Justice-involved Girls Research Articles

Disappointments in mediation for justice-involved girls in out-of-home care: fieldwork afterthoughts

ABSTRACT This perspective paper enquires into the dynamics of justice-involved girls (JiG) residing in out-of-home foster care settings within a non-Western context, scrutinising and questioning prevailing approaches within youth justice institutions that amalgamate mediation and restorative justice methodologies. Leveraging insights garnered from firsthand encounters with JiG, I present vignettes from my fieldwork observations to illustrate scenarios where JiG experience disappointment, hence underscoring potential pitfalls associated with blended approaches. Proposing a concentric circle framework tailored to navigate the knottiness of double-mediation circumstances, particular attention is directed towards addressing JiG’s internal conflicts. Furthermore, I contend that JiG’s susceptibility to disappointment offers insights into the underlying origins of conflicts and sheds light on their struggles with self-identity within youth mediation programmes. By synthesising theoretical constructs with empirical evidence, this perspective paper offers practical guidance for researchers and social work practitioners working with JiG, while also contributing to ongoing dialogues surrounding girls’ participation in juvenile justice and youth-mediated interventions.

Cumulative trauma, adversity, and loss among juvenile justice-involved girls: Implications for health disparities.

Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are social determinants of health that increase morbidity and mortality and are prevalent among juvenile justice-involved (JJI) youth. ACEs drive health-risk behaviors (e.g., substance use) that reflect maladaptive coping, increase arrest risk, and overlap with posttraumatic risk-seeking theoretically and reckless/self-destructive behaviors diagnostically. However, little is known, especially among girls, about cumulative developmental adversity burden distress (i.e., total cumulative/lifespan stressor reactivity, grief-specific and adversity-related symptoms, and adversity-driven maladaptive coping strategies by age 18) and associated health risk impacts. Therefore, we assessed (a) developmental adversity burden indicators capturing expanded ACEs (E-ACEs; reflecting cumulative losses and traumatic events), cumulative distress, and risk characteristics; (b) potential racial/ethnic differences in developmental adversity burden; and (c) predictors of maladaptive coping among 223 JJI girls. Participants averaged 15 E-ACEs, endorsing 61.0% of stressor reactivity reactions, 58.4% of cumulative grief-specific symptoms, 55.7% (avoidance) to 73.2% (arousal) of adversity-related symptoms, and 45.0% of adversity-driven maladaptive coping strategies. White JJI girls endorsed significantly higher stressor reactivity and maladaptive coping than Latina girls (e.g., 38.8% vs. 14.6% suicide attempts), ds = 0.56-0.71. Adaptive LASSO analyses of maladaptive coping highlighted primary contributions from stressor reactivity, arousal alterations (excluding reckless/self-destructive behaviors), and cognition/mood alterations but not E-ACEs, grief, avoidance, or intrusions. Participants reported high levels of all cumulative developmental adversity burden indicators (e.g., 81.6% reported reckless/self-destructive behaviors). Results support cumulative, adversity-informed, universal precautions and assessments. Further, emotion regulation interventions targeting stressor reactivity, cognition/mood alterations, and/or arousal alterations may be useful for JJI youth with maladaptive coping.

Testing Three New Scoring Methods to Identify Detained Adolescent Girls with Elevated Levels of Callous-Unemotional Traits.

