Abstract
Girls and Violence: Tracing the Roots of Criminal Behavior by Judith A. Ryder examines violence perpetrated by young women, including why girls commit acts of violence and how girls interpret their own violent actions and experiences. Ryder focuses specific attention to the process by which girls’ attachments to primary caregivers within the context of family- and community-related trauma experiences contribute to the onset of violent behavior. Her research relies on the interviews of 24 teenage girls who were born into poor and violent urban neighborhoods in New York City in the 1980s and who were adjudicated and remanded to custody in the mid-1990s for the offenses of burglary and robbery. These 24 interviews are derived from the larger federally funded study, Learning About Violence and Drugs Among Adolescence, which investigates the relationship between juvenile drug use and violent offending.
In the first and second chapters, Ryder provides a discussion of the setting and theoretical impetus of the research. The 1980s marks a particularly poignant time in our criminal justice history in which the United States experienced a significant rise in crack cocaine use and violence in poor African American communities, which was subsequently followed by the passage of a plethora of punitive criminal justice policies. The panic that led to new federal and state mandatory sentencing laws disproportionately affected low-level, nonviolent African American women and their children and, as the rate of female imprisonment increased, so too did the number of children left without parents and safe home environments. It is in this context that the girls in this study behave violently.
In Chapter 3, Ryder focuses on the significance of parental bonds or lack thereof. Relying on attachment theory, Ryder argues that the pattern and quality of parental attachment, support, and supervision influence the development of violent behavior for young women. The stories in this chapter offer a rich description of the stress induced by the girls’ families. Many indicate that they do not trust nor feel emotionally safe with their parents, and more often than not express feeling misunderstood, isolated, angry, and rejected. Ryder argues that a desire for loving and supportive parental and adult relationships generates frustration and anxiety for young women, which manifests itself into defiant, disruptive, and violent behaviors.
In Chapters 4 and 5, Ryder focuses on the experiences of traumatic events, including direct victimization, witnessed violence, and loss. Chapter 4 focuses specifically on girls’ experiences of physical and sexual abuse in homes and communities. Chapter 5 focuses on experiences of loss, including the death of a loved one, the psychological and physical absence of the mother, and loss of a home. As is the case with many girls in the justice system, the girls in this study experience residential and familial instability and, on average, report the occurrence of nine traumatic events prior to the time in which they were incarcerated as young women.
Ryder focuses on coping strategies in Chapter 6. She outlines three behavioral strategies young women use to cope with the stress associated with victimization, loss, and lack of parental support. These strategies include running away from home, using drugs and alcohol, and self-harm through cutting and suicide attempts. The presence of social support can often mitigate the negative effects of traumatic experiences; however, the girls in this study express being mostly alone in their struggle for survival. Those who ran away or left home altogether report experiencing a sense of physical escape from a stressful home environment, and those who use drugs and alcohol report a sense of psychological escape from persistent feelings of fear and depression.
Chapter 7 brings together the stories and analysis of the preceding chapters and offers a holistic discussion of the situational context and characteristics of violent offending. Ryder discusses four motivational themes that reflect young women’s efforts to manage their situations while maintaining control over their lives. These motivations include the use of violence to maintain a sense of self-respect and power, the use of violence as a way to revenge and establish hierarchy, the use of violence as a defensive strategy for themselves and others, and the use violence for financial gain.
The final chapter offers policy implications of the research. Ryder argues for reinvesting in public education, housing, and businesses to aid the development of healthy family relationships in poor neighborhoods, as well as pay equity, flexible work opportunities, and adequate health services for women living in these neighborhoods. Ryder also argues for stronger collaboration between educational and juvenile justice institutions, less severe and evasive sanctioning for young women, and improved community programs that offer enriching and empowering programming.
The limitation of this research includes the generalizability of the findings to boys and youth who do not reside in poor urban neighborhoods in New York City. However, Ryder’s attention to the voices of young women serves to further our understanding of the pathways that lead young girls to commit violent offenses. In doing so, Ryder offers the reader a unique opportunity to hear the stories of girls who are entrenched in the deep end of the juvenile justice system. These voices guide Ryder’s writing, analyses, and findings and offer a passionate reading experience about why girls engage in violence.