Why Girls Fight: Female Youth Violence in the Inner City
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In low-income U.S. cities, street fights between teenage girls are common. They take place at school, on street corners, or in parks, when one girl provokes another to the point that she must either "step up" or be labeled a "punk." Typically, when girls engage in violence that is not strictly self-defense, they are labeled "delinquent," their actions taken as a sign of emotional pathology. Yet Cindy D. Ness demonstrates that in poor urban areas this kind of street fighting is seen as a normal part of girlhood and a necessary way to earn respect among peers; moreover, such fighting offers girls an avenue for attaining a sense of mastery and self-esteem in a social setting where legal opportunities for achievement are not otherwise easily available.While most existing work on girls' violence deals exclusively with gangs. Ness sheds new light on the everyday street fighting of urban girls, arguing that different cultural standards associated with race and class influence the relationship that girls have to physical aggression. VOYA It should come as no surprise that violence exists among youth in the inner city. But the reasons for it among minority girls have not been studied in depth until this new book, written by a practicing psychologist in New York City and John Jay College of the City University of New York. This is a scholarly book, clearly written for fellow sociologists and psychologists, in which a case is made for the heretofore undocumented reasons why girls maintain a fighting stance both in school and in the streets. Thus school personnel in inner-city schools and teenagers who are studying and researching violence in school will appreciate the methodical research the author has done to come to some surprising conclusions. For two years Ness followed girls in two sections of Philadelphia where fights among girls were common. She also rode in police cars to observe how the authorities perceived and acted upon these confrontations. Ness concludes that girls living in poverty without much hope of a future have low self-esteem and thus have a constant sense of actual or perceived threat. Their mothers and sisters encourage fighting behavior since fathers and brothers are often absent. The consequences of being arrested or seriously injuring another are not deterrents. Being provoked to fight by another girl will raise her self-esteem and gain respect from other girls and even boys. If a girl shirks the chance to fight she is called a "punk" (a nobody), which is the ultimate insult. The ten pages of references attest to the academically rigorous research that went into this ground-breaking book best suited for the professional library of a junior/high school. Reviewer: Peggy Fleming
Preface ix1 Introduction 12 The City of Philadelphia and Female Youth Violence 233 Girls' Violent Behavior as Viewed from the Streets 454 The Reasons Girls Give for Fighting 695 Mothers, Daughters, and the Double-Generation Dynamic 916 Culture and Neighborhood Institutions 1157 Conclusion 139Notes 157References 167Index 177About the Author 185
