Committee Recommends Cancer Shots for Girls

An influential government advisory committee has recommended the routine vaccination of 11 and 12 year old girls against the sexually transmitted virus that causes cervical cancer.  The vaccine is approved for females ages 9 to 26. Health officials estimate than more than 50% of sexually active women and men will be infected with one or more kinds of HPV, human papilloma virus, in their lifetimes. Vaccine proponents say it could dramatically reduce than nearly 4,000 cervical cancer deaths that occur each year in the United States.

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The Downside of Girl Power

This article examines mounting reports of girl violence and aggression that can be attributed to a number of factors -- among them an increasingly violent culture, the causes of internal and external aggression in both girls and boys, and the role of the media. The article includes an interview with a psychiatrist who, with his wife, adopted children who were victims of physical and sexual abuse. Two of the girls navigated adolescence with little turmoil. The younger girl was a different story.

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Girl Scouts Meet in Prison With Their Fathers

The regular monthly meeting of Girl Scout Troop 884 takes place at the Allen Correctional Institution, a medium-security prison in northwestern Ohio. On Wednesday afternoons girls from six to 12 years old arrive for the two-hour meeting with their dads, most of them imprisoned for drug trafficking. The goal is to establish a relationship between parent and child. Parents learn how to lead by example, how to set goals and how to simply spend time with their children. The girls learn how to deal with the burden of having a parent in prison, how to respect themselves, and how to be a responsible kid.

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Muslim Girl Scouts

There are a growing number of Muslim Girl and Boy Scout troops across the nation. The Islamic Committee on Girl Scouting in Connecticut estimates almost 1,000 Muslim girls participate in scouting. The Boy Scouts have counted nearly 2,000 Muslim Boy Scouts in 104 units affiliated with mosques and Islamic schools.

Here is a short report from the Pluralism Project on the growing popularity of scouting among the country’s Muslim population: Muslim Boy Scout and Girl Scout Troops Grow in Popularity Nationwide.

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Alcohol and Gender Equality

Newsweek  reports that more young women are drinking to get drunk and are putting themselves at risk by trying to keep up with the boys in the quantity of alcohol they drink. The problem is that alcohol disproportionately affects females compared to their male counterparts:

• The impact of one drink on a girl is roughly equivalent to the impact of two drinks on a boy.
  
• Heavy female drinkers can experience serious health problems at an early age, including liver disease and gastrointestinal illness. Women are known to be at higher risk for developing liver inflammation and dying from alcohol-related cirrhosis than men.
  
• Federal research indicates that more teen girls than boys began using alcohol in 2004 and two-thirds of 9th grade girls say they have tried drinking at least once.
  
• Many girls get into trouble when they go away to college and are beyond the supervision of their parents for the first time. “Alcopops” marketed to a female audience add to the problem.

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Female Youths in U.S. More Likely than Males to Initiate Alcohol, Cigarette, or Marijuana Use in 2004

Girls ages 12 to 17 are more likely than their male counterparts to initiate alcohol, cigarettes, or marijuana use, according to data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health. The findings are of concern because rates of substance use among young girls already rival those of young boys.

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Teenage Girls Kept Quiet in the Face of Murder by Boys They Knew

Back in January, a surveillance video captured an early-morning attack on a homeless man by teen boys. Several teenage girls knew the boys who attacked three homeless men and knew what happened but did nothing about it. Experts say girls’ attraction to dangerous, even violent boys, and their ability to emotionally detach themselves from the boys’ crimes is typical of adolescence and symptomatic of modern teen life. 

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For Young Girls, A Class on Being a Friend

“Chicks and Cliques” is a course designed to curb the gossiping, rumor-spreading and snubbing endemic among girls. The creator of the class teaches10 and 11 year olds how to choose good friends, how to roll with it when their best friend saves a place for someone else in line, and how to think critically about what popularity means.

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Teen Girls Have Surpassed Boys in Smoking and Prescription Drug Abuse

The 2004 National Survey on Drug Use and Health has found that in the past two years more young women than men started using marijuana, alcohol and cigarettes. This finding runs counter to a trend indicating an overall decline in teenage drug use. It is disturbing because young women appear to suffer more serious health consequences: a higher risk of depression, addiction and stunted growth. They are also more likely to contract a sexually transmitted disease or become pregnant.

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Detention Reform and Girls – Challenges and Solutions

The Annie E. Casey Foundation has just released its latest volume of Pathways to Detention Reform. Volume 13 includes chapters on girls’ needs, systemic issues, promising practices and gender-responsive programs, and more. Downloadable 84 page pdf file.

