The Relationship Between Developmental Trajectories Of Girls’ Offending And Police Charges: Results From The Pittsburgh Girls Study

Abstract

The current study is based on longitudinal self-reported data from the Pittsburgh Girls Study (N = 2,450). This is the largest follow-up delinquency study of girls in the USA; an inner-city population of girls, between the ages of 11 and 18. We first investigated self-reported developmental trajectories for delinquency, and we then examined the correspondence between these self-reported delinquency trajectories and later police charges. The results show three self-reported delinquency trajectories for the PGS participants: non-offenders, low-rate offenders, and high-rate offenders. Further, the high-rate offenders also differed in kind in addition to in degree as they were more versatile offenders demonstrating notable involvement in both property and violent offending relative to the low-rate offenders. Additional analyses revealed that these self-reported trajectories were significantly associated with the frequency and the odds of official offending according to police charges during this same time period (i.e., ages 11–18). Study limitations and implications for future trajectory-based research with female samples are discussed.