Society & Culture - Posted by Stephen Rouse-Cardiff on Thursday, November 18, 2010 11:39 - 2 Comments 
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(3 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5) Loading ...Violent reality for girls in poverty
"There is already concern about the violence risk to young women. Our findings show that adverse economic conditions could make the problem even worse," says researcher Jonathan Shepherd. (Credit: iStockphoto)
CARDIFF U. (UK) — Girls who live in economically deprived neighborhoods are much more likely to encounter violence than their male counterparts.
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Researchers in the U.K. studied nearly 700 young people, aged 11 to 17, who attended casualty departments in South Wales with injuries from violence. The researchers matched the patients against the levels of deprivation in their home neighborhoods. Details are reported in the Emergency Medical Journal.
The team found that assault injury rates were uniformly higher in the most deprived areas and that the risk of injury increased more rapidly for girls than boys as material deprivation increased.
“The study clearly shows that poverty raises the risk of violence dramatically more for girls than boys. There’s no reason to believe this will not apply to all former industrial areas in the U.K.,” says Jonathan Shepherd, a professor at Cardiff University.
In one deprived area, girls faced a risk of violence six times greater than in more affluent wards. Boys in the same area were twice as likely to be injured than in more affluent areas. This means that the risk to girls was three times more sensitive to deprivation.
The results suggest violence prevention strategies need to focus more on local inequalities, especially to protect vulnerable adolescent girls.
“The facts linking deprived neighborhoods to violence are complex and include social cohesion, substance abuse, and family stress. It is not clear why the risk to girls should be so much more sensitive to deprivation but the reason may be linked to the different ways girls of different backgrounds resolve disputes,” says Shepherd.
“There is already concern about the violence risk to young women. Our findings show that adverse economic conditions could make the problem even worse. Injury prevention schemes need to be directed at children and adolescents in areas of highest deprivation to improve their life chances and well-being. Emergency department doctors responsible for treating the results of this violence have an important role to play in this, working with community safety partners and child protection agencies.”
More news from Cardiff University: www.cardiff.ac.uk/news/
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2 Comments
Sakeenah
It could also be that the social norms in impoverished neighborhoods differ from that of more affluent neighborhoods. It’s a whole different set of rules when you grow up in the ghetto. While the boys are free to play outdoors and learn the ways on the streets, the girls are given household responsibilities and expected to cook, clean and often care for the boys and younger siblings, if any are in the household. In impoverished neighborhoods it is also common for a single mom to be the head of household, leaving lots of work to be done at home and little time for nurturing individual children, increasing competition for parental affection. The misconception by these mothers are to let the boys do as they please, because they will later be responsible to financially support the household. Also, a common form of discipline used to direct these boys are spanking, criticism and comparisons to unsuccessful males (fathers), which encourage aggression and on an intellectual level, leave the boys feeling defeated. These boys are then aimless and often head to the streets to find ways to occupy their time, which continues the cycle of violence. Lastly, when the girls are seen as subordinates who need to follow orders in a culture where physical aggression is encouraged, then they are left vulnerable to violent masters. ‘Just Saying’
It appears that girls are considered to be more vunerable and the greater the stress of economic conditions the more likelyhood of violence to those less likely to be able to strike back.