Different scoring methods have been proposed to identify adolescents with high levels of callous-unemotional (CU) traits as measured by the Inventory of Callous-Unemotional traits (ICU). This is the first study to scrutinize the usefulness of the normative, empirical, and DSM-5 with Limited Prosocial Emotions (LPE) scoring methods in criminal justice-involved girls (N = 192). Girls (Mage = 15.74) completed the ICU and other self-report questionnaires. A diagnostic interview was used to determine the presence of conduct disorder (CD) and other psychiatric disorders. Official arrest and rearrest data were also collected. The three scoring methods designated girls with (versus without) CU traits who scored higher on various indices of past and future antisocial behavior, exhibited higher rates of (childhood-onset) CD and higher levels of psychopathic traits, and displayed lower levels of agreeableness and conscientiousness. It was only when the normative and empirical scoring methods were applied that girls with CU traits had higher rates of substance use disorders and were less anxious, depressed, and/or neurotic. In a subsample of girls with CD (N = 119), the three scoring methods captured a more severely antisocial subgroup. Other expected group differences emerged, though mainly when the normative scoring method was used. Results provided support for the clinical utility of the three scoring methods but also showed that the normative scoring method most aligns with theoretical expectations. Research is warranted to explore if this normative scoring method serves as a better categorically-defined specifier for CD than the specifier that is incorporated in the DSM-5.

The Politics of Shame, Stigma and Gender: Implications for Restorative Justice Conferencing with Justice-Involved Girls

Feminist engagement with restorative justice (RJ) have tended to neglect the importance of gendered factors relevant to RJ interventions used with women and girls who offend. This article begins to address this gap in knowledge and presents findings from qualitative research with offending girls who participated in a RJ conference, a group whose voices are seldom heard, and RJ practitioners. Focusing on the key themes of shame and stigma, the article critically explores how the macro-social processes underpinning stigmatization and the gendered politics of shame can produce harmful implications for girls participating in RJ conferences within an offender capacity.

Understanding developmental life-course theory for justice-involved girls and women residing in rural coercive sexual environments

ABSTRACT Coercive sexual environments (CSE) spotlight spatial disadvantage and sexual exploitation of at-risk girls in the United States. While existing literature explores sexualised culture in rural places, little is known about rural CSEs. The current study folds a developmental life-course framework together with the CSE phenomenon and gendered pathways to assess rural communities’ responses to ‘difficult’ girls. Incarcerated girls and women, as well as community stakeholders from rural communities, were interviewed to assess the gendered pathways of delinquent girls. Findings confirmed girls (juveniles) and young women (adults) can identify overt and covert community (in)actions that ignore their abuses and criminalise their trauma. Within this study, 37.5% of the sample moved from the juvenile justice system to the adult criminal justice system, with all previously residing in non-urban locations. Evidence suggests traditional gendered norms influence the community's responses to girls in rural CSEs, which partially explains the abuse-to-prison pipeline and later involvement in the criminal justice system.

An Examination of Risk Profiles among Justice-Involved Girls: Do Race and Place Matter?

ABSTRACT Studies addressing risk factors among justice-involved girls in rural areas remain a neglected area of research. Following an intersectional framework, the current study examines the patterning of a broad range of risk factors and health needs, across urban and rural contexts, among arrested African American, Hispanic, and white females who participated in a public health service. Results from a latent class analysis suggest significant differences in substance use, physical health, depression, and trauma experiences among the racial/ethnic groups and across geographic setting. This study has implications for prevention, screening and assessment procedures of arrested youths, and intervention services in the juvenile justice system.

Diminishing Returns? Threshold Effects of Dispositions and Recidivism Among Court-Involved Girls

This study examines juvenile court responses among justice-involved girls. We analyze 10 years of court records on girls ( N = 1,102) from a Midwestern juvenile court to assess the impact of various aspects of placements and dispositions on recidivism outcomes. We explore how the number of dispositions girls receive, the type of disposition, and type of placement affect 2-year recidivism. Our findings indicate there may be a threshold effect to receiving dispositions—receiving three or more dispositions was significantly related to increased recidivism. Furthermore, the combination of receiving both treatment and sanction dispositions was significantly related to an increased likelihood of recidivism. Girls who received only community-based placements were more likely to recidivate than those who did not receive any dispositions. This study advances our understanding of court responses to girls and how these responses influence girls’ experiences and outcomes while involved with the juvenile justice system.

Family-based Intervention for Legal System-involved Girls: A Mixed Methods Evaluation.

