Abstract
As arrests of girls for violent offenses rose in the 1990s, public concern about adolescent girls' aggression grew around the notion of "girl-on-girl violence." This research brief explores that idea and argues that young women are indeed experiencing violence, but not necessarily from each other, as much as from the effects of racism, sexism, misogyny, homophobia, and poverty. Indeed, girls suffer more from "adult-on-girl violence," evidenced by legislators' refusal to fund infrastructure such as housing, jobs, and schools; voter apathy; and the ruthlessness of a highly-profitable prison system. These factors, more than any change in girls' behavior, have combined to usher in the era of the criminalization of social problems.

Laurie Schaffner
University of Illinois at Chicago
Laurie Schaffner is a sociologist at the University of Illinois at Chicago. She is the author of Girls in Trouble with the Law, a study of court-involved young women and the adults who work with them, forthcoming in July 2006 from Rutgers University Press. She can be reached at schaff@uic.edu