Girls outnumber boys in juvy, report shows

[Jesus Malverde]

Source: The Hill

Girls now make up a larger share of the juvenile justice population, according to a new study released Friday.

The report, “Gender Injustice: System-Level Juvenile Justice Reforms for Girls” by the National Crittenton Foundation and the National Women’s Law Center, said arrests of girls increased by 45 percent over the past two decades, while court caseloads and detentions increased by 40 percent and post-adjudication placement rose by 44 percent.

A number of the girls coming through the system were found to have been victims of violence and sexual abuse at home and in their communities.

“The traumatic and unhealthy social environments in which many girls live result in behaviors that are criminalized or are mishandled by other systems, resulting in girls’ entry into the juvenile justice system,” the report said.

Read more: http://thehill.com/regulation/254979-girls-outnumber-boys-in-juvy-report-shows

[riversedge]

1. This is so horrible.

[Humanist_Activist]

2. I'm sorry, I don't understand the particular concern, while specific circumstances...

and broken home lives of kids should be taken into consideration, and non-violent offenders should be given more leniency, the violent ones need counselling and incarceration and/or monitoring of some sort, regardless of their gender. You shouldn't decriminalize the violent behavior, that's the stupidest thing I ever heard.

In addition, unless these girls are being unfairly targeted, prosecuted and convicted, I don't see the injustice here.

[pnwmom]

3. The concern is that girls ARE being unfairly treated compared to boys.

From the article:

The report said girls are referred to the juvenile justice system most often because another public system has failed, such as child welfare, mental health and education, and that their offenses often pose little or no threat to public safety.

“Every day in the U.S., abused and traumatized girls enter and are pushed through the justice system,” Francine Sherman, lead author of the report and clinical law professor at Boston College Law School, said in a news release.



And this article doesn't even mention the fact that girls can get arrested for prostitution, while the adult johns usually escape prosecution.

[Democat]

4. So when there were more males was it fair?

If it is unfair when there are more females is it not also unfair when there are more males?

[Igel]

8. Oh, it was fairly widely considered unfair.

And there were calls for making sure it was more equal.

Because, well, the assumption was that there was no difference in behavior and we can't let observation or data spoil our assumptions.

Now that the field's being leveled, it's a travesty of justice and the older way was better. Not because it was less fair when comparing sexes, but because "fair" means "the way I think it should be." Equality is only fair when it benefits me and those I empathize with.

It's like college attendance and graduation. When more than 50% of college students and graduates were males, it was unfair. As soon as it's more than 50% female college students and graduates it's no longer a matter of fairness, but ability. Same for monitoring gay representation on tv; if they're underrepresented, it's unfair and discriminatory, but if they're overrepresented it's because of talent and perfectly fair.

With changes in fertility rates and some of the ways different social groups interact the behavioral profile of a lot of schools and the student population as a whole is changing. Often a fairly accurate predictor of current characteristics can be derived by just breaking down the stats from the early 90s by cohort and reweighting them for a given school or age group. There are some changes, but the result is too strikingly accurate to make people comfortable. In fact, it's why a lot of educators are frequently breaking out into a cold sweat while a lot of advocates go red in the face when looking at such statistical tricks. La plus ca change ...

[pnwmom]

9. It was fair if they were equally likely to be there for violent or serious crimes.

Now, girls in juvie are likely to be there for situations that wouldn't put a boy there -- and that isn't fair. Even if the numbers in juvie were equal it wouldn't be fair if girls ended up there for causes that wouldn't put boys in there.

[Humanist_Activist]

6. I would agree on the prostitution issue, it shouldn't be criminal at all, and when...

the prostitute is a child, they should be treated as a victim, not a criminal. And I agree, women and girls aren't being treated fairly in that situation.

However, when it comes to everything else, such as the arguments you mentioned, it applies equally to boys, does it not? Aren't most boys that are pushed through the system also victims of much the same circumstances that lead to their anti-social and criminal behavior?

[nomorenomore08]

14. The point is the severity of the offense, not the circumstances that helped produce it.

In other words, young girls are now being incarcerated for behavior that doesn't even rise to the level of serious crime. Whereas in the past that (seemingly) wasn't so much the case.

[Sunlei]

5. natural progression of a 'for profit' prison for all society? woman, kids bring in a lot of revenue.

USA has several new 'start-ups' to care for the Mothers and children border refugees, plenty of open beds.

Detention Corps. stock keeps rising.

[fasttense]

7. Girls make more passive and willing workers.

When the for-profit correction institution farms out labor, women and girls are seen as better workers and are in high demand. They are more passive and are better at detail and phone work. So all the internet sales folks want to hire that female prison labor at 35 cents an hour.

I would be surprised if the for profit prison industry didn't find a way to increase the female prison population

[Stryst]

10. Well, when states just can't provide any more male "offenders"

into the prison-corp system, they'll turn to women and children. I expect that GEO and Correction Corp are salivating at this report, and the thought of opening more women's prisons with the same contracts with the state guaranteeing them 95% occupancy.

[world wide wally]

11. I think this shows that a lot of boys are getting off with perpetrating acts against girls that

leave permanent scars while the justice system turns a blind eye. Just ask a young girl who has been raped or victimized.

[hardluck]

12. Not sure where the reporter got the idea that girls outnumber boys in juvy

The report they link to shows that while girls' participation in the criminal justice system has risen it is still significantly less than boys

Despite overall declining juvenile arrest rates, in the last two decades, girls’ share of the juvenile justice system increased at all stages of the juvenile justice process:
Arrests increased 45 percent
(from 20 to 29 percent);
Court caseload increased 40 percent
(from 20 to 28 percent);
Detentions increased 40 percent
(from 15 to 21 percent);
Post-adjudication probation increased 44 percent (from 16 to 23 percent); and
Post-adjudication placement increased 42 percent (from 12 to 17 percent).

http://www.nationalcrittenton.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/GenderInjustice_exec_summary.pdf

[karynnj]

13. I hadn't looked at the report until I saw what you wrote - though

it seemed pretty hard to believe that it was the girls who were more likely to end up in juvy. I suspect that the authors really are not very good in math - mistaking a raise in the percent of girls in the juvenile system with girls being involved more than boys. As the numbers you cited show, if the overall population is roughly 50/50, boys are about three times more likely than girls to be there.

This makes their statement in their first paragraph rather confused.

Despite decades of attention, the proportion
of girls in the juvenile justice system has increased and their challenges
have remained remarkably consistent, resulting in deeply rooted, systemic
gender injustice.

There are other good points made elsewhere - some equally applicable to boys - but the idea that many programs might have been designed based on boys only might be something that could be looked into.