Not always sugar and spice: Expanding theoretical and functional explanations for why females aggress
Section snippets
Changes in the prevalence of violence among females
It is well-established that violence rates are elevated in the United States compared to other industrialized countries (Rosenberg, 1991). Although males repeatedly are reported to be more violent than females (Kashani, Jones, Bumby, & Thomas, 1999), that trend is changing, with rates of violence among females quickly approaching the rates of violence among males. For example, the U.S. Department of Justice (2000) reported that of 2,468,800 juvenile arrests in 1999, 666,576 of them were
Expanding theoretical and functional explanations for female violence
Although the majority of research has been conducted with predominately male populations, research has identified certain risk and protective factors that are proposed to be stronger for females compared to males. Because of the overwhelming dominance of research on risk factors (rather than protective factors), relatively little is known about what protects females from becoming violent. Thus, the quantity of the research is stronger and more consistent when examining risk factors although
Risk factors
Risk factors are defined as those characteristics that have been identified as precursors to negative outcomes such as violence. Risk factors can be cumulative and interact with each other in differing ways. Thus, it is presumed that the more risk factors present in an individual's life, the greater the likelihood of engaging in violent behavior. It is important to keep in mind that although the risk factors might be similar between males and females, the magnitude of any particular factor, or
Individual-level risk factors
Violence rates disproportionately involve minorities, with African American adolescents reported to engage in more violent behaviors compared to European American or Hispanic adolescents (Blum et al., 2003, Earls, 1994, Kashani et al., 1999). Of the estimated 1400 murder arrests in 1999, 49% were African American adolescents (U.S. Department of Justice, 2000). In fact, ethnicity was reported to be one of the individual characteristics with the strongest effect size in terms of predicting
Family-level risk factors
Low socioeconomic status (SES) of the family has been associated with increased risk for violence among both males and females (Beyers et al., 2001, Earls, 1994). Because the link between violence and SES has been found across numerous operationalizations of SES (e.g., income only as well as the combination of income, occupation, and education of parents), the influence of SES on violence is well-established. In fact, low SES is one of the family characteristics that has a particularly strong
Protective factors
In the majority of studies, protective factors are operationalized as the opposite of risk factors, with the absence of a particular risk factor being viewed as protection from the possibility of developing violent behaviors. However, Rutter (1990) conceptualized protective factors as influences that modify, ameliorate, or alter a person's response to some environmental hazard (i.e., risk) that predisposes that person to a maladaptive outcome (Rutter, 1990). That is, protective factors occur
Individual-level protective factors
Despite the sparse research base, there is some evidence that adaptability, problem-solving ability, and resourcefulness are individual attributes that can protect against violent behaviors (Commission for the Prevention of Youth Violence., 2000, Werner and Smith, 1982). Further, social competence also has been identified as protective with higher levels of social comfort and outgoingness associated with lower levels of violence. That relationship is posited to have its protective effect via
Family-level protective factors
Family involvement and authoritative parenting practices also have been identified as protective factors (Chandy et al., 1996, Graves et al., 2005, Graves & Shelton, in press, Hetherington et al., 1992). According to Baumrind (1991), authoritative parents are both demanding (efforts that parents make to ensure that their children behave appropriately through supervision, discipline, and maturity demands) and responsive (efforts parents make to foster the development of autonomy, individuality,
Implications for theory, research, and practice
It has been well-documented (Frabutt and White, 2002, MacKinnon-Lewis et al., 2002) that a “one size fits all” approach is not as effective at reducing problem behaviors as are programs and interventions that are gender-specific. Because females and males develop differently both physically and emotionally, it follows that different developmental trajectories toward violence are likely as well as different functions that violence serves for females versus males. That likelihood has spurred
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