Arrest rates for assault are rising for girls but before we start an avalanche of talk shows about what's the matter with girls today, researchers from the University of Pennsylvania say we better look at the data first. They say girls' arrests for homicide, robbery, and rape/sexual assault have not been rising. And the evidence is that assaults by girls haven't been increasing either.

So what's going on? Maybe it isn't girls who have gone wild, but adults bent on punitive policies that redefine aggressive behaviors as assaults and put more girls under arrest for what used to be dealt with through detention and other means outside the justice system.

Juvenile crime has decreased every year for more than a decade--but you wouldn't know it because get-tough policies have pushed more and more girls AND boys into the justice system for lesser offenses.