Using the following datasets, secondary analyses were conducted to take advantage of existing data related to girls’ delinquency:

• National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health) — A school-based study of the health-related behaviors of adolescents in grades 7 to 12 conducted by RTI and UNC. It is longitudinal, with adolescents interviewed for a second time at a 1-year interval and a third time at a 6-year interval. More information is available at the Add Health web site.



• Fast Track (FT) — A comprehensive 10-year intervention project designed to prevent serious antisocial behavior and related adolescent problems in three successive cohorts of children selected at being at high risk when entering first grade. The intervention is guided by a developmental theory positing the interaction of multiple influences on the development of antisocial behavior. More information is available at the Fast Track web site.



• Denver Youth Study (DYS) — A longitudinal study of urban youth, is one of three coordinated projects supported by OJJDP from 1986 to 1999 through its Program of Research on the Causes and Correlates of Delinquency (Causes and Correlates). The Denver study followed 1,527 boys and girls from high-risk neighborhoods in Denver who were 7, 9, 11, 13, and 15 years old in 1987. The primary goal of the study was to identify social conditions, personal characteristics, and developmental patterns linked to sustained involvement in delinquency and drug use.



• National Incident Based Reporting System (NIBRS) — Previous research has suggested that the rise in arrest rates for girls could be attributed not to increases in delinquent behavior but rather to policy changes and net-widening by law enforcement and police. To investigate the effect of mandatory arrest policies in more detail, data from the FBI’s National Incident Based Reporting System (NIBRS) from 2000 to 2005 were used to examine violent domestic conflicts involving females under age 18 as either the victim or offender. This included examining whether the likelihood of arrest for girls involved in a domestic conflict changed after implementation of mandatory arrest policies for domestic violence.



• Meta-analysis — A meta-analysis of previously conducted studies involving girls and delinquency was conducted to determine the relationship of sexual assault to subsequent female delinquency.