Not So Nice: Girls’ Delinquency Issues

Girls’ delinquency has attracted the attention of federal, state, and local policymakers for more than a decade as girls have increasingly become involved in the juvenile justice system. For girls, the key risk factors for delinquency and incarceration are family dysfunction, trauma and sexual abuse, mental health and substance abuse problems, high-risk sexual behaviours, school problems and affiliation with deviant peers. The authors of this book examine the developmental sequences of girls’ delinquent behaviour, as well as the factors that protect girls against delinquency. In addition, issues such as patterns of offending among adolescents are explored and how they differ for girls and boys. The causes and correlates of girls’ delinquency are discussed as well. This book consists of public documents which have been located, gathered, combined, reformatted, and enhanced with a subject index, selectively edited and bound to provide easy access.