The violence of Hmong gangs and the crime of rape

FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin,The, Feb, 2003 by Richard Straka

While other such incidents occurred in Minnesota, the mobility of Hmong gangs resulted in similar crimes in other states. For example, in Warren, Michigan, several members of a Hmong gang were arrested for repeatedly raping teenage girls who they had held prisoner for nearly 3 weeks. The gang had kidnapped some of the girls and also had transported others from state to state and prostituted them. The victims came from Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan.

Also, authorities in Fresno, California, uncovered a similar case when the first three victims, 12to 14-year-old Hmong girls, came forward in April 1998. Members of the gang held the girls for 2 days at a local motel. After further investigation, officers discovered several other victims who agreed to come forward. Investigators identified a total of 33 victims between January 1997 and April 1998. The gang had held the victims anywhere from 2 days to 3 months.

The lead investigator stated that the case was so large that officials had to pursue it in three phases. (3) In the first phase, the grand jury handed down 350 indictments on 14 suspects. Eleven of the suspects pled guilty and received sentences ranging from 17 to 31 years in prison. Two other gang members got 280 years and 4 months and 94 years and 4 months, respectively, in prison. The second phase consisted of the grand jury handing down a 323-count indictment and several of the suspects pleading guilty. The third phase included 9 victims and 20 suspects, in which the grand jury handed down an 826-count indictment. Several suspects pled guilty and others were found guilty. The lead investigator also said that during the 2-year investigation, 10 percent of the victims stayed with the gang and were not threatened by its members. The rest were lured, kidnapped, and forced into unwilling participants. The gang held the victims against their will, repeatedly raped them, and forced them into prostitution. Gang m embers displayed guns and beat and threatened those victims who tried to leave.

These cases represent just a small number of the known and reported gang rapes occurring across the country involving Hmong street gangs. What makes these cases so similar is that the victims were afraid to come forward and, in most cases, did so reluctantly. Also, other victims in the cases would not come forward. One of the reasons for this reluctance to come forward was fear of the gang members because they had produced guns, talked about the "shootings" they had been involved in, and threatened to assault the victims or kill their families if they talked. After the victims were raped, they feared being shunned by members of their families who now would consider them "damaged" or having "shamed" them. This reaction stems from the Hmong culture, which values virginity before marriage. If a girl is raped, others in the Hmong community may look down on her. The gang members also used this belief to their advantage. They told the victims that they were no good to their families and that the gang was now their family. "There is a double standard for Hmong girls, the blaming and shame is big, and the girls give up when they see they are not getting support from their family and the community." (4) Some of the victims stayed with the gang members even after they were raped. They felt that they had nowhere else to go because they feared their own families more than the gang members.