Female Juvenile Delinquency

Since the early 1990s, the rising rate of juvenile violent crime has produced a public panic resulting in more punitive policies toward youthful offenders. Female juvenile patterns of delinquency have changed in recent years. Also, female juveniles have increasingly become involved in gang formations and activities. In 2007, girls were involved in 30 percent of all juvenile arrests. Of the total number of juveniles held in public or private juvenile secure facilities in that year, approximately 15 percent of those detainees were female. Since more female juvenile offenders have come to the attention of police, many myths and misconceptions about female juveniles have been formed. (Champion, 2013)
Before the mid-1960s, the juvenile justice

Research suggests that girls may account between one-fourth and one-half of the gang members in younger adolescent gangs. The types of acts that females in gangs commit are often less severe than males. But, their association with gangs is still a concern and requires special prevention, response, incarceration, and rehabilitation efforts. Researches on this topic have found key factors that are correlated with girls’ gang involvement. (Carrasco, 1999) According to research on female gang members, poor home life, a search for an identity, and a search for social interaction and belonging are the main reasons girls join gangs. In poor urban areas, the home lives of female gang members are broken down and dysfunctional, resulting in physical and sexual abuse. (Campbell, p. 175) Many girls who do not come from a loving or supportive household seek it outside of the home hoping that the gang will be their family. This is exemplified in the observation that, gang members refer to one another as sisters or home girls, and to the gang as family. This causes a great sense of belonging and identification. (Campbell, p. 175) In addition to looking for a family, girls in gangs search for a sense of self identity and have a need for group support and cohesiveness, which they seek to find in gangs (Harris, p. 114). According to Campbell’s research, the girls often speak of themselves as loners

Being able to adapt to negative situations is called resilience. Positive experiences in a child’s life can strengthen their ability to become resilient to the difficult situations such as abuse, neglect, poverty, and witnessing violence that can lead to delinquency. An investigation by the Girls Study Group examined whether experiencing protective factors during adolescence could keep females from offending. The researchers analyzed self-report surveys from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. They found that females who have a concerned parent or guardian in their lives during the time of adolescence were less likely to commit status or property offenses, sell drugs, participate in gangs, or commit assault as young adults. Also, females who had academic success while as adolescences committed fewer status and property offenses and were less likely to join gangs. Doing well in school is what helped protect the females from getting involved in simple and aggravated assaults during young adulthood. ("Understanding and Responding to Female