Girls And Violence: A Cause For Concern

Todd Franke
3250 Public Policy Building
UCLA
405 HIlgard Ave.
Los Angeles CA 90095-1656
(310) 206-6102
FAX: (310) 362-8673
tfranke@ucla.edu
Aggression and aggressive acts have taken on new meaning in recent history.  Stories such as that of Littleton and Paducah, have dominated media coverage with incidents involving murder at the hands of America's youth.  Female violence is a topic often ignored while female delinquency has largely been dismissed as a problem of status offense.  Such notions are likely due to a dearth of research on the subject pertaining specifically to females.  Along these lines, crime rates have shown steady increase in female offenders over the past decade, particularly in the area of violent crime.  For example, female murder arrest rate is up 64 percent.  Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Wave 1), this study examined the association between seven measures of violence against property and five measures of violence against person by adolescent girls.  The results indicate that nationwide, 21.7% of girls had been in a physical fight, and 26.3% had engaged in violence against a person.  The prevalence of adolescent females who engage in violent behavior against persons (2,767,000) represents a significantly high number of our nation's youth.  Our data also indicate that violent behavior is more common among girls ages 13 - 16 than those age 17 and 18.  There is a significant association between 9 out of the 13 levels of violence measured and the age of the adolescent surveyed.  Significant associations were also found between family structure and all violence against person variables, as well as three violence against property outcomes.  While many social scientists are pondering questions of white male-adolescent rage, female perpetrators are largely underrepresented in discourse.  Such oversight will continue to leave policy makers wanting for solutions unless research begins to inform policy in the matters of female aggression and delinquency.