Under Lock and Key: Trauma, Marginalization, and Girls' Juvenile Justice Involvement

• Published date: 01 December 2010
• Date: 01 December 2010
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.3818/JRP.12.2.2010.25
• Subject Matter: Focus on Juvenile Justice

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Lisa Pasko

University of Denver

Meda Chesney-Lind

University of Hawaii at Manoa

* Abstract

This article explores social and legal predictors of justice involvement for female juve-

nile offenders. Specif‌ically, it examines the signif‌icance of trauma and marginalization

in determinants of girls’ detention and commitment as well as the formal decisions

made about them. Using a mixed method approach of case f‌ile analysis and interview

data, the authors explain the following overall f‌indings: 1) detention is widely used

on all offenders, most commonly justif‌ied in the conventional language of “protec-

tion” when applied to girls; 2) girls are more often committed to correctional facilities

because of the effects (school failure and crystal methamphetamine use) of the sexual

violence they experienced, and rarely for the violence they caused; and 3) for female

juvenile offenders, juvenile justice decision makers consider histories of trauma and

lack of resources as equally as important as offense histories when recommending

them for commitment. This article concludes with implications for girl offenders and

juvenile justice policy.

This article is part of a special section in this issue of JRP that focuses on juvenile justice.

The section was guest-edited by Nancy Rodriguez of Arizona State University and Phillip

Stevenson of the Arizona Criminal Justice Commission.

JUSTICE RESEARCH AND POLICY, Vol. 12, No. 2, 2010

© 2010 Justice Research and Statistics Association

Fo c u s o n Ju v e n i l e Ju s t i c e

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Before the mid-1970s, most formal discussions of juvenile offenders and juvenile

court did not include specif‌ic information on girls. Today, however, female juvenile

offenders are no longer invisible and have become one of the fastest growing

segments of the juvenile justice system. Nationally, girls now comprise one fourth of

all referred delinquency cases, and their adjudications have tripled over the last two

decades (Sickmund, Sladky, & Kang, 2008; Tracy, Kempf-Leonard, & Abramoske-

James, 2009). Between 1985 and 2005, the number of girls on probation nearly

doubled; similarly, girls’ detentions rose by 98% (Sickmund et al., 2008). Girls’

long-term commitments also increased, and as a result, girls are now 1.5 out of

every 10 juveniles committed to residential placements (Snyder & Sickmund, 2006).

Furthermore, these detentions and commitments were not due to a huge increase

in girls’ participation in serious crime: Between 15-30% of girls’ commitments

and detainments are due to status offenses and technical violations of probation

requirements (Snyder & Sickmund, 2006; see also Tracy et al., 2009).

Despite girls’ growing presence in juvenile court and youth corrections, there

still exists a paucity of research on girls’ justice involvement and the off‌icial

decisions made about and for them. This article remedies this def‌icit by achieving

three major goals. First, using logistic regressions, the authors examine what social

factors are signif‌icant in predicting the odds of juvenile offenders’ detention and

commitment. Secondly, focusing on girls, the authors examine how such signif‌icant

social predictors specif‌ically affect female juvenile offenders’ probabilities of being

held in custody. Lastly, through interview data, the authors show how juvenile

justice actors (judges, probation off‌icers, line staff, psychologists, and other service

providers) employ information about girls’ social and legal histories and decide

detention and correctional program placements.

* Girls’ Pathways to Juvenile Court

In recent years, there has been relatively limited research on girls’ pathways into

custody. That said, important work has been done on girls’ delinquency, with a

particular focus on life experiences, especially childhood ones, that place them at

risk of offending. Focusing mostly on female offending, the “pathways” research

indicates that childhood trauma is a def‌ining feature in the lives of many female

offenders, and it is often related to one’s likelihood of committing crimes (to

name a few, Chesney-Lind & Pasko, 2004; Belknap & Holsinger, 2006; Bloom,

Owen, Deschenes, & Rosenbaum, 2002; Gaarder & Belknap, 2002; Miller &

Mullins, 2009; Schaffner, 2006; Zahn, 2009). Girl offenders are more likely

than their male counterparts to come from troubled families and negative peer

groups, to have chemically dependent and/or criminally involved parents, and to

suffer from sexual, emotional, and physical abuse in their homes (Acoca, 1998;

Giordano, 2010; Leve and Chamberlain, 2004; Piquero, Gover, MacDonald, &

Piquero, 2005; Riehman, Blutenthal, Juvonen, & Morral, 2003). Not surprising