Developmental Trajectories of Female Violence and Delinquency

Much criminological research has focused on male violence and delinquency, but females are increasingly involved in similar types of violent and delinquent behavior. While rates of violence have been decreasing over the past decade, there is evidence that rates of female violence have declined at a slower pace or, in some cases, increased. Thus, it is important to gain a better understanding of how violent behaviors develop and change over time in females to inform how best to time and tailor prevention strategies for this population. The current study will provide prevalence and descriptive results for the types of violent and delinquent behaviors perpetrated by females over time during the course of adolescence and young adulthood, a developmental period in which individuals demonstrate increased violent behavior. In addition, latent class models will be used to identify and characterize distinct patterns of violence and delinquency among females.

This study was conducted using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (AddHealth). AddHealth is a longitudinal study with a large nationally representative sample of adolescents. Females who completed all four waves of surveys (N=5,507) were included in analyses. Ten items were used to assess violence occurrence in the past 12 months (e.g., “hurt someone badly enough to need care from doctor.”) and delinquency (e.g., “stole something worth more than $50”). Wave 1 items assessed lifetime prevalence and waves 2-4 assessed prevalence in the past 12 months. The items were analyzed separately to assess prevalence at each wave, but were also used to create a cumulative index at each wave (range 0-30) and two 5-item sub-indices for each wave (violent and non-violent/delinquent).

The sample’s age at wave 1 was 15.48, wave 2 was 16.41, wave 3 was 21.84, and wave 4 was 28.34. A majority were White (74%) and Black (16%). Preliminary results will assess whether or not females follow specific developmental patterns of violent and delinquent behavior. In additional analyses using MPlus, we will fit longitudinal latent classes and report on each grouping to determine female violence and delinquency trajectories. We will discuss the developmental patterns of our findings and discuss implications for the timing and types of programs that hold the most promise for preventing female violent and delinquent behavior.