Exploring Girls' Participation in Violence
Introduction
Youth violence, and particularly violence carried out by girls, has been the subject of intense media attention recently, with an ever-increasing number of girls portrayed as carrying guns in their mouths and participating in violent crime. Although the percentage of girls' involvement in delinquency and crime has increased in the last two decades, it is still far below the level of boys' involvement, and it differs quite significantly.
There is a paucity of literature on girls' violence, as most research on youth violence does not distinguish between girls and boys. The most comprehensive and extensive literature reviews on young women's crime and delinquency have
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Based on an analysis of FBI statistics, arrests of girls for murder were up 64 percent; robbery arrests, 114 percent; aggravated assault, 137 percent; and other assaults, 126 percent (Chesney-Lind & Brown, 1999).
There are a number of reasons why these figures need to be interpreted cautiously. First, there has been a parallel increase in boys' arrest rate for violent offenses since 1985. Chesney-Lind and Brown assert, "this pattern, then, reflects overall changes in youth behavior, rather than dramatic changes and shifts in the character of girls' behavior" (1999, p. 176). In addition, boys are far more likely than girls to be arrested for violent crimes (homicide, forcible rape, aggravated assault) and serious property offenses (burglary, arson). Girls account for a very small percentage of violent crime, and violent crime by girls is a small percentage of all girls' delinquency, and it has remained essentially unchanged since the mid-1980s. Only 2.1 percent of girls' arrests in 1985 were for serious crimes of violence; the figure climbed only slightly, to 3.4 percent, by 1994. Thus, large increases in girls' violent crime rate translate into only small increases in the number of crimes committed.
Another explanation for the increase in girls' violent offenses is a redefinition of what constitutes a violent offense. For example, a review of 2,000 cases of young women referred to the Maryland juvenile justice system for
son. (Introduction to Criminology, Lecture 3, September 23, 2013, Professor Jan Stanners.) So another factor about females being less aggressive is the fact that they are protected more and almost restricted from certain things because more people worry about girls then boys. Studies are also showing that women’s crime rates are increasing quite noticeably while males are slowly dropping. I think this is because since the 1950-80’s women’s
Girls tend to have additional risk factors prior to entering the status offense system. The majority of girls that enter the juvenile justice system have significant health and family problems including instability, violence, trauma, and neglect (Watson & Edelman, 2013).
The findings on the website show how female offenders have been perceived as less violent offender compared to males (NCJRS). Although, in the past females were perceived to commit minor offenses, but there has been a rise in females committing violent offense (NCJRS). There has also been a rise in the percentage of female offender overall, which younger girls represent a larger proportion of juvenile arrest (NCJRS). The reason for this could be many younger girls are experiencing trauma, abuse, violence, and poverty issues at home. For example, if a younger female leaves in a home and all she sees is her mother and father fight, which could lead her to think that it’s okay. She also gets beaten by her father and her mother never say anything so she might think it’s a way of life. This cause for whenever this younger female gets into a confrontation at school, she automatically leads to violence. The reason why is that’s all she seen growing up. The victimization that the female offender go through cause them to have different needs compared to male offenders. The findings on NCJRS states how due to the different victimization females go through they are more likely to be addicted to drugs and have mental
In looking at Figure 1, there is a steady peak between 1987-1990 in female arrests. During the 1990s there is a little valley during the 1990s and
Males, especially working class males, are responsible for more crime than females, and are disproportionately over represented in crime statistics (“Intersectionalities II”, February 22, 2017). However, when girls are involved in crime this normalization of boys involved in crime creates the notion that “boys will be boys and girls will be good”, therefore authorities and society view girls who deviate as having something wrong with them, usually offered treatment as a probational order by judges (“Intersectionalities II”, February 22, 2017). The offences girls are most likely to be arrested for are, more notably, prostitution, running away from home, and curfew violations (Chesney-Lind and Sheldon, 2004), by girls are also are sentenced much more harshly than boys for these
Rather unfortunately, the television also exposes the same children to some undesirable elements such as violence and lethargy. The best way to achieve the best outcomes is through supervision (California State University, 2014). Delinquency between Males and Females Early critics of the juvenile justice system response to female offenders presented discrepancies in the processing and reporting of both female status offenses and delinquent acts. For instance, when arrest statistics are compared between male and female self-report data on involvement in status offenses, young women appear to be arrested at a higher rate for status offenses than males.
