Female Young Offenders

Female Young Offenders

In the last few years people have been getting more and more concerned about female young offenders. In the news and on the streets people are saying that the number of female young offenders is growing, and becoming more violent. Is this is actually true? Or is it just that the media is more likely to broadcast young female offenders rather and male. Maybe it's neither, or it could be some of both. Here you are going to find if the number of female young offenders has gone up, down, or maybe even stayed the same as in recent years. It also shows if female young offenders are getting more violent, and maybe more violent at a younger age. Also, which regions are most dangerous as a result of female young offenders. The last topic I'm going to discuss is young girls bullying other girls. Is it really that big of an issue? Or is the media once again just making things seem a much bigger deal than it really is.

Are female young offenders just as violent as male young offenders? According to news reports they can be. This is also true, of course female young offenders can commit the same crime that's just as violent and the male young offender. The only difference here is the amount of crimes committed by female and male young offenders. Females are a lot more like to commit these crimes if they have been in an abusive family, been sexually assaulted, or have had trouble in school. Most of them are heavily involved with drug and alcohol also. Another big difference between male and female young offenders is age. Criminal activity by girls and young women tend to begin and end at a younger age than males (Reitsma-Street, 1993, pg. 440). According to the 1996/1997 Youth Court Survey Ð''a mean age of 15 has remained stable from 1991/92 to 1996/97. So the age where females are doing most of the law-breaking is 15, while the age for males breaking the law is highest at 17. In a 1997 study it showed that for the twelve and thirteen age group, 22 percent were female, and 15 percent were male, and between the ages of fourteen and fifteen, 43 percent were female and 36 percent were males. After the age of 15 the number of males accused of crimes was drastically higher, while for females it was the opposite.

So the question as to whether or not female young offenders are just as bad as male young offenders still remains. Since females are doing most of the law breaking before 16 what kind of crimes are they committing? Are they murders, or murder related crimes? No, not really. Although these are very serious offences, the percent

committed by females is only 3. Out of all murders committed by female and male young offenders between 1961, and 1997, 89 percent were committed by males while only 11 percent were committed by females. (Meloff & Silverman). In a Statistics Canada survey, only 3 out of 36 youths charged for homicide were female. On the other hand, female assault crimes account for almost 20 percent of all female youth crime (Corrado et al., 2000, pg. 197). Murder and murder related crimes are happening a lot less frequent that other crimes committed by female young offenders. This results in very few females being transferred in adult court. Between 1991/92 and 1996/97 there were only 20 females that had been transferred. Property crimes, Ð''other', crimes of violence, and drugs, these are the four categories that were designed by the Uniform Crime Report to see how many females were charged with what crimes throughout 1992 to 1997. By far the most common criminal act was property crimes. In 1992 17,051 females were charged, this seemed to drop every year except for 1995 when it slightly increased. The next act following property crimes was Ð''other'. This refers to other Federal Statutes and Other Crime. This only seemed to drop the first couple years, and then from 1995 to 1997 it increased. The difference is 6,199 female youth charged in 1992 and 7,450 charged in 1997. After Ð''other' comes crimes of violence. The only year it dropped slightly was in 1994. Now, the last crime being committed was Ð''drugs'. Now this refers to Narcotics Control Act, and Food and Drugs Act. In 1992 only 448 females were charged, which then increased the next couple of years until it decreased in 1995 to 582, then it continually rose and in 1997 the number was 693.

Now, where are the majority of these crimes happening? According to the Uniform Crime Report, Ontario is the answer to that question. This could be due to the fact that this is where there is the greatest population of female youth aged 12-17 years (Statistics Canada). Here is the order in which the number of crimes are happening in the regions going from most to least ; Ontario, prairie provinces, pacific, Quebec, and the Atlantic region. Every region seemed to vary though as to whether they increased or decreased in crimes each year. Even

though Ontario is where most of the crimes were being committed, statistics show that the numbers dropped every year except for in 1995 when it increased slightly and then started decreasing. In 1992 there were 11,701

females charged for their offences and in 1997 this number had dropped to 10,589. Now, while the numbers in Ontario were dropping, the Atlantic region was increasing. It started off with 1,741 crimes in 1992 which then increased every year except 1995, and then in 1997 the crime rate was at 2,002. All the other regions seemed to vary slightly from year to year.

It is now time to determine whether or not young female offenders are starting at a younger age. People seem to think that they are. By studying statistics, and charts, it seems that overall they are not. The average age of committing crimes is 15 and this has remained stable from 1991 to 1997. In the Atlantic Region the greatest number of crimes were being committed by 15 year olds throughout 1994-1997, which then changed to 16 year olds. For the Quebec Region, the greatest number of female youth processed throughout court were also 15 year olds, but the number of 17 year olds being processed through youth court increased greatly in 1993. Throughout the years 15 was the age of most of young female offenders in the Ontario Region also. The same goes for the Prairie Region, except for in 1993/1994 when that age went up to 16. Now for the Pacific Region, this is the only region that the age decreased to 14, but it was also only for one year. So as you can see, the female offenders are not getting younger and younger, they seem to be staying the same.

One huge issue that his been all over the news, and seems to be getting to be more serious is bullying. It was thought that bullying was just for boys and they