Gender Violence: The Nature Of Female Violence

Introduction:

Examining the most common characteristics of a violent offender, simply being a man can be considered a risk factor. The male gender is characterized by traits like strength, and a natural willingness to defend what is theirs. Such behaviors are driven by male hormones, which are utilized in the regulation of human aggression. Though girls comprise a smaller overall portion of adolescent arrests, the murder of Reena Virk in 1997, in which seven girls and one boy brutally assaulted and drowned a fellow classmate , shifts focus back onto juvenile female violence. While male offenders, often choose to act as individuals; the “girl-gang” phenomenon has recently caught the attention of researchers. Institutes from Canada, as well as the United Kingdom, the United States and Germany have published studies, emphasizing increasing female violence and the issue of “girl-gangs”. After exceptionally violent murders, the public tends to be very sensitive and biased regarding these issues, influenced heavily by the media. Therefore, it is important to distinguish between ordinary myths and statistics. Theories such as the Liberal Feminist View, as well as the Power-Control Theory approach female violence as it being the result of a constantly changing society. To fully comprehend the nature of female violence, however, a combination of social, economic, biological and psychological factors have to be taken into consideration. Commonly boys use violence to solve a conflict and to protect their honor girls instead, see it as a way of emancipation, to prove that they are not the weaker sex.

Youth Crime Statistics

General Statistics show that between 1986 and 1998, the number of Canadian teens charged with violent offences has t...

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... did not have a history of troubled behavior or personal connection to the victim, were capable of being involved in such a random, yet passionate act of violence. Virk was a ‘punching bag’ for the internal anxiety or frustration these girls faced, which essentially leads back to parent’s inability to detect these issues and societies failure to provide support for these girls. The autopsy reports showed that Virk would have most likely died solely from her head injuries from the severe beating she took, essentially making every person present that night underneath the bridge responsible for Virk’s death. Although female violence has been on the rise, the media did play an essential role in creating fear of female violence in Canada. While the story of the murder of Reena Virk is both ruthless and alarming, not many similar cases have occurred in the past 17 years.