Girls' troubles, girls' delinquency, and gender responsive programming: a review.

• Jurisdiction: Australia
• Date: 01 April 2008
• Author: Chesney-Lind, Meda,Morash, Merry,Stevens, Tia
• Published date: 01 April 2008
• Author: Chesney-Lind, Meda

This article begins with a consideration of the interconnected troubles and needs that research has documented for girls who become enmeshed in the juvenile justice system. Special attention is given to findings from research that gives girls in the system some 'voice' in explaining what services and programs they need and want. After offering some explanation of the gap in programs and services for girls, the article notes the failure of evaluation results to shed light on effective program models, and thus the importance of available documentation on programs as a guide for developing effective, gender responsive programs for girls. Available documentation is analysed, with particular attention to the fit of girls' assessed and expressed needs to the descriptive material on programs.

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Female delinquents, once dubbed the 'forgotten few' in juvenile justice (Bergsmann, 1989), are now entering that system in increasing numbers. Girls accounted for nearly a third (30.5%) of juvenile arrests in 2004 (FBI, 2005, p. 285). Two decades earlier, girls accounted for only about one fifth of juvenile arrests (Sam, 1987, p. 181). This represents a 42.5% increase in girls' share of juvenile arrests.

Parallel increases have also being seen in girls' referrals to the nation's juvenile courts. Between 1985 and 2002, the number of girls coming into the US juvenile courts increased by 92%, compared to a 29% increase for males (Snyder & Sickmund, 2006). The increase is partly a function of girls being arrested and referred to court for nontraditional offences. 'For females, the largest 1985-2002 increase was in person offence cases (202%)'. Referrals of girls for 'simple assault' increased by 238%, and female referrals for 'other person offences' increased by 322% (the comparable male increases were 152% and 111%) (Snyder & Sickmund, 2006, p. 160). Gendered shifts were also seen for drug offences (171% among girls versus a 156% increase in boys' referrals) and property crimes; the male property caseload decreased 19% and the female property caseload increased 27%. Given these increases, one might expect a parallel growth in programs to prevent girls from breaking the law in the first place, to divert them from penetration deep into the juvenile justice system and to respond to their needs and the causes of their illegal behaviour.

The increased use of detention, however, signals the lack of appropriate alternatives either before youths are adjudicated, or after adjudication while they wait for community placements. In a pattern that threatens to undo decades of 'de-institutionalisation' efforts, between 1991 and 2003, girls' detentions rose by 98%, compared to a 29% expansion in boys' detentions. In addition to a distinctly gendered pattern in these increases, there are clear race-based differences. For example, a study conducted by the American Bar Association and the National Bar Association (2001) revealed, although White girls made up a clear majority (65%) of the at-risk population (ABA & NBA, 2001, p. 20), nearly half of girls in secure detention in the US were African American.

Further signalling the lack of needed programs for prevention and community responses, girls' commitments to facilities increased by an alarming 88% between 1991 and 2003, while boys' commitments increased by only 23%. As a result, girls were 15% of youth 'committed' to residential placements in 2003, up from 13% in 1991 (Synder & Sickmund, 2006, p. 208). Moreover, while girls can be 'committed' to a variety of what are called 'residential placements', the largest share end up in 'long term secure' facilities or training schools (Synder & Sickmund, 2006, p. 210).

These trends show the urgency of a focus on girls' needs in the development of new delinquency prevention and intervention programs. Consistent with the philosophy of the juvenile courts, community-based programming would address the causes of illegal behaviour and meet needs that are more general, but that are relevant to promoting positive adolescent development and a successful transition to adulthood. Research describing girls who are entangled in the juvenile justice system provides an understanding of the situations and issues that girls' programs should address. Such a focus is particularly necessary in girls' programming, since girls have long been the recipients of what Ruth Wells described as 'throwaway services for throwaway girls' (Wells, 1994, p. 4).

Interconnected Troubles

Information on the characteristics of girls in the juvenile justice system is imperfect, at best. There has been no investment in developing a full national profile, but there is a growing body of more localised studies of girls at various points in the systems that process and house female delinquents (Acoca & Dedel, 1998; Holsinger, Belknap, & Sutherland, 1999; Lederman, Dakof, Larrea, & Li, 2004; Pasko, 2006; Tyler, Hoyt, Whitbeck, & Cauce, 2001). Certain crucial themes emerge from this research.

