A fatal stabbing in Brooklyn during a fight over a ball between two pre-teen girls is part of a trend, reports Newsweek. The incident serves as a reminder that some children have the same brutal instincts as adults. But for experts on youth crime, the killing was another instance of what they view as a burgeoning national crisis: the significant rise in violent behavior among girls.
According to the FBI’s Uniform Crime Report, the number of girls 10 to 17 arrested for aggravated assault has doubled over the last 20 years. The number of boys arrested for weapons possession rose 22 percent between 1983 and 2003, while the number of girls increased by a whopping 125 percent. Today, one in three juveniles arrested for violent crimes is female. “Girls are not what people think they are,” says Dr. Howard Spivak, director of Tufts University Center for Children and coauthor of a new book, “Sugar and Spice and No Longer Nice: How We Can Stop Girls’ Violence.” “The change in girls’ behavior is overwhelming.”