The Trouble with Girls Today: Professional Perspectives on Young Women’s Offending

Sharpe, Gilly

doi:10.1177/1473225409345103

Cited by 22 publications

(48 citation statements)

References 28 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…arrest and prosecution) (Horn and Wincup, 1995;Sharpe, 2009). There is insufficient evidence from the interviews to suggest that young women considered as violent were treated any harsher or leniently by police officers on the basis of their (the young women's) gender alone.…”

Section: Concluding Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Policing “uncontrollable banshees”: factors influencing arrest decision making

Young

2015

Safer Communities

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the factors that influence police officers’ decision making when dealing with young women considered violent. Design/methodology/approach – Semi-structured interviews were carried out with frontline police officers in Scotland on their experiences of responding to incidents where young women displayed violence. Findings – The police officers clearly distinguished encounters with women using violence from those with young men, portraying young women as irrational, unpredictable and uncontrollable. The research found that while gender alone was not a determining factor for arrest, police officers did stereotype young women according to gender norms and these norms could have a bearing on decision making. The findings show that police officers prefer to respond to situations with male perpetrators due to their own difficulties effectively communicating with young women, who are often under the influence of alcohol. Research limitations/implications – The research indicates that police officers, regardless of their gender, have difficulties handling violent incidents that involve young women. This provides scope for further analysis of police training to ascertain whether sufficient guidance is provided to fully equip police officers when faced with aggressive young women. This study focused on police officers’ own views and experiences but future research could consider a more ethnographic approach to observe police decision making in practice to determine whether the stereotypes portrayed were a true reflection of their experiences. Originality/value – This is one of only a very few studies that has explored the relation between gender and arrest decision making. It enhances the understanding of how young women come to be arrested and indicates how police officers are currently ill equipped to effectively respond to young women considered violent.

show abstract

Section: Concluding Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Policing “uncontrollable banshees”: factors influencing arrest decision making

Young

2015

Safer Communities

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…With regard to early-preventative measures, girls have continually been referred to the YISP for expressing welfare difficulties as opposed to displaying crime related problems (Sharpe, 2009). This suggests that girls' should be dealt with via mainstream provision rather than dealt with in the formal youth justice setting.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Essentially embracing a retributive ideology that purports to control the 'dangerous offender', early-preventative YISPs, have been criticised for 'targeting' and 'intervening', unnecessarily, in the life-course of young people thought to be 'pre-criminal' (Sharpe, 2009). YISPs target children and young people on the 'cusp' of entering the Youth Justice System, with a view to preventing the 'onset' of offending.…”

Section: Youth Inclusion and Support Panelsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…What's more, this early-preventative method of practice has had a detrimental impact on girls who are 'at risk' of criminal involvement and engaged in the YISP; in particular, most disturbingly resulting with professionals 'confusing "welfare needs" and criminogenic risk factors' (Sharpe, 2009:255) and "high need" [girls] becom [ing] "high risk" [girls]' (Worrall, 2001:89 (Worrall, 1999:32) More disturbingly, the treatment of girls who offend seems to comprise a double penalty: for girls' engaged in criminal activity or thought to be 'at risk' of criminal involvement are not only punished for committing the criminal act, 'they [are also punished] for the 'social' crime of contravening normative expectations of 'appropriate' female conduct …' (Hudson, 1989:206-207). Indeed girls' have been introduced into the formal youth justice sphere, primarily for concerns regarding behaviour that was deemed to be 'unladylike' (Gelsthorpe and Sharpe, 2006;Sharpe, 2009;Walker, et al, 2007), resulting in the perception of their behaviour as uncontrollable, wayward and unfeminine (Hudson, 1989). Schur (1984:3) captures some of this, and astutely details the implications for girls who are viewed in this negative way:…”

Section: Youth Justice Responses To Girlsmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Risk, prevention and early intervention: youth justice responses to girls

Creaney

2012

Safer Communities

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Justice AbstractPurpose:The purpose of the paper is to examine the discourses of risk, prevention and early intervention, with particular reference, the treatment of girls in the contemporary Youth Justice System. Design:The paper has two broad objectives: firstly, the paper reviews the literature on early intervention and youth crime prevention policy.Secondly, the paper focuses on youth justice practice in relation to girls who are engaged in youth justice processes or "at risk" of criminal involvement. Findings:The paper argues that: girls are drawn into the system for welfare rather than crime-related matters; and youth justice policy and practice seems to negate girls' gender-specific needs. Moreover, the paper highlights research evidence and practice-based experience, and contends that youth justice policy and practice must be re-developed in favour of incorporating gender-specific, child and young person centred practices. Value:2 The results presented in this article will be particularly pertinent to policy makers, educators and practitioners in the sphere of youth justice, especially since the contemporary youth justice system, in its rigorous, actuarial pursuance of risk management, fails to distinguish between "gender" within its formulaic assessment documentation.

show abstract

“…This involves recognising that the term 'woman' is at once real (in that it has real effects), but also denying that the category has any essential meaning (Carlen 2008). Deconstructing gender is central to feminist perspectives in criminology, from early feminist deconstruction of criminological discourses about women (Heidensohn 1968;Smart 1976Smart , 1977Naffine 1987), to contemporary research deconstructing how gendered, racist and heterosexist ideologies are employed by criminal justice agencies (Carlen 1983;Gelsthorpe 1989;Sharpe 2009;Chesney-Lind and Irwin 2008;Pasko 2010).…”

Section: Explaining Women's Lawbreakingmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Narrative Approach to Women’s Lawbreaking

Fleetwood

2015

Feminist Criminology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This paper argues for the value of narrative criminology for feminist explanations of women's lawbreaking. Contemporary theories note the significance of material gendered inequalities, however narrative offers a way to include discursive aspects of gender. Drawing on recent developments in narrative criminology, this article analyses how women may 'talk themselves into' lawbreaking. Analysis draws on interviews with three women with diverse experiences in the drug trade, and shows how drug trafficking was narrated as impossible, meaningful, and inevitable. A narrative approach therefore offers ways to understand how for some women, under some circumstances, lawbreaking may become meaningful. Narrative criminology offers ways to incorporate both material and discursive facets of gender into contemporary explanations of women's lawbreaking.

show abstract

The Trouble with Girls Today: Professional Perspectives on Young Women’s Offending

Cited by 22 publications

References 28 publications

Policing “uncontrollable banshees”: factors influencing arrest decision making

Policing “uncontrollable banshees”: factors influencing arrest decision making

Risk, prevention and early intervention: youth justice responses to girls

A Narrative Approach to Women’s Lawbreaking

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About