Factors Related to Female Adolescent Initiation into Violent Street Crime

Abstract

The present study is concerned with understanding when and how adolescent girls become involved in violent street crime. Specifically, the study explores the correlates or explanatory factors of such offending among a sample of women arrested and/or incarcerated for violent street crimes in New York City. The findings of this study suggest that an adequate understanding of female offending must consider the impact of neighborhood, peer, and addiction factors that affect both male and female participation in criminal violence. In addition, it appears as though different configurations of these factors contribute to the initiation of violent offending depending on the age of onset. Early initiation into violent crime was accompanied by participation in a wide variety of other offending behaviors and deviant lifestyles. On the other hand, those women who experienced a later onset of violent offending did so within the context of a criminal career that, up to the point of substance abuse, was more specialized and focused on typically nonviolent, gender congruent activities (e.g., prostitution, shoplifting).