Advanced Search

Journal Navigation

Journal Home

Subscriptions

Archive

Contact Us

Table of Contents

Click here to view The AAPSS Blog

Click here to sign up for SAGE Journal Email Alerts today!

Sign In to gain access to subscriptions and/or personal tools.
The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow References
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Right arrow Citation Map
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in Web of Science
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to Saved Citations
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Request Reprints
Right arrow Add to My Marked Citations
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via HighWire
Right arrow Citing Articles via Web of Science (5)
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Right arrow Citing Articles via Scopus
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Ness, C. D.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Complore   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati   Add to Twitter  
What's this?

Why Girls Fight: Female Youth Violence in the Inner City

Cindy D. Ness

Center on Terrorism and Public Safety at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, New York City

This article considers the resort to violence by inner-city female youth, including the external forces impinging on them. In addition to underscoring that girls actively pursue and enjoy physically dominating others, I argue that the incidence of violence by girls in low-income areas, particularly "street fighting," has been significantly underestimated in official statistics and generally by scholars. Engaging in violence was found to serve a number of functions for inner-city girls, similar to their male counterparts. Mothers were found to play an integral role in the anatomy of their daughters’ use of violence. The article addresses the need to situate girls’ violent behavior simultaneously on the level of individual psychology, on the cultural landscape of a neighborhood, and within the institutional framework that shapes both, in order to contextualize it properly. The article also considers how the method of ethnography is well suited to this end.

Key Words: female youth violence • inner city • ethnography • aggression

The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Vol. 595, No. 1, 32-48 (2004)
DOI: 10.1177/0002716204267176
Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati   Add to Twitter Twitter    What's this?


This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 Crit SociolHome page
D. Wallace, N. Hirschinger-Blank, and J. A. Grisso
Female-Female Non-Partner Assault: A Political-Economic Theory of Street Codes and Female-Gendered Culture in the Contemporary African-American Inner City
Crit Sociol, March 1, 2008; 34(2): 271 - 290.
[Abstract] [PDF]

Home page
 Health Educ BehavHome page
M. A. Yonas, P. O'Campo, J. G. Burke, and A. C. Gielen
Neighborhood-Level Factors and Youth Violence: Giving Voice to the Perceptions of Prominent Neighborhood Individuals
Health Educ Behav, August 1, 2007; 34(4): 669 - 685.
[Abstract] [PDF]

Home page
 Br J CriminolHome page
V. Rajah
Respecting Boundaries: The Symbolic and Material Concerns of Drug-Involved Women Employing Violence against Violent Male Partners
Br. J. Criminol., September 1, 2006; 46(5): 837 - 858.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]