Gender Differences Within Juvenile Status Offenses

In the Documentary ,Girl Trouble, the lives of three girls are recorded over the course 3 years. During those three years the lives of the girls were evaluated while they were incarcerated in the San Francisco’s’ Juvenile Justice system. According to youth advocate Lateefah, and other delinquent advocates, the prison system is not adolescent friendly when it comes to girls. Lateefah insists that there is a worldwide misconception about bad girls, being that there is no meaningful way to rehabilitate, which results to the system throwing away children lives forever. In order to shy away from this misconception, Lateefah and other lobbyists for at risk youth gets girls like the three in the documentary, to attend rehabilitative centers such

Furthermore, another stereotype against women is clearly stated by Pollak. According to Pollak’s theory, men commit crimes to ‘protect’ women and because as he kindly states, “the instigation of women” is the reason why men commit crimes (Anderson, 1976). According psychologists such as Pollak, Freud, Rogers and Thomas, women only commit crimes because they are “jealous” of men and therefore develop certain complex such as the penis envy. In addition, these psychologists claim that women use their sexuality in other to achieve what they want, when they want it and however they want it. As a result, the criminal justice system incarcerates women longer than men even if they have been convicted for the same offence(s) as they counterpart because they believe that they are “protecting” these women (Anderson, 1976).

There have been many studies conducted that examine ways in which the juvenile justice system responds to female offenders. Historically juvenile female offenders have been treated under status offense jurisdiction (Zahn et al., 2010, p. 10). United States Courts would exercise the principle of “parens patriae” to place the female in detention as a form of punishment for misbehavior (Sherman, 2012, pp. 1589-1590). This principle also remains prevalent as it pertains to how the juvenile justice system currently responds to juvenile female offenders.

It is no secret that the United States’ criminal justice system is majorly flawed in more ways than one. We hear of all of the injustice that many civilians face on a day to day basis, which mostly surrounds the problems related to men, but what about women? Why don’t we hear about the tribulations and sufferings that our women undergo on a day to day basis within our criminal justice system? As mentioned in an article from the American Jail Association, investigation in fields ranging from subjects of general and mental health, substance abuse and addiction relating to drugs and prescriptions, and physical violence against women combined with examination and practice in the criminal justice field, have discovered that women offenders experience challenges that are not only different from their male counterparts, but also greatly influence their involvement in criminal justice systems, including jails and prisons (Ney, 2014). This information alone provides a basis to why imprisoned women should be more of a topic. This literature review will examine the several ways in which women who are incarcerated experience emotional trauma; and in some ways, abuse. My hypothesis is that most of the trauma encountered by incarcerated women majorly branches from preceding events and occurrences that happened prior to becoming imprisoned, and that they worsen as a result of improper treatment and resources within

Gender plays a big role in whether or not the juvenile offenders get the treatment they need. Often female offenders are misunderstood or not taken seriously because they are stereotyped as criers, liars, and manipulators. If and when these girls do get treatment for mental health care, often it is not the correct one. In the Gaarder, Rodriguez, and Zats (2004) article

The findings on the website show how female offenders have been perceived as less violent offender compared to males (NCJRS). Although, in the past females were perceived to commit minor offenses, but there has been a rise in females committing violent offense (NCJRS). There has also been a rise in the percentage of female offender overall, which younger girls represent a larger proportion of juvenile arrest (NCJRS). The reason for this could be many younger girls are experiencing trauma, abuse, violence, and poverty issues at home. For example, if a younger female leaves in a home and all she sees is her mother and father fight, which could lead her to think that it’s okay. She also gets beaten by her father and her mother never say anything so she might think it’s a way of life. This cause for whenever this younger female gets into a confrontation at school, she automatically leads to violence. The reason why is that’s all she seen growing up. The victimization that the female offender go through cause them to have different needs compared to male offenders. The findings on NCJRS states how due to the different victimization females go through they are more likely to be addicted to drugs and have mental

Mass incarceration not only takes a toll on adults but on children as well. Along with the men, women are also being incarcerated, in the last ten years the rates of women being put behind bars has increased. According to Court Services and Offender Supervision

