Stoney’s motivation for committing bank robbery centered around family ties. She was initially against it but gained the motivation due to her brother’s tragic death. She had sold herself to pay for his college tuition, and the anger from that situation intensified and led her to conspire with the rest of the girls. Another motivation for Stoney was escaping her current situation with the funds from the robbery, which she successfully did at the end of “Set-It-Off.”.

TT was highly conflicted about committing bank robberies and even ran away at one point at the prospect of doing one. However, losing her son to Child Protective Services pushed her into that path.

She needed money to get her baby back, but the amount was far too much to obtain quickly without robbing a bank. Her situation ultimately gave the girls the final push to dive into a world of crime.

Cleo was most willing to commit the bank robberies. She highly supports the girls for most of the movie and pushes for the idea when she realizes TT desperately needs money to get her son back. She had the connections that enabled their robberies, as she was able to supply the group with weapons and cars. Cleo also had a girlfriend she loved and wished to support, providing another reason why she was willing to go into increasingly dangerous bank runs.

Frankie was extremely distraught over losing her job over suspected collusion in a bank robbery she had absolutely nothing to do with. Being blamed for not following the exact protocol with a gun to her head transformed her into an almost vengeful person. Because she lost her banking job, it likely made her willing to rob them. Frankie knew the most about how bank security systems functioned and helped ensure alarms weren’t triggered even though they were for the last two heists. Her feelings about the original robbery remained with her until the end, giving the detective the same treatment so he could understand how she had been feeling the entire time.

Mistreatment from their employers, society, and the law made the four females choose to risk it all for money. These choices are further explained using social process theories, focusing on how interpersonal relationships and socialization influence their behavior. For example, Frankie’s actions align with differential association theory, which suggests her criminal behavior is learned through her interactions with her friends, adopting their values, mindsets, and techniques to get through life. The second example is shown through how Stony’s experience reflects social bond theory, as sacrificing her body for money to help her brother and then losing her brother weakens her attachment to societal norms, driving her toward crime/ robbing banks. TT’s situation is revealed by labeling theory, which displays how being stigmatized as an unfit mother or parent reinforces her self-perception of being a failure in the parenthood department, leading her to seek redemption through crime and gaining enough money to provide for her child. Cleo’s actions can best be understood through neutralization theory. This theory reveals how she rationalizes her behavior by justifying it as loyalty to her friends. Also, since it’s not her first time committing a crime and rebelling against an oppressive system, she’s okay with committing crimes. All these theories demonstrate how social interactions, as well as each individual experience, can influence these women’s decisions to commit crimes, providing a nuanced understanding that complements the structural perspective offered by strain theory.