FACTORS RELATED TO FEMALE ADOLESCENT INITIATION INTO VIOLENT STREET CRIME

The present study is concerned with understanding when and how adolesc ent girls become involved in violent street crime. Specifically, the s tudy explores the correlates or explanatory factors of such offending among a sample of women arrested and/or incarcerated for violent stree t crimes in New York City. The findings of this study suggest that an adequate understanding of female offending must consider the impact of neighborhood, peer and addiction factors that affect both male and fe male participation in criminal violence. In addition, it appears as th ough different configurations of these factors contribute to the initi ation of violent offending depending on the age of onset. Early initia tion into violent crime was accompanied by participation in a wide var iety of other offending behaviors and deviant lifestyles. On the other hand, those women who experienced a later onset of violent offending did so within the context of a criminal career that, up to the point o f substance abuse, was more specialized and focused on typically nonvi olent gender congruent activities (eg., prostitution, shoplifting).