Kvinnor i kriminella gäng : En kvalitativ textanalys av medias beskrivning av kvinnors roller i kriminella gäng

This study researches the mass media description of women’s roles in criminal gangs as well as the contributing factors portrayed by the media for women and their involvement in the criminal gangs. We believe that this is an important subject to highlight, mainly due to the fact that the information available today is more often than not about the men whereas the women and their situation are portrayed and written about far less frequently. By using a qualitative text analysis we want to bring light to the image portrayed by the women and thereby contribute with an increase to understanding the specific terms these women face in the given contexts with the hope that the result will contribute to an increase in the knowledge of crime fighting and law enforcement. The empirical material consists of 20 articles from the following newspaper: Aftonbladet, Expressen, Svenska Dagbladet and Göteborgs-Posten, which have been analyzed through a content analysis. The results show that women in the gang have a far more active role than previously reported and that the activity in the gangs has increased as well. This falls in line with previous international research where women’s roles have been highlighted as predominantly active in organised crime. Furthermore, the women’s role in media is often mentioned as supportive or even being victims of the men in the gangs. A common explanation that is given is that the women join the gang due to societal factors such as the women feeling let down by their society. Social relations such as family and boyfriends that are part of criminal gangs and that might influence the women are also brought up as possible causes. More unusual factors that draw the women to gangs regard financial incentives such as the dream of making a great deal of money, longing for a feeling of safety or to simply experience excitement