Violent Female Juvenile Offenders

Historically, in the United States, females have accounted for a small portion of serious juvenile offenses and an even smaller portion of violent offenses. Although males continue to be the majority of offenders in serious juvenile crimes, the rate of female juvenile arrests for serious violent crimes increased about twice as much as the rate for males in the latter part of the 20th century. According to data from the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Uniform Crime Report (UCR), in 1970, the female juvenile arrest rate for violent index crimes (murder/nonnegligent manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery, and aggravated assault) was 19 per 100,000 versus 179 per 100,000 for males; in 1980, the rate had increased to 38 per 100,000 for females and 314 per 100,000 for males; ...