The violence that permeates the social milieu of adolescents has both overlapping and divergent effects on male and female youth. Girls are subject to certain constraints and risk factors that distinguish their experience of violence in important ways from the way boys in the same neighborhoods experience violence. Also, girls of color, especially those born into economically and politically marginalized families, experience violence in ways that are distinct from ways that white girls experience violence. The chapter explores how the etiology and experience of violence are differentially expressed in the lives of adolescent females and argues that factors that place females at risk for those divergent outcomes must be considered in efforts at prevention, intervention, and social policy formation. The article discusses theories of female criminality, trends in girls' violence and aggression, a psychological perspective on aggression and violence, violence and girls' delinquency, aggressive behavior, crime and girls' participation in youth gangs, growing up with violence, and gang membership and risk. Notes, tables, references