++++++++++About Girls

Girl Trouble

This film follows four years in the lives of three San Francisco girls battling poverty, drug addiction and abuse. Also available as a video.

Girls and Gangs

Mother Jones magazine interviews Meda Chesney-Lind, an expert on girls and delinquency, about females and gangs. The interview dispels commonly held beliefs about girls and their gang relationships.

++++++++++    TVbyGIRLS

TVbyGIRLS is an organization designed to encourage girls to become leaders and critical thinkers who inspire social change. Members convey their message through media, including short films. Among the films made thus far is a short film about the hijab scarf worn by Muslim women.

Click here to visit the TVbyGIRLS website. You can view the films made by the girls here.

++++++++++Another Girls Court: PEG

In response to my request for information on girls courts in the country, Judge John Romero sent me information on the Program for the Empowerment of Girls in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The program is for girls who have a history of violence as a victim, a witness or as an offender. The link above will take you to a brief description of the program. If you’d like to know more, let me know. Judge Romero also sent me brochures for the PEG program with more information and I’ll be pleased to share them with you.

SNAP – The boys’ version. SNAP stands for Say No to Abusing Power. It also intervenes in domestic violence issues and/or violent behavior outside the family. I also have a brochure for SNAP.

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First Girls Court in the NationI think. I’ve been checking around and so far can’t find another. If you know of another Girls Court, please tell me about it.

This new court is in Hawai’i. It was launched in September 2004 on O’ahu by the Hawai’i Family Court as a pilot project. Services provided to the girls currently enrolled in the Girls court include alternative education and vocational training, seminars on pregnancy prevention, domestic violence prevention and intervention, healing from trauma, escaping sexual exploitation, and substance abuse treatment. Family members are required to participate in classes and group activities.

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Florida Institute for Girls Closes Five Years After It Opened

At one time nearly 100 girls lived behind barbed wire and clanging doors at the maximum security prison. Juvenile justice officials now believe that large, prison-like warehouses don’t work with girls.  The state will probably spread out high risk girls among a number of facilities rather than concentrating them at one site. The Florida Institute for Girls was supposed to get the toughest girls in the state – those charged with crimes such as manslaughter, carjacking and rape, but some of the girls sent there were not hardened or violent offenders.

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Web Sites for Teens

Dating Violence: ReachoutNH.com and Break-the-Cycle.org

Girls: GirlsAllowed.org

All three are very good web sites, but I am particularly enthusiastic about Girls Allowed. Some really original thinking and solid research went into the development of this web site.

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How to Defuse Girl ViolenceAdvice to parents on how to make their daughters smarter and safer at school .A list of practical tips and ways to act that will help young girls avoid violence.

++++++++++Violence Rises among Teen Girls

The Boston Globe reports on incidents of violence among girls in Boston.

• The number of girls arraigned in Dorchester District Court for violent crimes increased from 120 in 2000 to 196 in 2004.
• During the same period, the number of girls arraigned for all crimes rose from 197 to 320.
• The number of girls in the custody of the state Department of Youth Services increased from 169 in January 1995 to 442 on May 1, 2005.
• As of April 30, 54% of the girls in DYS custody awaiting trial were facing charges for violent crime.

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Helping Girls Bloom

The Blossom Program for Girls is housed in the First African Methodist Zion Church in Brooklyn. It was created by Isis Sapp-Grant, A former teen gang member who, with the help of two dedicated teachers and a supportive policeman, graduated from high school, went on to college, and earned a master’s degree in social work. She founded the Blossom Program five year ago. The program reaches out to girls between 13 and 21, accepting all comers except those with a pattern of felonious activity or serious mental illnesses.

Sapp says that disadvantaged girls are drawn to gangs, prostitution, and even lock-up facilities, because they think these situations will offer them refuge from their environment. She offers on-site programs on sex and sexuality, social skills and self respect, non-violent conflict resolution, anger management, goal setting and planning.

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Girls Are at Greater Risk in the Justice System

According to studies out of Ohio State University in Columbus, girls are actually at higher risk than boys because the problems girls face are very different from those confronting males. Stephen Gavazzi, professor human development and family science at Ohio State, and his colleagues, have been following 305 juveniles detained by authorities in a study to be published in the Criminal Justice and Behavior Journal.

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Mean Girls Start in Preschool

A new study from Brigham Young University shows that relational aggression – harming others through purposeful manipulation and damage to relationship – may be associated with social prominence as early as 4 and 5 years of age. Research indicates this is the preferred type of aggression among girls. These preschool “Queen Bees” are controversial children who receive both “like” and “dislike nominations” from their peers. They are children with a strong social impact and demonstrate an active mix of positive and negative behavior.

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