See Jane Hit: Why Girls Are Growing More Violent and What We Can Do About It

With Lost Boys, James Garbarino became our foremost explicator of violent behavior in boys. Now he turns his attention to its increasing incidence in girls. Twenty-five years ago, ten boys were arrested for assault for every one girl. Now that ratio is four-to-one and dropping. Combining clinical experience with incisive analyses of social trends, Garbarino traces the factors—many of them essentially positive—behind the epidemic: girls’ increased participation in sports and greater comfort with their physicality, but also their lack of training in handling aggression. See Jane Hit goes beyond diagnosing the problem to outline a clear-eyed, compassionate solution.