Girls' crime

TrendSein does not see girls' crime as a stand-alone problem, but as a structurally underestimated and systemic issue within the youth, safety and care domain. Not because girls are suddenly becoming more criminal, but because the system sees them too late, too narrowly and too one-sidedly. Policy, interventions and safety approaches are often designed around boys and around visible, external behaviour. Girls, however, more often develop problematic and norm-transgressing behaviour under the radar: relational, social, digital and interwoven with dependency, trauma and loyalty. As a result, signals go unnoticed for longer and intervention is often only considered once the problems have already escalated.

For girls, becoming criminal is rarely a sudden tipping point, but a creeping, gradual process in which boundaries shift and behaviour becomes normalised within their own social context: norm-transgressing behaviour is slowly accepted as "necessary" or "normal", roles that start small become structural, the dividing line between victimhood and perpetration blurs, and crime becomes interwoven with relationships, identity and daily functioning. Because this process is relational and contextual, it eludes incident-focused approaches — anyone who looks only at isolated facts misses the pattern.

• Behaviour is relational: conflicts, loyalty, dependency within the family, a partner or a friendship group
• Internally regulated: emotional overload, coping through risk behaviour
• Strongly interwoven with identity development and self-image
• Supporting, facilitating or relational roles in criminal networks (starting small, becoming structural)
• Above-average likelihood of being a victim of violence, exploitation or structural unsafety herself
• Often only comes into view with repeated problem behaviour, an escalating home situation, visible relationships with criminal partners, or psychological breakdown — that is late, often too late

Why this is GEVAARLIJK (dangerous): the absence of targeted attention is not neutral — it increases the likelihood of progression towards more serious crime, of entanglement with exploitation and dependency relationships, and of long-term societal harm. Do not wait until the problems have escalated.

The blind spot lies not with the girls but in the system, and arises from four structural factors: (1) gender-neutral interventions that are in fact based on boys' behaviour; (2) fragmentation between care and safety; (3) insufficiently gender-sensitive identification — professionals do notice behaviour, but lack the framework to interpret it as part of a criminalising process; (4) societal expectations that cast girls as "self-reliant", "compliant" or solely "victim", so that both their agency and their responsibility are not taken seriously enough.

Do not measure girls' behaviour against the yardstick of boys — whoever does so will keep missing them. An effective approach requires a recalibration:

• From incident-focused to process-focused: not "what has she done?" but "what pattern is forming?"
• From gender-neutral to gender-sensitive: not treating girls differently, but learning to look differently at motives, context and dynamics
• From domain thinking to shared responsibility: girls' crime arises precisely at the fault lines between care, education, youth work and safety — fragmentation lets girls fall through the cracks
• From protecting or setting limits to protecting and setting limits: combine recognition of vulnerability with clear norm-setting; whoever sees girls solely as vulnerable denies both their agency and their risks

Because the behaviour is interwoven with exploitation, dependency and possibly acute unsafety, this signal should be discussed across domains. If you suspect exploitation, violence or a minor at acute risk: escalate to safety services/youth care; do not wait until the problems have escalated.

• What role does she fulfil within her group, relationship or family — and how free is that role really?
• What loyalties or dependencies make it hard to get out?
• Where do victimhood and perpetration overlap here?
• What pattern do I see over time, apart from the latest incident?
• Which domains (care, education, youth work, safety) each see a piece — and who connects the picture?

• TrendSein – Meidencriminaliteit: de structurele blinde vlek in jeugd en veiligheid (TrendSein signal, Trendsein - meidencriminaliteit.pdf)
• TrendSein – Meidencriminaliteit (LinkedIn carousel, 6 slides, Trendsein - meidencriminaliteit linkedin carrousel.md)