(NewsNation) — The number of women joining Mexico’s cartels has risen in recent years, according to a new study. Children are also being recruited, according to a separate study.

“Male crime bosses tend to value women for their perceived competence, respect for hierarchy and ability to evade police attention,” says the report by the International Crisis Group, which says its mission is to “prevent wars and shape policies that will build a more peaceful world.”

The report says the proportion of women charged with organized crime-related offenses rose from 5.4% in 2017 to 7.5% in 2021.

It says that the women involved in cartels often come from poor backgrounds and broken families, and many are introduced to crime through their partners or connections they make at drug-use hotspots.

Meanwhile, a private investigator tells NewsNation that, more often, the “bad guys” don’t look like “bad guys.”

“They look like the everyday people you would encounter at a restaurant … the little old lady next door,” said private investigator Jay Armes III. “They don’t look like the bad guys you would anticipate.”

Armes says a good example is Michelle Angelica Pineda, known as “La Chely,” who has a reputation for extreme brutality. When she was recently arrested in El Paso in February, police found weapons, drugs and other material needed to set up a drug trafficking operation in her motel room.

“She would cut out the heart of her victims and offer them to the patron saint of the drug traffickers … Santa Muerte.”

But it isn’t just women who are being recruited by Mexican cartels. A recent report from The Borgen Project claims 350,000 children have been recruited by Mexican criminal organizations. They often promise those kids money and a sense of belonging.