UH professor studies delinquency in juvenile girls

Professor Meda Chesney-Lind takes a break in her Manoa office. Photo courtesy of Meda Chesney-Lind

By Marques Furumoto

University of Hawai'i at Manoa Professor Meda Chesney-Lind has joined a national study in an effort to better understand and respond to girls' delinquency in Hawai'i and the mainland.

The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention's (OJJDP) runs the study, entitled Girls Study Group.

"Nationally, girls are about 29 percent of all juvenile arrests, but here in the islands, it was over 40 percent," said Chesney-Lind, a professor of Women's Studies. "That meant that close to half the kids that were being arrested for juvenile delinquency in the islands were female."

Chesney-Lind is a significant addition to the Girls Study Group because of the critical differences that Hawaii's girls have from those on the mainland.

"Our girls deal with issues that are unlike the mainland problems, which seem to revolve around issues of violence and aggression in girls," said Chesney-Lind. "Locally we're still struggling with a sort of traditional problem with girls; running away from home, school attendance, abusive boyfriends and parents, et cetera."

The Girls Study Group has two components: to determine what is known about the nature of female delinquency, and to determine what works in response to that problem.

The study group hopes to develop a solid research foundation that will help communities across America reduce juvenile delinquency by girls.

Chesney-Lind is one of 15 members selected from around the nation to participate in the Girls Study Group, among sociologists and psychologists from Duke University, University of Minnesota and University of Miami.

According to the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting Program, the percentage of females arrested for violent juvenile offenses has jumped considerably in the past decade. The number of female arrests involving drugs and alcohol has continued to rise, despite the number of most other juvenile arrests decreasing.

The Girls Study group also seeks to better understand girls' involvement with the juvenile justice system. Most states have programs and interventions designed primarily for males, but are now faced with a rising number of female offenders.  

"A lot of the drug interventions, traditionally, have been built around boys and men who use alcohol and narcotics (for recreational purposes)," said Chesney-Lind. " But girls and boys use drugs for very different reasons."

"Boys and men who tend to substance abuse are often engaged in the type of risk-taking that prompts young men to drive 200 miles per hour. That isn't necessarily the case with girls who want to use drugs," said Chesney-Lind. "Often times, girls are self-medicating because they've had traumatic victimization histories and they're dealing with depression."

More information about the Girls Study Group can be found at http://girlsstudygroup.rti.org/.