Meda Chesney-Lind & Nikki Jones (Eds.): Fighting for Girls: New Perspectives on Gender and Violence

Fighting for Girls: New Perspectives on Gender and Violence, an excellent new book edited by Meda Chesney-Lind and Nikki Jones, dares readers to question media representations of girls as increasingly violent. The editors offer readers empirical evidence that the moral panic resulting from this representation of girls is not only unjustified but also very harmful to the girls themselves, especially to girls of color who are more likely to live in highly policed urban areas. Throughout the book, the research discussed is informed by perspectives of feminist scholarship; these perspectives emphasize the importance of understanding how gender, class and race intersect to affect certain individuals unequally and how important it is for the voices of girls, especially disadvantaged girls, to be heard. The ten chapters which comprise the book present studies which clearly demonstrate that the supposed evidence of girls’ new-found aggression results not from actual increases in girls’ use of violence but from circumstances, including zero tolerance policies, which render girls more likely to be arrested for behaviors which would previously have gone unnoticed by the criminal justice system. Fighting For Girls provides ample evidence that current depictions of girls must be challenged; most importantly, Fighting For Girls supplies readers with the crucial information essential to taking up that formidable challenge. …