As we see an ever increasing number of girl's joining and or starting gangs, we see the volitility and severity of the violence between girls increase. The large contributing factor to this is that traditionally within many gang hierarchies, girls have been used for things like running drugs, recruiting and ther uses wthin the male gangs. The females have learned that they too can have the control, power and money by forming their own gangs instead of being attached to the male gangs. In this area, the girls' are fighting to how they are to be feared as much as the male gangs nd that they can "compete" in the illegal activities as much as the males can. They then tend to be more aggressive and dangerous as they fight to earn the respect of some gangs and to instill fear into others. The male gangs for the most part have already established themselves in the reputation and fear areas of the gang world and thus tend to take less violent action(s) against non affiliated youth and members of the public than the girls do. This is a trend which was seen in the US about 10-15 years ago and continues but is spreading to other cities around the globe. As cities, provinces and states and federal governments still fail to recognize the full dangers and effects of these gangs in addition to continuing to make the same mistakes in fighting gangs activity. Places such as Canada depend to much on "official stats" and not enough of real life situations which children and youth are facing. The reality is that whiile the governments may be downplaying the level of violence in our communities and reporting decreasing stats, the youth will tell you a different story. The number of violent offenses against youth and by youth is on the rise dramatically but most youth are continuing to no report the violence. They still fear for their safety and do not have confidence in our system to protect them. This includes law enforcement, schools, courts and such. In turn they will not report the violence as a real and tangible fear of retaliation is there. If you or someone you know is involved in gang activity and want to "get out" please email help@youthandviolence.com for assistance.