Girls haven’t gone wild, juvenile violence study says

11-20-2008 National:

Fewer girls were arrested last year for violent crimes than a decade earlier, according to new government research prompted by a surge in female juvenile delinquency in the 1990s.

Arrests for aggravated assault by girls younger than 18 fell 17% from 1998 to 2007, the new U.S. Department of Justice research finds. The research comes as widely played videos show girls beating each other up. One such video, circulated on YouTube, showed two teen girls pummeling another girl in June at a Michigan high school.

“We’re not facing an epidemic of girls gone wild,” says J. Robert Flores, chief of the department’s Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, which spent $2.5 million on the first U.S.-funded effort to explore girl delinquency.

The research project, known as the Girls Study Group (Website), was launched in 2004, a year in which girls accounted for 30% of juvenile arrests. The findings will be released in a series of reports in the coming year.

“We want to dispel that myth,” that girls have become more violent, says Stephanie Hawkins, leader of the Girls Study Group and research psychologist at RTI International, a research institute.

Among the findings, which cover 1998 to 2007:

• 13% fewer girls were arrested for all violent crimes.

• 10% more girls were arrested for simple assault, though the increase occurred earlier in the decade. The number of simple assault arrests of girls has fallen since 2004.

• Arrests of boys fell even more — 14% for all violent crimes.

The drop in arrests has been less for girls, not because behavior has changed but because of policy, says Darrell Steffensmeier, a member of the study group and a sociology professor at Penn State. He says police are more apt now than decades ago to arrest girls for domestic violence or school fights.

Also, he says girls themselves don’t report an increase in violent behavior, according to school-based surveys such as Monitoring the Future.

Some researchers question the study group’s data. Girls underestimate their own violence and FBI data fluctuate depending on policy and demographic changes, says James Garbarino, psychology professor at Loyola University and author of the 2006 book, “See Jane Hit: Why Girls Are Growing More Violent and What We Can Do About It.”

“It’s a puzzling area,” says Garbarino, adding that cultural messages are telling girls it’s OK to be aggressive.

David Finkelhor, head of the Crimes Against Children Research Center at the University of New Hampshire, agrees pop culture is promoting more assertive females. Still, he says the factors that cause girls to be violent “run deeper,” and he doesn’t see a trend of increased girl violence.

Those risk factors, says the Girls Study Group, include poor parental supervision, lack of school involvement, early puberty, sexual abuse, depression, anxiety and romantic partners. ..News Source.. by WENDY KOCH • USA TODAY


In October this year, this report was published. Take notice of points addressing sexual issues on pg-4: "The Girls Study Group—Charting the Way to Delinquency Prevention for Girls," By Margaret A. Zahn, Stephanie R. Hawkins, Janet Chiancone, and Ariel Whitworth