The Girls Study Group

This bulletin outlines a series of studies which describe the ways in which the Girls Study Group, sponsored by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, worked to better understand and respond to girls’ delinquency. With girls accounting for 30 percent of all juvenile arrests in 2004, the juvenile justice field was struggling to understand how best to respond to the needs of the girls entering the juvenile justice system. To determine the reason behind these increasing arrest rates, the U.S. Department of Justice, Office for Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) organized the Girls Study Group. The group sponsored a series of studies to obtain a better understanding of girls’ involvement in delinquency and guide the development, testing, and dissemination of strategies that would reduce incidents of delinquency and violence among girls. The six studies are outlined in this bulletin and include: Violence by Teenage Girls: Trends and Context; Causes and Correlates of Girls’ Delinquency; Resilient Girls-Factors that Protect Against Delinquency; Suitability of Assessment Instruments for Delinquent Girls; Girls’ Delinquency Programs-An Evidence-Based Review; and Developmental Sequences of Girls’ Delinquent Behavior.