The increased proportion of juvenile court-involved girls has spurred interest to implement and evaluate services to reduce girls' system involvement. The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of a family-based intervention by using a dominant sequential mixed methods evaluation approach. First, we examined quantitative data using a quasi-experimental design to determine whether the family-based intervention reduced recidivism among court-involved girls. Propensity score matching (PSM) was used to construct statistically equivalent groups to compare one-year recidivism outcomes for girls who received the court-run family-based intervention (n=181) to a group of girls on probation who did not receive the intervention (n=803). Qualitative interviews (n=39) were conducted to contextualize the quantitative findings and highlighted the circumstances that family-focused interventions for court-involved girls. Girls who received the program had slightly lower recidivism rates following the intervention. The qualitative findings contextualized the quasi-experimental results by providing an explanation as to the girls' family circumstances and insights into the mechanisms of the intervention. Results highlighted the importance of family-focused interventions for juvenile justice-involved girls. These findings have practical and policy implications for the use interventions-beyond the individual level-with adjudicated girls and offer suggestions for ways to improve their effectiveness using a community psychology lens. In addition, this paper includes a discussion of evaluating of juvenile court programming from a community psychology perspective including strengths, challenges, and considerations for future work in this area.

A National Survey of Probation Staff of the Needs, Services and Barriers of Female Youth in Juvenile Justice Settings

Despite a growing awareness and documentation of the growing proportion of justice-involved girls and their unique needs over the last three decades, federal efforts to disseminate gender-responsive priorities have largely been unsuccessful. The purpose of this national, cross-sectional survey of juvenile justice staff was to describe the current implementation of gender-responsive programming, the degree to which it is empirically supported, the needs of justice involved girls, and the training needs of juvenile justice staff for working with this population. Two-hundred juvenile justice staff from the American Probation and Parole Association (APPA) responded to this 24-item online survey across 28 U.S. states. The large majority (97%) agreed girls have unique needs, while 94% thought they needed gender-responsive programming. Seventy-percent of respondents endorsed local gender-responsive programming, although most services were offered post-adjudication, and few were empirically supported. Probation staff identified multiple training and programmatic needs to support their work with justice-involved girls.

A Preliminary Examination of Substance Use Risk among Metropolitan and Non-Metropolitan Girls Involved in the Juvenile Justice System

Research is limited on geographic differences in substance use risk factors among juvenile justice-involved girls. This secondary data analysis from one state juvenile justice system, collected as part of the NIH/NIDA funded JJTRIALS cooperative agreement, assessed criminogenic needs at intake for 160 girls from metropolitan and non-metropolitan counties. Although girls from different geographic areas did not differ significantly on key variables of interest, including substance use risk and related criminality variables, findings suggest that substance use risk is related to criminal history, substance-related offenses, and relationship problems among justice-involved girls. Implications include gender-specific juvenile justice programming and research.

Incarcerated Girls, Criminal Pathways and Multiple Forms of Abuse

Researchers have long been concerned with the reasons that lead young people into a life of crime, yet most of this work has focused on the experiences of males and how they end up behind bars or eventually leave a life of crime. Mainstream criminological thought often lacks an inclusive understanding about the experiences that lead girls into the criminal justice system. With this study, the researchers seek to add to the understanding of how girls end up behind bars, specifically exploring the relationship between experiences of abuse and juvenile justice. Using two years of ethnographic research with incarcerated girls at a juvenile detention center in southern California, this article questions the abuse experiences of justice-involved girls and the connection between abuse and juvenile justice involvement for girls. Interviews with the 33 girls in the study were analyzed for disclosures of abuse and mistreatment, yielding the experiences of 14 different girls included in this article’s analysis. Our findings demonstrate that prior to being incarcerated, participants experienced multiple forms of abuse, or polyvictimization, both inside and outside of the home. Further, the authors highlight how the experiences of girls contribute to their eventual incarceration. Participants had to negotiate mistreatment across various institutions and by multiple people, with little help from schools, the juvenile justice, or child welfare systems. As a whole this work provides valuable insight into the experiences of girls before they are incarcerated.

