Abstract
Although boys still account for the lion’s share of juvenile arrests, the increase in girls’ arrests for assault is receiving considerable attention from policy makers and practitioners (see Chap. 11). At issue in this debate is whether the gender crime gap is changing, and particularly whether females are becoming more violent. Some attribute the trend of increases in female arrests to a combination of re-labeling family conflicts as violent offenses and changes in police practices when responding to domestic incidents (Chesney-Lind 2002; Chesney-Lind and Pasko 2004; Feld 2009). Others argue that economic marginalization and males’ greater engagement in familiar roles have narrowed the gender crime gap for violent offenses (Heimer 2000; Messer and Rosenfeld 2007; Lauritsen et al. 2009). Others assert that the arrest trends actually reflect police behavior, a “widening of the net” and/or “charging up” of less serious offenses (Steffensmeier and Schwartz 2003; see Chap. 1 for a detailed discussion of all of these issues). Research consistently shows that since changes in domestic violence mandatory arrest laws were enacted, the female share of arrests for violent crime has increased (Buzawa and Hotaling 2006; Hirschel et al. 2007).
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Notes
- 1.
Intimidation is a form of domestic violence wherein a person controls their partner’s actions, relationships, and activities through the use of gestures, looks, and actions.
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Stahl, A.L., Coontz, P. (2012). Juvenile Assault Arrestees and Their Incidents: Same and Opposite Gender Relationships. In: Miller, S., Leve, L., Kerig, P. (eds) Delinquent Girls. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-0415-6_4
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