Is Gender Responsive Training?

Racism had tainted her life from the very beginning. During her childhood she attended a one-room school for blacks only. She was only allowed to attend school for a short time due to the ailing health of

As noted above, there is the notion that boys are the ones more likely to be delinquent than girls. Delinquency in boys is seen as natural, while delinquency in girls is seen as a matter of exception (Ferguson, 2006). Although it may be true that there are more delinquent boys than girls, female delinquency is as real as male delinquency. In fact, Chesney-Lind and Okamoto (2001) observe that in the 1990s, crime rate amongst female juveniles grew faster than amongst male

Girls tend to have additional risk factors prior to entering the status offense system. The majority of girls that enter the juvenile justice system have significant health and family problems including instability, violence, trauma, and neglect (Watson & Edelman, 2013).

According to Doerner (2012), “The odds of incarceration for female defendants were approximately 42 percent lower than the odds of incarceration for male defendants” (p. 245). A recent study on the effects of gender on sentencing guidelines found that male defendants are 74 percent more likely to be incarcerated than similarly charged female offenders (Doerner, 2012). Data from this study was drawn from the United States Sentencing Commission.

There are approximately 7,700 girls in confinement, which is about 14.3 percent of the total youth population in residential placement. Fortunately, rates of confinement for boys and girls have decreased since 2001 (The Sentencing Project). Still, girls are more present in the juvenile justice system than they had been in the past, which is bringing more attention to girls’ behaviors, sentences, and treatments. The gender disparity faced in the adult criminal justice system carries over to the juvenile justice system. Similarly, the gap in arrests has narrowed within the past thirty years, with girls being arrested almost half as much as boys, up from about one quarter (Cauffman 5). This can be both positive and negative. The decline in violent

* There are many views and theories as to if and how gender affects delinquency.  One of the major theories is the gender-schema theory which basically states that society influences

Noted originally in Belknap’s studies (as cited in Covington, 2007, p. 2) “research confirms that women offenders differ significantly from their male counterparts in terms of their personal histories and how they enter into crime.” For example, in the US they are more likely to be a young, undereducated, single parent who is a racial

As the article mentions it seems that women who are incarcerated are more likely than men to have neurological, biological or psychological abnormalities (Schwartz J. et al., Pg 16). This means that women who are committing similar offenses as men tend to be at a greater risk of suffering from some sort of mental illness. Another important point in the article that was mention is that many women who become addicted to illegal substance tend to be at a higher risk of committing burglary, and theft in order to continue to gather money for drugs.

Today’s incarceration population shows that a lot of inmates are minority or female. The female incarceration rate has slowly increased over the years. According to Schmalleger and Smykia (2015), some characteristics that are found in these inmates are: young, poor, low education, abuse, mental disorder (p. 222). Being young definitely has effects on a person especially when it comes to mentality. Younger people tend to make some bad decisions growing up, but that’s how we learn sometimes is from our mistakes. Being poor is rough especially if you have a family. When you are poor you will hit times where you will think about or do anything you can to provide for yourself and family. According to Alfred and Chlup (2009), drug use and selling

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.

Although there are similar risk factors that apply in male and female delinquency, there are underlying biological functions, psychological traits and social interpretations that result in varying forms of delinquency and therefore, programming for female juvenile males and females must differ. The females need these programs for emotional, physical and mental support.

In addition boys are high risk, in particular African American males. Other factors for becoming high risk are; poverty, anti-social behavior-such as physical aggression and defiance. Hostile attribution bias, deviant peers, parents and peers, family and neighborhoods, drugs and gangs also play a factor in delinquency.

Mia grew up in poverty in the metropolitan area of Atlanta. She’s had a stint in the DFACS system, and she has lived her life moving around from different family members homes. Her mother had a problem with addiction to drugs, and her father was not a prominent figure in her life. For a couple of her younger years she had her grandmother there as a prominent figure in her life, but she also failed victim to drugs and passed away before she graduated high school. Mia stated that her past does not determine her future, and although she’s survived a lot she will never let her struggles interfere with her future goals.

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.