The main character in this film, Bella,
exhibits symptoms of serious
mental illness intermingled with depressive and obsessive tendencies.
A substantial body
of research indicates that regardless
of race and age, female offenders have higher rates
of mental health problems, both internalizing and externalizing, than male offenders.19 In a study
of serious «deep - end» offenders, females
exhibited both more externalizing problems and more internalizing problems than males.20 Moreover, a recent study using common measures and a demographically matched sample
of community and detained youth found that gender differences were greater among detained youth than among community youth, with detained girls having more
symptoms of mental illness than would be predicted on the basis
of gender or setting alone.21