The US Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) funds research on girls in the juvenile justice system. They are specifically looking at patterns of delinquency for girls, how they differ from boys, and risk and protective factors associated with girls’ delinquency. A series of short briefs have been released ; the two latest releases are on resiliency in girls (January 2009) and group violence among girls (June 2009).

The resiliency study found that the factor that most consistently predicted less delinquency was a girl’s perception that she had a caring adult in her life. Other factors studied include school success, school connectedness and religiosity. Risk factors studied included physical assault, sexual assault, poverty and neglect.

Here is the link to the most recent study: http://girlsstudygroup.rti.org/docs/OJJDP_GSG_Resilience_Bulletin.pdf

Here is the link to the girl’s study group website: http://girlsstudygroup.rti.org/