Girls and violence : tracing the roots of criminal behavior

Summary: A compelling social study of girls who have been confined in residential youth facilities for acts of serious violence in their mid-teens. Two aspects of this study particularly mark it as original and important. First, its in-depth focus not just on females, but young violent female offenders whose behaviour has already landed them in the deep end of the juvenile justice system. The early look at female adolescence and severe violence has few precedents. Secondly, the study is grounded in, and furthers developmental theory; connecting childhood victimization and neglect to violence during adolesence at the level of social process. The existence of some of the developmental pathways described herein has been evident in prior research, but the black box connecting subsequent to prior experiences had remained opaque. This study takes the reader inside that black box in the best tradition of qualitative research. Although much remains to be learned about girls who suffer similar experiences but do not progress to such extreme outcomes, this study sets a benchmark for further progress in understanding a highly vulnerable and volatile population. -- adapted from foreward.