Crossover youth and gender: What are the challenges of girls involved in both the foster care and juvenile justice systems?

Abstract

In this paper we discuss the struggles of young women who are “crossover youth.” Crossover youth are children who are simultaneously involved in the foster care and juvenile justice systems. Utilizing in-depth interviews collected during a 24-month ethnographic study among detained adolescent girls we discuss how being in both of these systems complicates the lives of the young women in our study. Namely, we find that girls spend more time behind bars and are negatively treated in their group homes because of their dual status. Our findings shed light on this topic and also provide a much-needed discussion of the experiences of young women who are crossover youth.