Recent research regarding violence among juveniles has left important questions unanswered. One question involves the effect of gender. This paper reports the results of a study examining gender differences in violent behavior. The records of 136 juveniles (m = 71; f = 65) were reviewed to test the hypothesis that sexual abuse, low levels of family support, and low levels of support from friends would predict self-directed violence more effectively among females than among males. Logistic regression models correctly classified 71% of the girls and 76.06% of the boys. The model for girls identified 79.49% (9.59% improvement) of the non-mutilators and 57.69% (16.62% improvement) of the mutilators. The model for boys predicted non-mutilation with 100% accuracy (25% improvement), but did not correctly classify any mutilators (23.61% decrease in predictive capacity). The study supported the hypothesis and has important implications for social work practice. 2002 by The Haworth Press, Inc. All rights reserved.
