Girls read riot act
May 27, 2006
POPULAR fictional characters such as Harry Potter's Hermione could
be contributing to an increase in violence among girls, a leading
US expert says.
Girls have traditionally learned to suppress violent tendencies but
now get mixed messages about how they should behave, renowned US
psychologist Professor James Garbarino, who has advised the FBI,
said.
"We are seeing a general increase in normal aggression and an
increase in criminal violence," Professor Garbarino told The Daily
Telegraph.
"It used to be very rare for women to participate in armed robbery.
It used to be very rare to see female gang members behaving in a
violent way and that is more common now."
Earlier this year two 14-year-old girls from Liverpool were accused
of murdering taxi driver Youbert Hormozi.
And in London, 16-year-old Chelsea O'Mahoney was jailed for eight
years for her role in an orgy of violence by a gang known as "happy
slappers", responsible for attacks on eight people, including a
barman beaten to death.
Professor Garbarino told a parenting conference this week in
Adelaide that research dating back 40 years had proved a link
between child exposure to TV violence and increased physical
aggression. But while girls were initially found to be "immune" to
the "contagious" effect of TV
violence, researchers had seen a significant shift since the 1980s.
"That immunity had disappeared," he said.
Some studies had shown in some circumstances that girls now display
a greater tendency than boys to be aggressive, particularly when
they can do so in an anonymous way such as in a gang.
Professor Garbarino said children start life with a capacity for
aggression.
"Most kids unlearn aggression. In the past that process has worked
more effectively and more comprehensively for girls [than
boys]."
But the powerful message that girls don't hit has been compromised,
Professor Garbarino, author of See Jane Hit: Why Girls Are Growing
More Violent and What We Can Do About it, said.
He pointed to characters such as Hermione, who is the "perfect
daughter" but in the third Potter movie punches Harry's enemy
Malfoy.
"Afterwards she says 'Boy, that felt good' and she is cheered on by
her friends," Professor Garbarino told the Parenting Imperatives II
conference. "To tell a girl after seeing that movie that girls
don't hit is preposterous. Girls hit, it feels good and people
appreciate it -- that's the message."
Professor Garbarino said the "good news that more girls were active
in sport had produced side effects and unanticipated
consequences."
He said traditionally boys playing contact sports had been taught
how to be aggressive without crossing the line into violence. They
had been taught to then back off, shake hands and be friends. But
girls found this more difficult.
"I think it's mostly because girls have not had this taught to
them," Professor Garbarino said. - Daily Telegraph