Girls Target of Effort to End Violence

Her voice quivering and hands shaking, Rosie Padilla recounted how her heroin-addicted boyfriend beat her daily, leaving her body bruised and bloodied. Trapped in an abusive relationship in her Pico-Rivera neighborhood at the age of 15, Padilla told a group of Mission High School students Tuesday, she believed a life of violence was her fate.

“I wanted to get away from him. I did,” Rosie said. Then she paused and breaking into tears, the 20-year-old woman wept and said, “I couldn’t.”

Like more than 8,000 girls in the Los Angeles juvenile justice system, Rosie is part of a disturbing trend showing an increase in violent crimes committed by young girls.

To break the cycle of violence among girls, the Los Angeles Commission on the Status of Women announced plans Tuesday for a Young Women at Risk Violence Intervention Program. The effort, which was launched with a dating-violence awareness seminar Tuesday at Mission High School, includes dialogues and discussions with young girls on dating dangers, drug and alcohol abuse and pregnancy prevention.

The commission said studies show that many violent girls were themselves the victims of violence or sexual abuse as children.

Los Angeles juvenile justice officials say about 50% of girls in the system have been sexually abused. Nationwide, 92% of incarcerated girls reported being victims of some form of violence or abuse, according to the National Center for Juvenile Justice, the research arm of the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges.

At a news conference before the seminar, City Councilman Richard Alarcon said personal experience prompted him to support the program. Alarcon said he decided to take action after learning that his wife, Corina, was herself a victim of domestic violence before their marriage.

“Now, the same thing is happening to women at a younger age,” Alarcon said. “We need to understand it’s not normal to strike another person in a relationship.”

Paula Petrotta, executive director of the Commission on the Status of Women, said she found after interviewing girls in Los Angeles juvenile detention centers that most came from homes where violence was common. Other factors that led girls to crime included sexual abuse, school failure, drug and alcohol abuse and low self-esteem, she said.

Lack of sexual education is another characteristic of girls entering the juvenile justice system. Of the 8,000 detained in Los Angeles, 10%, or about 800 girls, were pregnant when admitted to juvenile hall.

“We also found that most of the programs and resources available were focused on boys, with few outlets for girls,” Petrotta said, such as mentoring and after-school programs.

Those interviews are part of a TV documentary on young girls and violence that commission members expect to be broadcast next month titled, “The Girl Next Door--Enraged and Deadly.”

Rosie Padilla remembers that feeling. At 14, she was arrested for carjacking and served a year in juvenile detention. When she was released, she became involved with the abusive boyfriend. When her boyfriend was jailed, Rosie left their home.

By sharing her experience, Rosie hopes to give other girls the strength to leave abusive relationships.

“I get nervous when I talk about it. Sometimes I can see him hitting me. But, if I can help get some girl out of it, I’ll do it. I’ll speak,” she said.