Girls and crime

16th May, 2008

Figures released by the Youth Justice Board yesterday show that there has been an increase of 25 per cent in the number of offences committed by girls in the last three years, compared to a fall of two per cent in those committed by boys. Some claim that girls are copying boys' yobbish behaviour and there have certainly been shocking reports recently of girls being violent. A fight took place last month, for example, at Shoreham railway station in West Sussex between two rival girl-gangs weilding snooker balls in socks. The increase in binge drinking among young women that I flagged up last week is also thought to play a role in the higher figures.

Others would say that the change is due to girls being prosecuted for offences that previously would just merited a caution. Read more about it on the Independent website, or get hold of the Youth Justice Board report here.

What do you think? From your experience, are girls becoming more violent and more involved in crime?

I'm not sure if i think

Submitted by Los16482 on 16 June 2008 - 5:17pm.

I'm not sure if i think girls generally are getting more violent. I do bits of work in a teenage unit within a women's prison and violence is definitely part of the cause for most of them being inside. As ever, the issues are so deep, complex and their lives incredibly complicated. What i do know is that behind the layers of violence, anger and kicking out against society are hurting young girls that need to know real love!!

I know that sounds very simplistic - and its not that easy in practice - i guess many of us have seen little girls change into angry messed up adults... but isnt it a joy when we see God break into to young lives and start the restoration process.

 As many of you will no doubt agree it can be heartbreaking to see how life can get some complicated for these girls but AWESOME when you see those signs of God healing and restoring.. These girls need our prayers, input, love and need role models who can show them what it means to be a daughter of the king!

I know that often all i can do is something small.. a smile, listening ear, visiting one of those girls in prison.... etc etc... but maybe just maybe God will use one of those small things as part of these girls journey back to Him........  

I think any stats need to be

Submitted by Amanda Roper on 16 May 2008 - 9:29am.
I think any stats need to be interpreted v carefully, as there are various factors at play.  The media grabs hold of the most news worthy aspect and runs with it, but BBC 24 had more of a balanced approach to the figures.  There was an excellent TV presenter on the news, who expressed some doubt over the figures, and urged caution as once again, the media is focussing on a very negative portrayal of young people.  She talked a lot of sense - but I didn't catch her name, I think she is presenting a programme called Reveal on BBC2 on Sat on this subject