In many countries, the female prison population has increased dramatically over the last years. This has generated widespread awareness in our society, leading people to question why the percentage multiplied exponentially. In the past, female offenders have not only been compared to their male counterparts, but to society’s view of the role of women; this role categorized them as housewives and mothers. But how did these housewives and mothers go from the home to the prisons? In most countries, women represent a minority of the prison population: normally between 2% and 8%. There are now more than 600,000 women behind bars and more than one million on probation and parole, (Bastick and Townhead 2008) most of these women are sentenced to prison for non-violent crimes. Many of these women in prison struggle with substance abuse, mental illness, and histories of physical and sexual abuse. According to the researchers Bastick and Townhead, all over the world women in prison suffer from intersecting

The characteristics of these offenders and the crimes they are committing are also changing over time. Demographically the juvenile female offender is most likely coming from a single parent home and may have been physically or sexually abused at some point in her life. She will also most likely be under the age of 15 and even more likely to be a woman of color, African-American young woman comprise almost 50 percent of all young women in secure detention, while Hispanics make up 13 percent (Bergsmann, 1994). In 1996, females represented 57 percent of the arrests for running away. In 1996, females represented 15 percent of juvenile arrests for violent crimes, while arrests of boys for violent offenses declined by 9 percent (Snyder, 1997). Aggravated assault, the most frequent of the violent offenses committed by juveniles, represented 20 percent of all arrests for juvenile females, while declining for boys by 10 percent (Snyder, 1997). In considering these changes it is still important to note that girls are still arrested more often for status offenses it is becoming more evident that girls are engaging in delinquent behaviors more often

Female Criminality consists of several outdated statistics regarding the rise of female offending. However, in viewing the current research on the subject, it appears that the overall theme of this dissertation's discussion is still relevant despite changes in the accompanying statistics as seen in viewing the following topics: the rise in female offending; the continual rise that females are committing more crimes than men; and the types of crimes that women are committing. In viewing Bruce Gross's 2009 article, "Battle of the Sexes: The Nature of Female Delinquency," as well as Elizabeth Cauffman's 2008 article, "Understanding the Female Offender," one can begin to see where current statistics regarding the female criminal lie.

There is a moderate portion of juvenile law violations that are minor; however some young offenders are extremely dangerous and violent. (Caldwell, 2002) Studies have shown that most delinquent behavior stems from some sort of underlining issue or issues in a youth’s present or past history. State and county authorities must deal with these offenders while also responding to their personal social problems. This could range from child abuse and neglect, family issues and drug abuse, exposure to pornography and exposure to aggressive role models.

“Juvenile courts operate from guidelines established in state juvenile court acts.” Page. 354. These different areas of focus have studied the costs and benefits of such adolescent behaviors (truancy, runaways, alcohol use, and sexual behavior) and have supported valid reasons for the achievement of status offenses. The disciplines have analyzed the negative social, personal, and economic factors that may occur with these behaviors.

When one thinks of the juvenile corrections system, they tend to gender this institution, focusing mainly on young boys. Due to this, one often neglects the thought there are also young girls that are in the system. This may be due to the fact that when compared to young boys within the juvenile corrections system, in previous years the girls consisted of a small portion within in this space. However, according to recent studies, girls in the juvenile system has been rapidly increasing over the last 20 years (Levintova, 2015). This is an issue which needs to be acknowledge due to the fact that young women are caught in this system for starkly contrasting reasons when compared to young males. These reasonings are described in the book Girls in Trouble with the Law by Laurie Schaffner which we will further explore.

Juvenile delinquency is of great concern in the United States. In 2007 over 2 million arrests were juveniles. There are two types of juvenile delinquency. The first type of offense is a behavior that would be a criminal violation for an adult. The other offense is called a “status” offense. Status offenses are delinquent actions that do not apply to adults, like running away and truancy. This paper will discuss the impact of gender and family on delinquency and the treatment by gender in the juvenile justice system.

As stated by Bartol and Bartol “Juvenile delinquency is an imprecise, nebulous, social, clinical, and legal label for a wide variety of law- and norm-violating behavior” (2011, Pg 139). The juvenile delinquency term has come to imply disgrace in today's correctional institution. Our government is up hold to procedures and expected to come with a solution to solving the delinquent problem. An underage offender can be labeled a delinquent for breaking any number of laws, ranging from robbery to running away from home, and especially being involved in school violence. The following situations faced by correction officials when dealing with juvenile delinquents will be examined. Three main areas (child development, punishments, and deterrence