Gender-Responsive Approaches in Juvenile Justice: How the System Prioritizes the Content- and Context-Related Needs of Girls

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/08874034221095402
• Published date: 01 December 2022
• Date: 01 December 2022
• Subject Matter: Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/08874034221095402

Criminal Justice Policy Review

2022, Vol. 33(9) 895 –917

© The Author(s) 2022

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DOI: 10.1177/08874034221095402

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Article

Gender-Responsive

Approaches in Juvenile

Justice: How the System

Prioritizes the Content- and

Context-Related Needs

of Girls

Valerie R. Anderson1

Abstract

This study analyzes how juvenile courts utilize gender-responsive approaches by

examining stakeholder narratives about girls in the juvenile justice system. The study

uses a directed content analytic approach to examine the extent to which stakeholder

narratives align with gender-responsive principles related to content- and context-

related needs. Findings revealed that stakeholders most commonly refer to girls’

family dysfunction, delinquency history, and the need for community-based services.

Stakeholders were limited in their discussion of girls’ health and provision of trauma-

informed care. Learning from stakeholders provides a unique lens to consider ways

to integrate gender-responsive practices within the juvenile justice system.

Keywords

girls, gender-responsive, juvenile justice, court stakeholders, qualitative content analysis

Feminist criminologists have consistently advocated for the inclusion of gender-

responsive approaches when working with system-involved women and girls (Bloom

et al., 2004; Zahn et al., 2008). This focus on gender-responsive policy and practice

1University of Cincinnati, OH, USA

Corresponding Author:

Valerie R. Anderson, School of Criminal Justice, University of Cincinnati, P.O. Box 210389, Cincinnati,

OH 45221-0389, USA.

Email: valerie.anderson@uc.edu

1095402CJPXXX10.1177/08874034221095402Criminal Justice Policy ReviewAnderson

research-article2022

896 Criminal Justice Policy Review 33(9)

reforms in juvenile justice is, in part, due to the emerging interest in female delin-

quency and the implementation of evidence-based practice in juvenile justice settings

(Walker et al., 2015; Zahn et al., 2008). Thus, the academic literature on gender-

responsive approaches in the juvenile justice system has grown in recent years (see,

for example, Anderson, Walerych, et al., 2019; Day et al., 2015; Javdani & Allen,

2016). From a gender-responsivity perspective, girls’ behaviors—and the justice sys-

tem’s response—are guided by girl-specific concerns (Matthews & Hubbard, 2008).

Gender-responsive theories are especially important in explaining and responding to

adolescent girls given that historically most theories of crime, and subsequent

approaches to responding to offending, were developed based on the experiences and

behaviors of boys (Mallicoat, 2007).

Although there is a body of literature that documents gender-responsive needs, risk

factors, and girls’ pathways into crime, there remains limited understanding of how

gender-responsive principles translate into juvenile justice practice through court staff

knowledge and system implementation (Kerig & Schindler, 2013; Ravoira et al., 2012;

Walker et al., 2015). The purpose of the current study is to assess the meaning of gen-

der-responsive approaches by examining stakeholder narratives about system-involved

girls and how juvenile court staff adopt gender-responsive approaches. More specifi-

cally, this study examines how practitioners identify the needs of girls and the subse-

quent response to those needs as well as the extent to which stakeholder narratives align

with the principles put forth in the literature on gender-responsive approaches.

Calls for Change: A Gender-Responsive Approach

The reauthorization of the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act (JJDPA)

in 1992 outlined the need for gender-specific services and an examination of gender

bias in the system (Walker et al., 2015). The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency

Prevention (OJJDP) reissued these recommendations in 1998 to incentivize state and

local governments to provide gender-responsive interventions for youth (Kerig &

Schindler, 2013). The amendment to the JJDPA explicitly stated the need for physical

and mental health services, education, and treatment for prior traumatic experiences.

Despite reissuing these recommendations and allocating funding to support new pro-

gramming, researchers still identified disconnects between the perceptions of system

practitioners and the realities of girls’ lives. Seminal research on girls’ system involve-

ment identified that practitioners often rely on stereotypes to characterize girls under

their supervision (Gaarder et al., 2004).

Numerous task forces and committees have been developed across states to imple-

ment gender-responsive services based on the principles put forth by the academic and

governmental bodies of literature (Kerig & Schindler, 2013; Walker et al., 2015). Of

note in gender-responsive reform was the development of the Girls’ Study Group

(GSG), a collaborative team of leading researchers on gender and crime, through the

OJJDP in 2004. The GSG reviewed literature on girls’ involvement with the juvenile

justice system and concluded that there was a systematic lack of attention to gender

across all areas of juvenile justice research (Kerig & Schindler, 2013; Zahn et al., 2008).