Girls’ Juvenile Justice Involvement
Girls’ Juvenile Justice Involvement
By Juliann Nicolson
Over the last several decades a pipeline has clearly developed in the United States, connecting girls’ experiences with trauma to their juvenile justice involvement. At the core of this problem is American girls’ widespread exposure to physical, emotional and sexual abuse, which sets them up for an array of negative outcomes throughout childhood, adolescence and adulthood. A growing body of research has shown that trauma experiences among justice-involved girls are nearly universal (Rousseau, 2018). A 2014 Department of Justice study found that among girls who were confined nearly one third had been sexually abused and 45% had experienced complex trauma, as measured by five or more adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) (Baglivio et al., 2014). In particular, sexual abuse has been shown to be one of the strongest predictors of girls’ involvement with the juvenile justice system (Marston et al., 2012), as well as a leading predictor of reentry into the system (Conrad et al., 2014). This is unsurprising in light of research that has shown the profound negative effects of sexual abuse on girls, from cognitive deficits and mental illness to abnormal stress hormone responses (Van der Kolk, 2014).
While the prevalence of trauma histories among girls involved in juvenile justice is increasingly understood, there is still ambiguity around the question of why the proportion of girls involved in juvenile justice is growing. As the National Center for Juvenile Justice points out (2014), the rising proportion of girls’ arrests is either due to changes in the “volume and nature of law-violating behaviors” of girls and boys, or “differential responses by law enforcement” to the behaviors leading to arrests. In support of the former theory, some in the popular media and press have suggested that the primary cause is that girls are increasingly engaging in delinquent behavior. According to the gender convergence hypothesis, as traditional gender roles erode and violence becomes more widely accepted in mainstream culture, girls have become more inclined toward traditionally male social behaviors, including violence and other forms of aggression (Goodkind et al., 2010). On the other hand, those who support the latter theory argue that girls’ increasing rates of arrest and confinement are not caused by increasing criminal activity or violence, but rather by the increasingly aggressive enforcement and prosecution of non-serious offences such as misdemeanors and status offenses, which have become the leading cause of girls’ arrest in recent years (Zahn et al., 2008).
Girls’ exposure to trauma, and to severe stressors within the home, is strongly associated with delinquency, risk-taking and mental health disorders such as depression, anxiety and PTSD (Teplin et al., 2002). The increasing proportion of justice-involved girls prompts the question of whether girls’ trauma exposure is increasing in frequency or severity. Dynamics at home also play an important role in girls’ well-being, so if family structures and norms have changed over the last several decades this might also be a contributing factor. The increasing arrests of girls may also be linked to changed enforcement, and increasing visibility, of domestic violence. Increased focus on domestic violence has led to more states and localities adopting mandatory arrest policies (or at least mandatory hold policies) in domestic violent assaults, which has had the effect of widening the net of people—including women and girls—classified as domestic violence perpetrators (Sherman, Mendel & Irvine, 2013). While these changes constitute progress for victims of intimate partner violence, one unintended consequence is the increased involvement of girls in the juvenile justice system. Prostitution is another area where current state laws are insufficient. While federal law considers commercial sex acts performed by minors as constituting “sex trafficking”—even in cases when no force, fraud or coercion has taken place—most state laws do not recognize minors as trafficking victims. This discrepancy leads to the widespread arrest of girls for prostitution, when in fact they have been victimized. So far only eleven states have decriminalized “prostitution” for minors, and only ten have laws granting children immunity from prosecution for that crime.
These possible explanations for the increasing proportion of justice-involved girls in the U.S. merit further study. In the meantime, however, what is currently known highlights the importance of trauma-informed care in the juvenile justice system, and several key areas for policy change.
Baglivio et al. (2014). The prevalence of adverse childhood experience (ACE) in the lives of juvenile offenders, Journal of Juvenile Justice 2(11).
Conrad, S. M., Tolou-Shams, M., Rizzo, C. J., Placella, N., & Brown, L. K. (2014). Gender differences in recidivism rates for juvenile justice youth: The impact of sexual abuse, Law & Human Behavior 4(38), 309-310.
Goodkind, S., Wallace, J. M., Shook, J. J., Bachman, J., & Omalley, P. (2009). Are girls really becoming more delinquent? Testing the gender convergence hypothesis by race and ethnicity, 1976–2005. Children and Youth Services Review, 31(8), 885-895.
Marston, E. G., Russell, M. A., Obsuth, I., & Watson, G. K. (2011). Dealing with Double Jeopardy: Mental Health Disorders Among Girls in the Juvenile Justice System. Delinquent Girls, 105-118.
National Center for Juvenile Justice (2014). Juvenile offenders and victims: 2014 national report.
Sherman, F., Mendel, R. & Irvine, A. (2013). Making detention reform work for girls. Report for The Annie E. Casey Foundation.
Teplin, L., Abram, K.M., McClelland, G., Dulcan, M., and Mericle, A. (2002). Psychiatric disorders in youth in juvenile detention. Archives of General Psychiatry 59, 1133-1143.
Van der Kolk, B.A. (2015). The body keeps the score: Brain, mind, and body in the healing of trauma. New York: Penguin Books.
Zahn, M., Hawkins, S., Chancone, J. & Whitworth, A. (2008). Understanding girls’ delinquency. Retrieved at https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/ojjdp/223434.pdf