Abstract
In Fighting for Girls: New Perspectives on Gender and Violence, Meda Chesney-Lind and Nikki Jones bring together 11 chapters that cover a broad range of issues related to girls, gender, and violence. One goal of the book is to unravel the myths that girls are more violent now than in the past and that they are violent because they are acting like boys. The editors take a feminist approach, one in which intersectionality and the voices of girls are central. According to Chesney-Lind and Jones, the book “challenges media images of girls’ violence that [rely] on both racialized and masculinized images to heighten racial stereotyping and gender trouble rather than exploring the empirical dimensions of the problem” (p. 8). Furthermore, they make an explicit call for a critical reassessment of the policies—criminal justice, school, and more—that shape who is ensnared in the criminal justice system, under what circumstances, and for what reasons.
The book is divided into three sections. The first addresses factual trends in girls’ violence and opens with a strong data-driven chapter by Mike Male. Male convincingly concludes that those who have claimed that there is an epidemic of increasing violence by girls have twisted the facts and helped foster and sensationalize this harmful illusion. This is one of the strongest chapters in the book and an excellent beginning. The middle and longest section focuses on the contexts within which girls are violent. These chapters focus on girls within the contexts of relationships, group homes and other penal facilities, schools, and more. Sibylle Artz and Diana Nicholson, for example, describe how schools may shield girls from some of the hostilities they encounter and better support them as they navigate the landmines in their lives. The final section offers some explanations for girls’ violence and discusses the implications of the myths about that violence. Nikki Jones’s chapter skillfully illustrates the importance of listening to girls’ voices and to analyzing their multiple social locations. The book ends with a compelling epilogue from Walter S. DeKeseredy, in which he emphasizes some of the larger points made by the authors about social control, inequalities, and the mission of feminist criminology to serve girls’ interests.
Among the strengths of the book are its range of perspectives and methods and its wide appeal. Practitioners, students, teachers, researchers, activists, parents and caregivers, school administrators, judges, law enforcement officials, media, legislators, and policy makers should read this book. In addition, this edited volume does far better than most in carefully and steadily applying an intersectional lens. One weakness is the uneven quality of the entries. Not all of the chapters offer a “new perspective” on gender and violence; some of this ground has been covered by these authors and others. Even so, it is useful to have all these arguments in one place. This collection is a valuable contribution to the discussion about girls’ violence.
At its heart, Fighting for Girls: New Perspectives on Gender and Violence demonstrates that the girls who are the central characters in the mythology about a new epidemic of violence are struggling to survive hostile settings shaped by racism, sexism, heterosexism, and profound economic disadvantage. Social and structural factors, such as gender, race, and class, as well as criminal justice and zero-tolerance policies, have combined to criminalize their survival strategies in treacherous environments. This book is a call for an end to the hype and a plea for an honest appraisal of the facts of girls’ violence. If we are to help girls survive, we must heed this call.