Why are girls turning violent?

Girl-on-girl fighting in Wairarapa secondary schools shows the country needs to urgently address schoolyard violence and bullying, a crime researcher says.
Half of all fights in secondary schools reported to police in the past five years involved girls punching, kicking or pulling the hair of other girls, according to data obtained by the Times-Age under the Official Information Act.
Although there have been no incidents referred to police since the beginning of 2009, Masterton police Senior Sergeant Murray Johnston said many incidents went unreported. ''We believe that a lot of incidents that schools deal with are in-house that we don't hear about,'' he said.
Wairarapa College principal Mike Schwass was not surprised by the figures and said incidents of girls fighting had probably increased over the past five years.
He said fighting in schools was not necessarily down to students within the school. This week he called police when two outside students refused to leave the school grounds at lunchtime.
Tom Hullena, principal of Makoura College, said that after 30 years as principal there was nothing new about girls fighting.
''To tell you the truth, I can't really compare whether there has been a rise in Makoura or other schools I have taught at. I don't think it's unusual for girls to fight but I think the challenge for me, and all schools, is to solve the conflict for girls in functional ways rather than dysfunctional ways.''
Bullying was prevalent across all classes but for some groups it was more natural to solve differences with a fight, he said.
''I have known situations where girls have fought, certainly when I was growing up there were situations of girls beating other girls.''
Michael Roguski, director of the crime and justice research centre at Victoria University, said the incidents highlighted the country's horrific record on bullying.
''This is just another indication that you have to do something about violence and bullying in New Zealand.''
While physical violence had historically been more male territory, bullying had always been a problem and it manifested itself in different ways.
He could only speculate on why more girls were fighting but suggested it could be ''gender convergence'', when girls mimicked masculine roles. ''Gender convergence is the idea that young women are saying if it's okay for a young male to binge drink then I'm going to do it too.''
Mr Roguski said while there were several programmes to address bullying in New Zealand _ ''many of them underfunded'' _ the underlying issues affecting families had to be addressed.
''I think families are in distress, part of it is economic stress, the role of problem gambling and pokie machines, so what we see in young people is the trickle-down of stress to the family unit.''
Mr Hullena said Makoura College dealt with student bullying or fights with restorative justice conferences.
While some might not see it as a ''hardline'' response, he said it worked. ''If done well it can really make a difference. I have seen young, tough, 14-year-old boys burst into tears and tell their mothers they love them for the first time in five years.''