Seeking to better understand the processes that push teenage girls to acts of criminal violence, Judith Ryder explores the relationship between childhood victimization and adolescent delinquency.

Ryder draws on intimate interviews to show how teenage girls navigate experiences of physical abuse, emotional loss, and parental abandonment, revealing how their violent acts become a means of connecting with others-however maladaptive and misplaced those connections may be. Her work suggests viable strategies for early interventions to keep at-risk young women out of the criminal justice system.