• U.S.

The Gentler Sex?

3 minute read
Amanda Bower

Young men are still more likely than young women to get arrested, crash their cars or fight in school. But while men’s rates of risky behavior are falling, women’s are either holding level or rising–a sign, experts say, that male-oriented prevention and treatment programs need to change.

–By Amanda Bower

Drugs Today’s 15-year-old daughters are 15 times as likely to be using illegal drugs as their mothers were. Marijuana is far and away the most popular teen drug.

In a national survey, almost 10% of girls ages 12 to 17 said they had used illegal substances in the past month; by the time they’re in the 18-to-25 age bracket, it’s 16%. For most substances, boys and girls use at similar rates. But girls ages 12 to 17 are more likely to abuse psychotherapeutic drugs such as Valium. They are also more likely to have used inhalants–such as air freshener, glue, paint or cooking spray–in the past month. A total of 6.2 million American girls and women have risked brain damage and death by “huffing” these common household products to get high.

Dangerous driving Women’s fatal traffic accidents have increased 30% since 1982, compared with a decrease for men of 8%.

Although drivers ages 15 to 20 have dramatically reduced their alcohol-related fatal traffic accidents, the number of girls involved in other deadly crashes has increased since 1982 while it has fallen for boys. The likelihood that a 16-year-old girl will have an accident has increased almost 10% since 1990–and cars with two or more teens inside are twice as likely to crash as cars in which a teen is driving solo.

Smoking Almost 30% of high school senior girls smoked in the past month–an increase since 1992, when 26% said they lighted up.

Ten years ago, health officials thought they were winning the war on smoking. The proportion of high school senior girls who smoked had dropped from 40% in 1977 to 26% in 1992. But according to the Surgeon General, it rocketed back up to 35% in five years, undoing much of the progress that had been made. Now almost one-quarter of 10th-grade girls say they have smoked in the past 30 days.

Fighting One in ten high school girls was in at least one physical fight at school in the past year.

Boys still fight more than girls, but their rate of violence at school has fallen steadily since 1993, while that of girls has stayed virtually the same. Experts say the schools’ violence-prevention efforts have been male focused, concentrating on controlling boys’ impulsive behavior and bullying. Girls’ fights need a different approach to address their more emotional causes.

Violent crime Since 1991 the number of women arrested for aggravated assault has increased a staggering 46%, to 53,088 in 2000. The number of men arrested decreased 9.5%.

More than 2 million women–some 600,000 of them juveniles–commit a violent offense each year, and some three-quarters of their victims are women. Criminal-justice advocates say up to 85% of women convicted of violent crimes are victims themselves of physical and sexual abuse; 43% are drug addicts or alcoholics; 40% suffer from parental absence or neglect; and perhaps 1 in 10 has a mental-health problem.

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