Delinquent Girls: Contexts, Relationships, and Adaptation

221 Pages·2012·3.58 MB·English

by  Jennifer Schwartz

Delinquent Girls
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Shari Miller Leslie D. Leve Patricia K. Kerig
● ●
Editors
Delinquent Girls
Contexts, Relationships, and Adaptation
Editors
Shari Miller Leslie D. Leve
RTI International Oregon Social Learning Center
Research Triangle Park Eugene, OR, USA
NC, USA [email protected]
[email protected]
Patricia K. Kerig
Department of Psychology
University of Utah
Salt Lake City, UT, USA
[email protected]
ISBN 978-1-4614-0414-9 e-ISBN 978-1-4614-0415-6
DOI 10.1007/978-1-4614-0415-6
Springer New York Dordrecht Heidelberg London
Library of Congress Control Number: 2011938476
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To John Coie for his guidance and support
over the years; and to Noah and Riley
for providing me with constant joy and
smiles, as well as a reminder of what is most
important – SM
To Patti Chamberlain, John Reid,
and the late Beverly Fagot, for guiding
me in translating research into practice – LL
To my students, who inspire me,
challenge me, and make it all worthwhile – PK
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Preface
You are coming into us who cannot withstand you
you are coming into us who never wanted to withstand you
you are taking parts of us into places never planned
you are going far away with pieces of our lives
it will be short, it will take all your breath
it will not be simple, it will become your will
From “Final Notations,” Adrienne Rich,
Atlas of the Diffi cult World (1991)
Girls who break rules, defy authority, and get in trouble with the law terrify, frustrate,
and confuse the adults in their lives: parents, teachers, and helping professionals
they may encounter. These girls fl agrantly violate our deeply held stereotypes of
girls as sweetness and light, and even feminists fi ght the tendency to be simultane-
ously repulsed and fascinated by girls involved with the legal system. Court-involved
girls not only break rules, but also engage in high rates of manipulative, rejecting
behaviors that vex and drive away even the most caring adults who might try to help
them. Adrienne Rich’s poem “Final Notations” is considered by many to be a medita-
tion on mothering, but it also captures well the way we cannot help but feel about
court-involved girls. These demanding girls take “parts of us into places never
planned,” and helping them takes massive determination.
Scholars struggle even with how to speak of these girls, sometimes referring to
them as delinquent, antisocial, “deep end girls,” court-involved, or adjudicated. The
phrase “delinquent girls” is perhaps the most succinct and it certainly compels our
attention, and thus I can well understand the choice of that term for the title of this
volume. Interestingly, most of the chapter authors seem to opt for the terms “adju-
dicated” or “court-involved” to describe these girls. I applaud this decision and
follow their lead. Although there is no doubt that girls can engage in bad behaviors,
adjudication or court involvement happens as a result not just of what the girls do,
but how adults decide to respond. The terms “antisocial” and “delinquent” suggest
that girls end up involved with the legal system because of characterological traits
vii
viii Preface
that are internal to the girl and highly resistant to change. The evidence presented in
this book clearly suggests otherwise. Girls’ delinquency has increased not due to
changes in girls’ behaviors, but to changes in policies, such as net-widening (Chap. 1 ),
and perhaps even as an unintended result of a focus on prevention and no-tolerance
policies (Chap. 11 ). Using the terms “court-involved” or “adjudicated” reminds us
that all we can be sure that these girls share is involvement with the legal system,
which results from adults’ choices, complicated policy decisions, and other forces
beyond the individual girl.
In this outstanding volume, leading scientists and policy makers marshal the
scientifi c evidence to help us move beyond the hype about increasing rates of girls’
delinquency. These chapters illuminate what these rates really refl ect, what factors
contribute to girls’ court involvement, and what can be done to help these girls. The
evidence commandeered in this book ranges from national arrest data examined by
criminologists to more traditional empirical investigations by child clinical psychol-
ogists to qualitative research guided by the voices of the girls themselves. This book
presents the state-of-the-art science to illuminate why and how girls become
involved with the legal system, and offers the best hope of helping these girls by
highlighting intervention approaches guided by research evidence.
One theme that weaves throughout this volume is the importance of relationships
for girls. Girls will have relationships, for better or worse, and this is no less true for
court-involved girls. Girls’ desperate need to belong, to have relationships, is also
their best hope of help. Evidence presented here suggests that just as things can go
horribly wrong for girls because of problems in relationships, good quality relation-
ships may be able to ameliorate their pain and reduce their problematic behavior.
Forming positive relationships against all odds may be the best chance of adjudicated