The characteristics of these offenders and the crimes they are committing are also changing over time. Demographically the juvenile female offender is most likely coming from a single parent home and may have been physically or sexually abused at some point in her life. She will also most likely be under the age of 15 and even more likely to be a woman of color, African-American young woman comprise almost 50 percent of all young women in secure detention, while Hispanics make up 13 percent (Bergsmann, 1994). In 1996, females represented 57 percent of the arrests for running away. In 1996, females represented 15 percent of juvenile arrests for violent crimes, while arrests of boys for violent offenses declined by 9 percent (Snyder, 1997). Aggravated assault, the most frequent of the violent offenses committed by juveniles, represented 20 percent of all arrests for juvenile females, while declining for boys by 10 percent (Snyder, 1997). In considering these changes it is still important to note that girls are still arrested more often for status offenses it is becoming more evident that girls are engaging in delinquent behaviors more often
Today in the United States, citizens under the age of 18 are considered minors. In our criminal justice system, about 1 million juveniles under the age of 18 are arrested each year. While violent crimes by juveniles are decreasing, the female juvenile population has grown tremendously. Both girls and boys who are in the juvenile system usually have problems at home and school that have put them at risk for delinquency. This includes maltreatment, poverty or both, and these factors may have a negative impact on their adjustment to adulthood.
According to Leoniek Kroneman, Rolf Loeber, and Alison E. Hipwell (2004) research is looking at four major points and questions for girls on conduct problems and adolescences; which it also focuses on filling the gaps in reviewing neighborhood influences on gender differences in conduct problems and delinquency. The methodology that use was meta-analysis; notably many sources were used in this meta-analysis, but some really stand out. One of the sample that Kromeneman, Loeber, and Hipwell (2004) use was take a sample of 225 girls’ age 11 to 19 years old of African American living in housing projects; which more than half of the girls had admitted that they had attack someone out of rage and displeasure, and addition
In viewing the information contained in the aforementioned articles, one can immediately understand the underlying reasons that women are committing more crimes than men. Through the mid-1990s, the arrest rates of both genders has increased steadily, with the male rate far exceeding that of females (Gross, 2009, pp. 84). However, in recent years, a shift has been seen, with the numbers of female offenders rising significantly, especially at the juvenile level, which significantly raises the likelihood of re-offending later in life. As such, an understanding of the differences between the sexes in terms of the reasoning behind their offenses has long been researched.
Since 1970, there has been an increasing and alarming rise 138 percent of violent crimes committed by women. Still, while the equivalent percentage compared to male violence is small 15 percent to 85 percent the fact that the numbers have elevated so drastically points to something changing in society.
Statistics show that the number of female offenders in the legal system has been increasing steadily. The number of female offenders entering the American justice system is growing at a rate faster than males. Statistics from the United States in 2010 show the female offender population to be increasing by 2.7% each year, compared to the male population at a rate of 1.8% each year, with similar statistics being seen in other Western countries (West & Sabol, 2010). The continued increase has made understanding female offenders and their catalysts for committing crime more imperative.
Females are said to be very emotional and if they were troublemakers at a young age they are said to possess “masculine traits and characteristics” (Siegal & Walsh, 2015). Males tend to commit crimes like robbery, assault and burglary. This has changed in the last decade. The rate of offending has decreased for males by 27 percent and females about 15 percent. “Girls have increased their
When one thinks of the juvenile corrections system, they tend to gender this institution, focusing mainly on young boys. Due to this, one often neglects the thought there are also young girls that are in the system. This may be due to the fact that when compared to young boys within the juvenile corrections system, in previous years the girls consisted of a small portion within in this space. However, according to recent studies, girls in the juvenile system has been rapidly increasing over the last 20 years (Levintova, 2015). This is an issue which needs to be acknowledge due to the fact that young women are caught in this system for starkly contrasting reasons when compared to young males. These reasonings are described in the book Girls in Trouble with the Law by Laurie Schaffner which we will further explore.
address the issue of counting female and male involvement in multiple-offender incidents, and the weighting adjustments to account for changes in the redesigned NCVS. The gender gap in violent offending appears to have narrowed over time, largely because male decreases in offending have been greater than female decreases since the middle 1990s. The researchers seeks to introduce the new trends in the gender gap in offending, and by correcting some substantive misstatements about our article by SSZA.