‘Because it’s fun’: English and American girls’ counter-hegemonic stories of alcohol and marijuana use

ABSTRACTGirls’ alcohol and other drug (AOD) use are depicted culturally as problematic. In this comparative, qualitative, study the voices of 59 English and American justice-involved girls give a counter-hegemonic portrayal of their alcohol and marijuana use. In their stories, we see how their AOD use is pleasurable and boundaried. AOD use involves negotiated risk within the situated context of shared experience and friendship networks that heighten and promote pleasure and fun. The findings offer the opportunity to address the ‘credibility gap’ in international health promotion policy. Our aim is to promote the adoption of policy approaches that recognize the complexity of girls’ lives and draw on strategies they have devised.

Intersectional Trauma-Responsive Care: A Framework for Humanizing Care for Justice Involved Girls and Women of Color

ABSTRACTPrevious scholarship around intersectional frameworks and theories of gendered pathways has provided an invaluable lens in which to view women’s contact with the justice system. The current theory builds from this scholarship, and sets forth an Intersectional Trauma-Responsive Framework that explicitly considers the intersection of identities, including gender and race/ethnicity, under a trauma responsive umbrella. This framework underscores the interconnection between traumatic experiences and justice system contact, while also considering broader systems of oppression and societal disadvantage that impact girls and women of color. The framework encourages interventions and programming with justice involved girls and women and advocates for humanizing care in order to address women’s incarceration.

The Reliability and Validity of the Measure of Criminal Attitudes and Associates and the Pride in Delinquency Scale in a Mixed Sex Sample of Justice-Involved Youth

It is unclear if self-report measures of criminal attitudes and associates—developed and validated predominately on adult male offender samples—can or should be used with justice-involved girls. With a sample of 300 justice-involved youth (100 females, 200 males), this study examined the reliability and validity of the Measure of Criminal Attitudes and Associates (MCAA) and the Pride in Delinquency Scale (PIDS). Both measures evidenced reliability and convergent and discriminant validity in both sexes. The MCAA and the PIDS consistently predicted general recidivism for males (majority of area under the curve [AUCs; 7 out of 10] ranged from .60 to .68), but not for females (majority of AUCs [6 out of 8] ranged from .50 to .59). Both measures predicted violent recidivism across sex, with the majority of AUCs ranging from .60 to .67. More work is needed with exclusive female samples to better understand and operationalize criminal attitudes through a gender-informed lens.

Polyvictimization and Girls' Involvement in the Juvenile Justice System: Investigating Gender-Differentiated Patterns of Risk, Recidivism, and Resilience.

A recent dramatic rise in girls' arrests has increased our need to examine whether our models of youth justice system involvement need to be differentiated by gender. Polyvictimization, in particular, has been implicated as a powerful predictor of youth problem behavior. However, recent research suggests that polyvictimization is associated with youth involvement in the justice system in ways that differ for girls at the levels of the independent variables (i.e., the sources of risk), the dependent variables (i.e., youth outcomes), and the mediators of these associations (i.e., the purported mechanisms that account for these relations). The present critique describes growth points in the current research with the goal of suggesting promising directions for future investigations. In particular, gaps are noted regarding our understanding of the specific forms of polyvictimization that affect traumatized girls' development, especially given the highly disproportionate prevalence of sexual abuse among justice-involved girls. In addition, increased attention is needed to gender differences in the timing of victimization and the onset of risky behavior, as well as the nature of trauma-linked youth offenses and recidivism, which research also suggests may differ for boys and girls. Furthermore, a new body of research on psychophysiological reactivity promises to shed light on gender differences in trauma response, resilience, and risk. Finally, the importance acknowledging the intersection of polyvictimization, gender, and race is noted. The article ends with a discussion of the ways in which understanding gender differences and similarities can inform gender-responsive approaches to prevention and intervention efforts.

Success in School for Justice-Involved Girls: Do Specific Aspects of Developmental Immaturity Matter?

