Tjejgäng, finns de? : en kvalitativ studie om tonårstjejers vänskapsrelationer och kamratgrupper i tre Stockholmkommuner

In September of year 2006, a young boy was brutally killed by a girl, age sixteen, in Örebro, Sweden. Girlgangs became a frequent subject in media. Professionals’ working with adolescents claims that girlgangs notis an existing phenomena in Sweden as it is in for example in the United States. The aim of this thesis was to investigate if teenage girls in Sweden have a tendency to join gangs as they do in the United States. This was qualitative study with four focus groups with teenage girls in three different areas in Stockholm. Areas with different social economic standards were chosen for the study to compare the girls’ answers. The result was analysed by a social psychological perspective and theoretic background. The result of this study showed that the group is important to the girls in their socialisation process and in order to create identity. There were similarities between the answers between the result of this study and research in The United States considering the girls choosing friends as they look for similarities between each other and the need of having fun. A tendency in the girls’ answers could not be seen in the matter of creating girlgangs as they do in the United States