ABA Child Law Practice 27(11), January 2009. Copyright 2009 American Bar Association. All rights reserved.

Violence by Teenage Girls: Trends and Context

The upswing in girls' violence in the late 20th century had many people in the juvenile justice community concerned. They wanted to know what factors influenced girls' offending, and what kinds of programs and policies could reduce girls' violence.

To answer these questions, the Office of Juvenie Justice and Delinquency Prevention convened the Girls Study Group. The Group's initial research project examined rates of girls' arrests, delinquency, and victimization. Researchers examined arrest data from the FBI's Uniform Crime Reports, delinquency surveys from the Monitoring the Future study, and victimization surveys from the Bureau of Justice Statistics' National Crime Victimization Survey.

This research resulted in the Trends and Context Bulletin, which provides answers to a number of questions:

How have girls' and boys' arrest rates increased in the past decade?

What would explain the increasing arrest rates for girls?

Arrest laws and changes in law enforcement policy appear to have had more of an impact on arrest rates than changes in girls' behavior. Possible explanations for this include:

n Changes in local law enforcement policies that lowered the threshold for reporting assaults or classifying assaults as aggravated.

n Some status offenses involving a domestic dispute between a girl and her parent or sibling could now be classified as simple assault and could result in arrest. This sort of arrest is an unintended consequence of "mandatory arrest" laws in cases of domestic violence.

n Schools' zero-tolerance policies toward youth violence may have increased police referral for fights involving girls.

To test some of the possible explanations outlined above, the Girls Study Group conducted a special analysis that looked at local mandatory and pro-arrest policies to determine if there were indications that these had an impact on the increasing number of girls' arrests. Their findings indicate that mandatory and pro-arrest policies increased the likelihood of arrest for both girls and boys, but the effects appear stronger for girls. This may be explained by the fact that family conflict accounts for a larger proportion of girls' offending than of boys' offending.¹

Causes and Correlates of Girls' Delinquency

Girls' delinquency has become an increasing dilemma in recent years, in part because of higher arrest rates, and in part because little research to date has focused on female juvenile delinquents. By 2004, females made up 25 percent of all juvenile arrests for aggravated assault, and 33 percent of juvenile arrests for other assaults. So why do some girls become delinquent? A great deal of research has examined the factors involved in male delinquency, but the factors involved in female delinquency remained largely unknown.

To understand the causes of female delinquency, the Girls Study Group reviewed more than 2,300 social science articles and book chapters that examine factors involved in delinquent behavior for girls ages 11 to 18. They also examined factors that protect girls from becoming delinquent. They found that while certain factors predict or prevent delinquency in both sexes, a number of factors influence girls' behavior more strongly than boys' behavior.

The factors that equally increase the risk of delinquency for both sexes include-

n The family's dynamics (i.e., how parents supervise and monitor a child, family history of criminal behavior, child maltreatment).

n A child's involvement in school.

n The neighborhood a child lives in (e.g., poverty level, crime rate, employment rate).

n The level of availability of community-based programs.

Some factors increase or decrease a girl's risk of delinquency more than a boy's, including-

n Early puberty. Early puberty increases girls' risk for delinquency, particularly if they come from disadvantaged neighborhoods and have dysfunctional families. This disparity between biological and social maturity can lead to increased conflict with parents or negative associations with older boys or men.

n Sexual abuse or maltreatment. Compared to boys, girls experience more sexual victimization overall, including sexual assaults, rapes, and sexual harassment. However, all types of maltreatment (sexual, physical, and neglect) can increase the risk of delinquency for both sexes.

n Depression and anxiety. Depression and anxiety disorders have been associated with delinquency. Girls receive these diagnoses more frequently than boys.

n Romantic partners. When a youth's boyfriend or girlfriend commits a crime, he or she may also engage in delinquent behavior. For less serious crimes, girls are influenced more by their boyfriends than boys by their girlfriends. For serious crimes, they are equally affected.

Resilient Girls-Factors That Protect Against Delinquency

Some children manage to achieve success despite the difficulties they encounter in life. This ability to positively adapt to negative situations is called resilience. Positive experiences in life can strengthen a child's ability to become resilient to the difficult situations-abuse, neglect, poverty, witnessing violence-that can lead to delinquency.

An investigation by the Girls Study Group examined whether experiencing protective factors during adolescence could keep girls from offending. These protective factors included-

n Support from a caring adult.

n Success in school-as measured by grade point average.

n School connectedness-a positive perception of the school environment and positive interactions with people at school.

n Religiosity-how important religion was to the girl.

The researchers analyzed self-report surveys from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. They found:

n Caring adult. Girls who had a caring adult in their lives during adolescence were less likely to commit status or property offenses, sell drugs, join gangs, or commit simple or aggravated assault during adolescence. They also were less likely to commit simple assault as young adults.

n School connectedness. Girls who experienced school connectedness were not protected or at increased risk for delinquency during adolescence and young adulthood, with one exception-girls who experienced school connectedness during adolescence were more likely to become involved in aggravated assault in young adulthood.

n School success. Girls who experienced success in school during adolescence committed fewer status and property offenses and were less likely to join gangs in adolescence. School success helped protect them from involvement in simple and aggravated assault in adolescence and young adulthood. However, these girls were more likely to commit property offenses in young adulthood.

n Religiosity.² Girls who placed a high importance on religion during adolescence were less likely to sell drugs in early adolescence.

Researchers additionally examined the interaction between childhood risk factors and protective factors on a child's propensity toward delinquent behavior. Although some of the protective factors helped girls not to engage in delinquent behavior, others could not mitigate the influence of risk factors that girls had endured since childhood. Their findings highlight the importance of considering girls' life histories when developing interventions for girls at high risk for delinquency.

This material was adapted from Zahn, Margaret A. et al. The Girls Study Group-Charting the Way to Delinquency Prevention for Girls. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, October 2008.

Endnotes

¹ Strom, K., T. Warner, L. Tichavsky, and M. Zahn (in development). Policing Daughters: The Role of Domestic Violence Arrest Policies in Child-Parent Conflicts.

² Religiosity describes how important religion is to someone. In this study, answers to three questions-the frequency of praying, the frequency of attending religious events, and the girls' perception of the importance of religion-defined girls' religiosity.

About the Girls Study Group

In 2004, OJJDP convened the Girls Study Group, an interdisciplinary group of scholars and practitioners who would work together to develop a comprehensive research foundation for understanding and responding to girls' involvement in delinquency. Through a competitive process, RTI International was selected to lead the Girls Study Group Project. The group includes experts in sociology, psychology, criminology, and gender studies, as well as legal practitioners and girls' program development coordinators. The Girls Study Group research consists of-

o   reviewing literature on girls' delinquency

o   analyzing secondary datasets

o   assessing programs that target female delinquents

o   reviewing risk assessment and treatment-focused instruments for delinquent girls

For more information about the Girls Study Group, see http://girlsstudygroup.rti.org.