girls getting off of delinquent trajectories. These girls may be saved by the “ordinary
magic” of restoring an important adaptive system, supportive relationships with
parents and peers (Masten 2001). Restoring healthy relationships for girls who feel
so rejected and are so rejecting will be no mean feat, but it can be done, though it
will not be simple and it will take all our will.
Several chapters in this volume reveal that the problems of court-involved girls
develop and fl ourish in the contexts of relationships. Court-involved girls are more
likely to have experienced sexual abuse than court-involved boys (Chap. 8 ).
Adjudicated girls have highly confl ictual relationships with their mothers and their
court involvement sometimes begins with charges of assaulting their mothers (Chap. 3 ) .
Girls are more likely than boys are to be involved in assaults in their residences, and
involving family members (Chap. 4 ). Court-involved girls are also likely to have
few prosocial friends, which predict their likelihood of gang involvement (Chap. 5 ).
Adjudicated girls view relationships with other girls as dangerous and are drawn to
relationships with males, both romantic and non-romantic (Chap. 6 ), which may
raise their risks of antisocial behavior and young motherhood.
Perhaps as a result of their history of disturbed relationships, court-involved girls
are likely to have a variety of problems that stack the deck against their developing
the types of relationships they so badly need. These early negative relationships
make girls vulnerable to disturbed attachment schemas, emotional dysregulation,
and a deep sense of shame (Chap. 8 ). If a girl trusts no one, is overcome daily by
Preface ix
frustration and despair, and believes she is worthless, then forming and maintaining
decent relationships is a steep mountain to climb. These early, disturbed relation-
ships may also partially explain why such large numbers of adjudicated girls also
have other signifi cant mental health problems (see Chap. 7 ).
However, just as girls may become adjudicated because of deep failures in rela-
tionships, forming positive, supportive relationships with adults, peers, and romantic
partners may be their best hope of salvation. This volume includes two chapters that
describe effective programs for helping girls who engage in antisocial behavior, the
Stop Now and Plan Girls Connection Program (SNAP-GC, Chap. 10 ) and
Multidimensional Treatment Foster Care (MTFC, Chap. 9 ). The SNAP-GC program
was created to intervene with young aggressive girls and their mothers, and focuses
squarely on building relationship strengths (Chap. 10 ) . Mothers are taught discipline,
monitoring, modeling, and contingency, but also ways to bond with their daughters
to enhance the closeness of the relationship. Girls are provided help with emotion
regulation, and the intervention specifi cally targets likeability and skills in building
individual friendships with other girls. The SNAP-GC program seeks to provide
young girls who are already aggressive with the ordinary magic of positive relation-
ships, by building them one skill at a time.
The Multi-Dimensional Treatment Foster Care program (Chap. 9 ) seeks to provide
restorative, ameliorative relationships for older girls who are already in the justice
system, by providing them with foster parents carefully trained and well supported
by clinicians to help them deal with challenging behaviors. Placement in foster care
raises the risk for incarceration, especially for girls, and multiple placements are
even more harmful (Chap. 2) . The MFTC program offers girls with serious problems
a chance at a positive relationship with a family, specifi cally, a positive relationship
with a mother. Years ago I had the opportunity to spend some time with foster mothers
in the MFTC program and the clinicians who support them. I will never forget their
honesty about the girls’ struggles, creativity in devising solutions, strategic
approaches to decreasing the most diffi cult behaviors, and tenacity in persisting
with the most infuriating girls. These women found something to like in these girls,
and they clearly had hope for their future possibilities. These foster mothers and the
clinicians supporting them were formidable women, using all of their breath and all
of their will to give these most vexing girls a chance at positive relationships.
Regardless of what they have done or what has been done to them, court-involved
girls are worthy of and desperately need good relationships with caregivers who are
positive and supportive, female friends whom they can trust and turn to for compan-
ionship and support, and romantic partners with whom they can establish loving,
non-violent relationships. Sadly, as this book makes clear, girls who become
involved with the legal system are at great risk of having none of these and have
problems that make it diffi cult for them to build the relationships they so badly
need. Court-involved girls can be extremely provocative and resistant to help and it
is tempting to view them as broken beyond repair. This compelling volume offers an
alternative, by summarizing the best information about what leads girls to become
involved with the court system, and by marshalling the best science to guide preven-
tion and intervention programs.