Voices on Violence: Part I

The Victimization of Girls in Boston

Part I of the Voices on Violence report unveils the victimization of girls through dating violence, harassment in schools, and unsafe encounters in their neighborhoods.

The facts are this:

•  83% of middle and high school-age girls have reported experiencing sexual harassment in school
• 30% reported experiencing it “often” (American Association of University Women, 2000).
• In Massachusetts, 26% of girls report being bullied at school in the previous year (Massachusetts Department of Education, 2006).

Furthermore, girls frequently normalize abusive or harassing behavior:

• Nationally, only 40% of students reported that they would tell an adult at school if they were being harassed by another student, while one-quarter stated that they did not care about being harassed and would not consider it a big deal (American Association of University Women, 2000). 
• One in five high-school girls in Massachusetts will experience physical or sexual violence from an intimate partner (Finkelhor, Turner, Ormrod, Hamby, and Kracke, 2009).

Girls who are victims of intimate partner violence are significantly more likely to be involved in high-risk behaviors such as substance abuse, unhealthy weight control, suicidal behavior, and perpetration of violence (Silverman, Raj, Mucci, and Hathaway, 2001). Learning how to develop healthy relationships, including romantic ones, is a critical task for girls’ development during adolescence. Without guidance, girls have little basis for understanding when relationships become abusive. On the other hand, girls who are mentored by and can ask questions of an adult woman are more able to take control of their lives and avoid or leave violent relationships (Slater, Guthrie, and Boyd, 2001).

The girls interviewed for this report shared personal experiences that parallel the extant research on victimization. Girls spoke of threatening and harassing behavior from strangers in their neighborhoods, from peers, and from intimate partners. As characterized by the girls and youth workers interviewed:

• Sexual harassment is pervasive, not merely occasional, in girls’ lives.
• Sexual, physical, and verbal abuse in relationships is common, though both adults and girls sometimes dismiss it as “flirting” or an adolescent phase.
• Girls frequently normalize abusive or harassing behavior.

In focus groups, girls attested to the frequency of sexual harassment in their neighborhoods.  Many recalled being approached by adult men making sexual comments. When surveyed about whether anyone had made “sexual comments, jokes, or gestures” towards them in their community or on public transit, more than half of the girls responded “often” or “occasionally.” Ironically, the intimate nature of Boston’s neighborhoods can make girls feel unsafe or uncomfortable because they regularly see people that have made sexual advances towards them in the past. “Sometimes I feel like I’m getting stalked or something,” a 13 year-old girl from East Boston told us. 

Sexually harassing behaviors from peers, particularly from boys, is a common occurrence. For example, well over one-third of the girls in Girls’ LEAP Standard Programs in 2008-2009 reported that girls receive unwanted touches or comments from boys “very often”. At a Jamaica Plain organization, a youth worker commented that girls regularly tell her staff about being sexually harassed in school and occasionally ask for advice. Most of the girls in her program can identify what sexual harassment is, yet she sees a need for further education of girls and adults on concrete strategies for how to address it. 

Sexual harassment is also occurring online. A 13-year-old girl from East Boston talked about receiving online “friend requests” from strangers and noted that adult men frequently try to start online conversations with her. She feels that the messages she receives do not appear threatening, but they are always from males and were usually sexual, often commenting on her looks.  A girl from Dorchester said that she does not accept friend requests from people that she does not know.  However, she said that peers frequently harass each other online. She noted, for example, that “groups of people from my school will talk in chat rooms and sometimes there is fighting and name-calling.” 

A number of girls talked about controlling behaviors by dating partners. For example, girls talked about boyfriends who do not respect their girlfriends’ privacy.  They offered examples of the boyfriends’ behavior, including constant texting, checking the girlfriends’ phones and email accounts, and not letting girls spend time with other friends. One girl related that her cousin’s boyfriend follows the cousin or has friends follow her to keep her “in- check.”  Youth workers are also aware that girls find themselves in unhealthy relationships. “Those that I’ve talked with, they have a pretty good idea of what it means to be in a healthy relationship. Are they acting on it? Not necessarily,” stated a youth worker who advocates for more education on dating, healthy relationships, and violence prevention and intervention. On a similar note, approximately half of last year’s Girls’ LEAP participants responded on a written survey that girls are in unsafe dating relationships “sometimes” or “very often.” 

Girls respond to sexual and physical victimization in a variety of ways. Many normalize it or fail to recognize it. One 13 year-old related that she and a friend were approached by a man in East Boston who offered them a way to make money. At first they were interested because it is hard to find jobs at their age and they really wanted to earn money. As the man described the job, the girls became uncomfortable because it was clear that he wanted them to pose for pictures and participate in prostitution. When sharing the story in a focus group, the girl could identify that the incident made her uncomfortable, but she had not thought that it was serious. In another incident, a 14 year-old girl described an attempt by two men to pull her friend into a van after asking the girls for directions. The girl said, “It wasn’t a big deal.” Despite seeing this van in the neighborhood several times afterwards, she had never told an adult before sharing this story with the focus group. Perhaps the most disturbing aspect of these incidents is that the girls appeared to casually dismiss them and didn’t alert adults who might be able to effect community change or help the girls make sense of the incidents. Without meaningful input from adults and safe forums to examine these incidents, girls do not recognize that such behavior is intolerable

and dangerous.

Most girls stated that they would not seek out the help of an adult if they were being sexually harassed; rather, they would prefer to take matters “into their own hands”, dealing with the issue themselves or with help from peers. The girls could offer very few examples of receiving proactive guidance from adults.  Instead, several described the ways that adults normalize harassing behavior, for example, by downplaying or ignoring harassing behavior that they witness. These adult reactions do not motivate girls to ask adults for help. Instead, girls said they often react to harassment with physical aggression. A 12-year-old girl from the South End said, “If they are being disrespectful, I’ll smack them.” This idea was echoed by other girls. One girl related that a male peer was sexually harassing her; she summed up her response, stating, “I handled that. I hit him.”

A prevalent theme throughout the discussions of victimization was that many girls do not understand the ramifications of sexual harassment and violence. The girls generally did not receive guidance from adults or have forums for meaningful conversations about the harassment that they were experiencing. As a result, the girls themselves downplayed victimization and held up only two possible responses—ignoring it or lashing out with physical or verbal aggression.

Like many youth agencies, Girls’ LEAP is concerned about the violence Boston girls are experiencing every day.  It is a burden carried with them that impinges their freedom and constricts their healthy development. 

In an effort to educuate and motivate the community to increase the safety of all girls in Greater Boston, Girls' LEAP has gathered stories from girls in Boston and compiled them into a focus group based report, entitiled Voices on Violence, which illustrates the types of violence and harassment girls in Boston face.