ABSTRACT
Offenses committed by girls have always made up a minor component of the overall rate of crime committed in the U.S. and in other countries. In fact, so negligible has been their criminality that until quite recently girls were almost invisible in juvenile justice. The study of girls’ criminality serves as a lens into how gender has shaped the lives of girls who come into contact with the law. Beginning with gendered laws that punished girls who violated expectations of proper conduct by, for example, running away from home because of ill-treatment or sexual abuse, the juvenile justice system created a framework of status offenses that empowered the court to control girls’ sexuality. In seeking the causes and identifying the circumstances of girls’ criminality, research into pathways and life course reveal that sexual and physical abuse have often been the determinants of the lives of girl offenders.