Developmental immaturity (DI) may help explain some of the variability in aspects of academic achievement among girls in the juvenile justice system, a population with high rates of truancy, dropout, and school failure. This study examined the relationships among the decision making and independent functioning components of DI, verbal intelligence, and academic achievement within this population. Using data from 60 girls in residential juvenile justice facilities, multiple regression analyses indicated that verbal IQ moderated the relationship between the DI construct of decision making and academic achievement. Self-reported school attendance and number of previous arrests did not significantly mediate the relationship between DI and academic achievement. These results may indicate that the decision-making factor of DI may be particularly important, and, if results are replicated, future intervention efforts could focus more on improving this skill within this juvenile justice population. Additionally, the overall importance of the full DI construct is an important area of future study.

The Heterogeneity of Treatment Needs for Justice-Involved Girls

Current efforts to identify the treatment needs of juveniles typically examine girls as a homogeneous group and recommendations for gender-responsive services tend to generalize needs to all girls. Research on within-girl heterogeneity suggests that this approach is shortsighted as treatment needs vary among justice-involved girls; however, little is known about how treatment needs cluster in this population. Consequently, we used latent class analysis to identify treatment needs within a sample of 1,731 female adolescents charged in juvenile court in Washington State. The analysis identified four classes of need representing High Family Conflict and Trauma (20%), Complex Treatment Needs With Antisocial Peers (30%), Low Adverse Experiences With Substance Abuse Needs (38%), and Mental Health Needs With Strong Social Assets (10%). The findings are consistent with other community-based analyses of female treatment needs and distinct from male-oriented treatment recommendations. Implications for policies regarding appropriate services and service capacity for justice-involved girls are discussed.

An Ecological Model for Intervention for Juvenile Justice-Involved Girls

Despite increased attention on girls’ delinquency, evidence-based interventions have been largely lacking. We aim to (a) describe the design and implementation of a gender-specific program for juvenile justice-involved girls and (b) present prospective data on three cohorts of participants. Fifty-two girls were enrolled in the program called the Girls Advocacy Project (GAP). Key risk and protective factors were identified based on existing literature and assessed. Over time, youth reported greater resilience and self-efficacy; fewer risk behaviors, including violence, crime, and substance use; and decreased distress (e.g., depression, anxiety, and anger). Hypothesized program mechanisms and recommendations for future research are discussed.

Engendering the Evidence Base: A Critical Review of the Conceptual and Empirical Foundations of Gender-Responsive Interventions for Girls’ Delinquency

A dramatic rise in arrest rates for girls over the past decade has led to an increasing interest in understanding gender differences in the risk factors that are associated with delinquency. Moreover, the call has been made for the implementation of gender-specific or gender-responsive interventions in order to effectively divert girls from an antisocial course. However, questions have been raised about three key assumptions underlying the gender-responsive approach to girls involved in the juvenile justice system: is there unequivocal evidence for gender-specificity in the risk factors that contribute to girls’ delinquency; is there clear evidence that existing non-gender-responsive evidence-based interventions for delinquency are less effective for girls than boys; and is there well-grounded evidence that interventions specifically tailored for girls are differentially effective? This article reviews the available research regarding each of these questions and proposes an agenda for future research into the development of effective interventions for juvenile justice-involved girls.

Differential Subtypes of Offending Among Adolescent Girls Predict Health and Criminality in Adulthood

This study tests whether subtyping justice-involved adolescent girls into violent and delinquent (VAD), delinquent only, and low subgroups is predictive of adult health and offending. We use data from the Gender and Aggression Project to examine young adulthood functioning among women ( N = 114) who were incarcerated during adolescence. After controlling for age, initial official-reports of offending, and baseline scores on the outcome of interest, the VAD subgroup experienced the worst functioning in young adulthood. Compared with the delinquency only subgroup, the VAD subgroup recidivated at higher rates and reported more internalizing psychopathology and physical health discomfort. Findings indicate that justice-involved girls should not be treated as a homogeneous group and prevention and intervention services should focus on girls who are most at risk in adolescence.