Oakland author Nikki Jones knows all too well that the stakes are high for young African-American girls growing up in economically disadvantaged communities.

Often misunderstood, mischaracterized and marginalized by popular culture, many of these young African-American girls bear a heavy burden as they battle with deep poverty, concentrated violence and dysfunctional schools. Sometimes, these girls respond with their fists.

Jones, an assistant professor of sociology at University of California, Santa Barbara, documented the plight of these girls in her recently published book, “Between Good And Ghetto” – a close examination of black girls and inner-city violence.

"People don't like to think about girls and aggression," Jones said. “There’s this idea that girls fight with words and tears not fists and knives.”

The struggles are deep for these girls who must balance their identity with real world violence and gender expectations from the larger community.

Jones said in researching her book, she wanted to understand what conditions contribute to girls using violence and what happens to them as a result.

“While I was doing my research and talking to these girls living in pretty rough neighborhoods, I learned that there are very complex reasons as to why they sometimes resort to violence,” she said.

Although there is a plethora of research on urban violence, particularly as it relates to boys and men, people generally overlook the experiences of African-American girls, Jones said.

In some neighborhoods dealing with high crime and high stress, young girls learn early on that they must develop an aggressive stance.

“There’s a heightened anxiety about one’s personal safety in some of these neighborhoods,” Jones said. “The girls are putting up a tough front to deal what everything that’s going on around them. There’s a belief that you have to be a certain way in order to be safe.”

Jones said as a consequence, society often reacts harshly to girls who demonstrate aggression.

“They think these girls should be expelled or put into the juvenile court system,” she said.

In many cases, that overreaction is the wrong response, Jones said, adding she hopes her work will begin an important conversation about aggression and violence as it relates to African-American girls.

“As a society, we have to develop more empathy for these girls and begin to develop different, more sophisticated responses to their behavior,” she said.