As a start, girls' official delinquency differs from boys' in that it is less 'chronic' and less often 'serious'. An in-depth study of one large, urban court system showed that 73% of females (compared to 54% of males) who enter the juvenile justice system never return on a new referral (Synder & Sickmund, 1999, p. 80). That same study noted that, of the youth who came to court for delinquency offences, only 3% of females had committed a violent offence by the age of 18, compared to 10% of the boys; likewise, only 5.5% of girls (versus 18.8% of boys) had more than four referrals to court (Synder & Sickmund, 1999, p. 81). The fact that they are less serious delinquents than their male counterparts does not mean that girls have few needs; indeed a close review of their situations reveals a pattern of interconnected troubles that indicate the highly negative contexts and experiences that produce their delinquency.

Trauma

Girls in the juvenile justice system have experienced considerable trauma (Belknap & Holsinger, 1998; Chesney-Lind and Shelden, 2004). The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP, 1996) reports that nationally, 35% of girls in the system have histories of sexual abuse and 40% report exposure to domestic violence. Interviews and reviews of detailed case records yield fuller descriptions of the nature and extent of trauma. For instance, over 11% of California juvenile justice system girls had experienced, and in some cases witnessed, the death of one or both parents, for example due to HIV, suicide, gang assaults or drug overdose (Acoca & Dedel, 1998). Most girls at least temporarily lost relatives, siblings or boyfriends to incarceration. Also, 92% of the girls had been abused by physical beating, forced vaginal sex or sodomy. One in four girls was made a ward of the court because of parental or caretaker neglect. A case file review of girls in Hawaii arrested during 2004 revealed a similar pattern of trauma. Over half (58%) of the girls were witness to domestic violence, 38% had official records indicating they had been sexually abused, 35% had been found to be neglected and 50% had official records indicating physical abuse (Pasko, 2006).

Abuse often results in running away, which often brings new forms of abuse and trauma. Estimates of the proportion of runaway girls who were abused range from 30 to nearly 75% (McCormack, Janus, & Burgess, 1986; Tyler, Hoyt, Whitbeck, & Cause, 2001, p. 161). Youths abused at a young age run early, spend more time on the streets and use deviant strategies, including drug involvement, trading sex and affiliating with deviant peers, to survive (Chen, Tyler, Whitbeck, & Hoyt, 2004). On the street, victimisation by a 'friend or acquaintance' is common (Tyler et al., 2001). Early sexual victimisation followed by running away, then, leads to a pattern called, 'risk amplification' (Chen, Tyler, Whitbeck, & Hoyt, 2004, p. 1).

Destructive and Distraught Families

Girls in the juvenile justice system lack permanent and supportive families. Interviews with girls in the California juvenile justice system in the late 1990s revealed that over half of the girls (59%) felt that their relationship with parents--not substance abuse, school problems and boyfriends--was the primary influence on their breaking the law (Acoca & Dedel, 1998, p. 43). Instability in family situations involved moving back and forth between different relatives and child welfare and juvenile justice system 'placements' during childhood and early teen years. Placements and other moves were often precipitated by young teenage girls' running away from disturbing parental conflict, 'ranging from chronic verbal disagreements and fighting to violent confrontations including murders of mothers by fathers' (p. 44). A study of girls in California, Colorado and Massachusetts between 1994 and 2005 also showed that girls in trouble had families characterised by 'divorce, overwork, substance dependence, incarceration, mental illness, ill health, homelessness, and death' (Schaffner, 2006, p. 87). Schaffner (2006) described the families as 'empty', because their members were 'worn down, fighting their own battles, with little access to social, cultural, and economic capital, and simply unable to provide the protection and guidance their daughters need' (p. 87). Family members' own battles included 'no income, no furniture, no food, involvement in the criminal and juvenile justice systems, alcohol and substance use, undiagnosed mental illness' (p. 87).

Girls without a protective family are vulnerable to other troubles. They have high incidence of being raped or wounded (Acoca & Dedel, 1998, p. 44). Acoca and Dedel (1998) discovered that all but one girl in their California sample who reported more than six types of emotional abuse were involved with gangs, which girls described as extensions or replacements for their families, as providing protection from harm typically...