take advantage of you or something....I just know that
they try to touch me and I don’t like it.
JAMAL: We probably just have fun with them. Try to play with
them….Taking advantage [is] like grabbing or touching them, we
don’t do that. You might catch one or two trying to slap a girl on the
butt.
JANELLE: The guys will normally…make the sexual comments or
they’ll hit on them because they know that that female is not going to
do anything….Like if a male comes to a female and says something
or hits on her and the female stands up for herself, then it’ll be a
different story. He won’t treat her like that anymore because she has
more respect for herself than another female might have for herself.
But double bind  Escalations when
rebuffed
ANISHIKA: One of them lil’ thugs or something tryin’ to talk to me….
They’ll get mad or something if I don’t say nothin’ to them, they be
like, “well fuck you then.”
KATIE: Some boys I know, they’ll try to talk to ‘em or whatever. And
then if the girls don’t give ‘em no play, they’ll call ‘em out of they
name….He’ll curse her out or something, talk about her.
JERMAINE: Like if gang members try to talk to the girls, and the girls
don’t want to talk to ‘em, they like, they start arguing, like, “I don’t
want to talk to you anyway, you ugly,” or something like that.
ANTWOIN: The boys over there, they don’t like stuck up girls….Like
[girls who] don’t like talking to boys or something. When a boy say
hello or what’s up, girls don’t wanna talk to ‘em. [The boys’ll] be
like, “fuck you bitch.”
Sexual Harassment in School – an
important link
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School-based sexual harassment as a
“testing ground” for girls’ vulnerability
in the community
Limits of School Responsiveness
-indifference
-reactive strategies
-reliance on girls to “snitch”
Sexual harassment by adult men
NYKESHIA: [One man in the neighborhood is] always askin’ me to do
something [sexual] with him. And I told my momma about it and
she told me “just stay away from him, as far as you can, and I hope
he stay away from you.” She called the police about it ‘cause he had
asked me in front of my momma….He just denied everything and
they was like, “we don’t have proof that he asked you that…we
[can’t] do nothin’ about that.”
BRITNEY: Older [women], they’ll walk past, [and neighborhood men
will] be like “how you doing?” But like me, if I walk past, grown
man say like “hey baby what’s your name?” and I’m 14 years old,
they can be 25. I be like, “I’m only 14 years old sir.” And they’ll be
like, “ain’t no problem,” you know what I’m saying. And that’s not
right.
Sexual Coercion and Assault –
Victimization Prevalence
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Sexually assaulted, molested, or raped
Pressured into unwanted sex
Gang raped
Attempted rape
26%
37%
9%
26%
Girls reporting some form of sexual
victimization
54%
Girls reporting multiple incidents
of sexual victimization
31%
Neighborhood Contexts & Sexual
Violence
SHAUNTELL: I done known girls that done just walked
down the block, and I ain’t gon’ even lie, my cousins, my
brothers, snatch ‘em up, take ‘em around the corner and
watch ‘em and do some of I don’t know what to ‘em.
The other day, two girls over there that just ran away
from home, they came over here ‘cause one of ‘em use to go
with my cousin. And they was all just over here doggin’
‘em. All them boys took ‘em around…the corner [to one of
the boy’s houses]…. My cousin not givin’ a care about the
one girl [he used to go with]. He not carin’. They take her,
take her sister, and do some of, I don’t even wanna name it
all….Get ‘em drunk, high, beat ‘em, raped ‘em, tortured
‘em, everything.
Neighborhood Contexts & Sexual
Violence, cont.
RICKY: [Girls] have to be extra careful [at parties]. They
have to watch what they do, [watch their drinking] and
getting high. I mean you got some smooth talkers in our
neighborhood, so.
A lot of times they try to find girls that ain’t up to
the level that they should be. I mean they might be a
little slow on how things go and how the streets work,
and then they just prey on innocent people really, you
know what I’m sayin’. It’s usually the ones that they
know vulnerable.
Neighborhood Contexts & Sexual
Violence, cont.
JANELLE: I was over at a friend’s house, this girl, and he came
over there. And you know, he was sitting down and he was
talking to me and conversating with me at first, you know.
And then [she went to the store and] he got to trying to touch
me and stuff, and I was like, “no, go away,” pushing him and
trying to avoid the whole situation. But me being a female,
males have more strength. So he holds me down and there’s
not much I can do about it because, you know, I’m not as
strong as him ….I was scared to tell somebody so I didn’t tell
anybody.
Group Sexual Assaults – “Running
Trains”
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45% of young men admitted to “running trains” on
girls
RICKY: That happens all the time, all the time. I mean it was an
incident when we went to a party like two weeks ago. This guy had
brought his girlfriend, and she told him before they even came, “I’m
goin’ home after the party.” Don’t expect something you not gettin’,
in other words….He got her drunk and high, and told her he was
carryin’ her home. [But instead he] took her to the hotel and let three
or four of his other friends be with her too.
…I think it’s just to get a image, a name. To make theyselves
look big….I can’t really explain it. A lot of guys do it just so other
guys can be like, “aw, man, he’ll do this” or “he’ll do that.” Like for
example, “we did this and we did that, and it was [so-and-so’s] gal.”
Most of ‘em just do it for a name, man, just for a image. Try to look
like something they not.
Group Sexual Assaults – “Running
Trains”
SHERON: [My ex-boyfriend] comes [over] and
brings all his friends with him. We went together
but we had broke up. And he came in the room
and we did whatever, and then it was dark in there
so somebody else, I saw the door and somebody
else came in there and they was just like, “well, if
you gonna do it to him, then you have to have sex
with me too.” And I was like, “why?” And he was
like…“we not gonna leave until you have sex with
him.” So I feel that, you know, I ain’t have no other
choice….I guess they planned it. [My ex-boyfriend]
didn’t say nothing [to stop it].
Young Women’s Risk-Avoidance
Strategies
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Avoiding public spaces, altogether or at night
Relying on the company of others (especially
males) for protection
Drawing security from neighborhood networks
of family/friends for protection/retaliation
Becoming “streetwise” – particularly postvictimization
Limitations of Risk-Avoidance
Strategies
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Limits girls’ full participation in public life
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Reliance on those who may be victimizers
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Neighborhood networks develop through
residential stability
-2/3 had moved in the last 3 years
-1/2 had moved multiple times
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Dominance of non-intervention norms
Conclusions

Structures & mechanisms present in distressed
urban communities that coalesce to facilitate high
rates of violence against young women
-limited collective efficacy/protective mechanisms
-environmental conditions
-unresponsive policing
-compositional effects – congregation of men in
public spaces
-gender inequalities – dominance of street
masculinity & ideologies about women/girls
Situational/organizational settings
with high risks for sexual violence

Male-dominated – valorization of narrow
concepts of masculinity: aggression, competition,
devaluation of women

Group loyalty & distrust of outsiders – symbolic
boundary maintenance

Limited community scrutiny or intervention

High rates of general violence