Chicago. -- Mike Robinson, 16, hasn't seen his little sister, Tequiae, in a month. The last time he saw her was after the beating she received from a gang of girls. She went to Roseland Community Hospital for the knee injury she suffered. Then she disappeared.
Tequiae is probably hiding from ''Folks,'' the nation of gangs responsible for beating her. A nation is the umbrella organization of a gang, controlling a network of many small gangs.
Tequiae is a ''Sister,'' a gang under the nation of ''Brothers,'' rival to ''Folks.'' This 13-year-old has hidden for weeks at a time twice before as far away as possible from her home in the South Side of Chicago.
Since 1990 the number of female gang members has quadrupled. All-female gangs, like Tequiae's, are growing, according to the Community Youth Gang Services Project in Los Angeles. Female gangs are a nationwide trend, from Los Angeles and Chicago to Boston and Philadelphia.
Becket Bessolo, 28, program coordinator at Northwestern University's Women's Center, explains the emergence of girl gangs: ''Now, in social peer groups, more and more young girls' identities aren't as attached to the boys they're dating.'' Instead of following their boyfriends into gangs, she says, girls are forming their own gangs.
Dawn Bryant, 25, a former ''Folks'' member, joined ''just to be popular. Just to make people know. Show the fellas you can be like them.'' As a ''Folks'' member, she wore her baseball cap turned to the right. Her territory, known as ''Kaytown,'' consisted of street names beginning with ''K'' or ''C'' in the West Side of Chicago.
Ms. Bryant said she fought only with her fists. But many girl gang members, like the boys, carry guns.
In a study conducted in 1993 on delinquency among inner-city adolescents, Jean E. Rhodes and Karla Fischer discovered girls and boys were arrested at an equivalent rate for assault and battery. This statistic doesn't surprise Adrienne Samuels, 16, a South Side Chicago resident.
''My friend Kime, who is a member of 'Folks,' was raped by this boy, Jason. The next day she came to school and beat him in the head with a baseball bat. After me and my best friend got Kime off the boy, 'Folks' girls jumped in and beat him up again,'' she said. She feared Kime and her gang would kill Jason.
''The actual fight between female gangbangers [gang members] is much more intense and out-to-kill than male gangbangers. When a woman really busts out and fights, she's out to kill,'' according to Ms. Bessolo.
