The new edition of Girls, Delinquency, and Juvenile Justice combines cutting-edge research and expanded coverage of girls’ delinquency, including coverage of girls in gangs and the sexual trafficking of girls, to provide students with an accessible, up-to-date, and globally oriented textbook. Including global perspectives and coverage of cutting-edge research, this is the only textbook to deal exclusively with girls and crime Offers expanded coverage of girls in gangs and emerging literature on the sexual trafficking of girls Pulls together and analyzes all existing literature on the subject of female delinquency Brings to light new research on a wide range of issues, including the conditions of confinement for girls incarcerated in juvenile jails and prisons, Latina girls, and gender responsive programming Explores the moral panic around "violent," "bad," and "mean" girls

This book offers an ethnographic study of the lives of girls in the juvenile justice system. Based on rich, narrative accounts, the girls at the center of the study are viewed as confronted with the power of simultaneous race, class, and gender hierarchies. Through this framework, we see how the girls navigate this challenge by seeking status in their everyday lives: in their families; juvenile justice institutions; and neighborhood organizations, including gangs. Through analyzing the ways that the girls strive for higher social status, this book provokes debate about how policies and programs may be creatively rethought to incorporate this pursuit. Girls and Juvenile Justice offers a glimpse into the hearts, minds, and souls of adolescent girls. It will be of great interest for scholars of criminal justice, sociology, women’s studies, and social-psychology.

This monograph outlines the promising practices in programming for girls who are already involved in the juvenile justice system or who are at risk of delinquency. The purpose of the monograph is to provide practical information to practitioners and policymakers on how to design and implement gender-specific programs for girls. The first chapter emphasizes the urgent need for programming for girls and offers a statistical look at female delinquency, provides a summary of female adolescent theory, and identifies the risk factors girls face because of gender. Chapter 2 describes the planning involved in creating gender-specific programs. It cites the policies that encourage gender-specific programming for girls and presents reports from States that have taken ground-breaking steps on behalf of girls. It defines gender-specific programming and provides an overview of the elements programs must provide for girls. Chapter 3 provides an in-depth look at the key elements and features of programs that are designed to serve the specific needs of girls. An appendix describes 16 promising programs currently offering gender-specific services to girls in both residential and community-based settings.

Traditionally, delinquent girls were considered an anomaly, a rare phenomenon attracting little scholarly notice. Today, more than one in four youth offenders is female, and researchers and practitioners alike are quickly turning their attention and resources to address this challenging situation. Delinquent Girls: Contexts, Relationships, and Adaptation synthesizes what is known about girls involved in delinquent behavior and their experiences at different points in the juvenile justice system. This breakthrough volume adds to the understanding of this population by offering empirical analysis not only of how these behaviors develop but also about what is being done to intervene. Employing multiple theoretical models, qualitative and quantitative data sources, law enforcement records, and insights across disciplines, leading scholars review causes and correlates; the roles of family and peers; psychological and legal issues; policy changes resulting in more arrests of young women; and evidence-based prevention and intervention strategies. Each chapter covers its subject in depth, providing theory, findings, and future directions. Important topics addressed include: Narrowing the gender gap – trends in girls’ delinquency. Girls at the intersection of juvenile justice, criminal justice, and child welfare. Trauma exposure, mental health issues, and girls’ delinquency. Beyond the stereotypes: girls in gangs. Intervention programs for at-risk and court-involved girls. Implications for practice and policy. With its broad scope and solution-oriented focus, Delinquent Girls: Contexts, Relationships, and Adaptation is a must-have volume for researchers, professionals, graduate students, and social policy experts in clinical child and school psychology, social work, juvenile justice, criminology, developmental psychology, and sociology.

Even though youth crime rates have fallen since the mid-1990s, public fear and political rhetoric over the issue have heightened. The Columbine shootings and other sensational incidents add to the furor. Often overlooked are the underlying problems of child poverty, social disadvantage, and the pitfalls inherent to adolescent decisionmaking that contribute to youth crime. From a policy standpoint, adolescent offenders are caught in the crossfire between nurturance of youth and punishment of criminals, between rehabilitation and "get tough" pronouncements. In the midst of this emotional debate, the National Research Council's Panel on Juvenile Crime steps forward with an authoritative review of the best available data and analysis. Juvenile Crime, Juvenile Justice presents recommendations for addressing the many aspects of America's youth crime problem. This timely release discusses patterns and trends in crimes by children and adolescentsâ€"trends revealed by arrest data, victim reports, and other sources; youth crime within general crime; and race and sex disparities. The book explores desistanceâ€"the probability that delinquency or criminal activities decrease with ageâ€"and evaluates different approaches to predicting future crime rates. Why do young people turn to delinquency? Juvenile Crime, Juvenile Justice presents what we know and what we urgently need to find out about contributing factors, ranging from prenatal care, differences in temperament, and family influences to the role of peer relationships, the impact of the school policies toward delinquency, and the broader influences of the neighborhood and community. Equally important, this book examines a range of solutions: Prevention and intervention efforts directed to individuals, peer groups, and families, as well as day care-, school- and community-based initiatives. Intervention within the juvenile justice system. Role of the police. Processing and detention of youth offenders. Transferring youths to the adult judicial system. Residential placement of juveniles. The book includes background on the American juvenile court system, useful comparisons with the juvenile justice systems of other nations, and other important information for assessing this problem.

What characterizes women′s and girls′ pathways to crime? Girls, Women, and Crime: Selected Readings, Second Edition is a compilation of journal articles on the female offender written by leading researchers in the fields of criminology and women′s studies. The contributors reveal the complex worlds females in the criminal justice system must often negotiate—worlds that are frequently riddled with violence, victimization, discrimination, and economic marginalization. This in-depth collection leaves readers with a greater understanding of the complexities and nuances of the realtionship between girls and women and crime.

Over the past decade and a half, girls’ involvement in the juvenile justice system has increased. Yet the topic remains under-studied among criminologists. The Delinquent Girl is a “state-of-the-field” evaluation that identifies and analyzes girls who become delinquent, the kinds of crimes they commit and the reasons they commit them. The distinguished academics and practitioners who contributed to this volume provide an overview of the research on girls’ delinquency, discuss policy implications and point to areas where further research is critically needed.

This report serves to assess the Nation¿s progress in addressing juvenile crime. The 2007 data bring some welcome news, as the recent trend of modest increases in juvenile arrests in 2005 and 2006 has been broken. The good news is reflected not only in the 2% decline in overall juvenile arrests and the 3% decline in juvenile arrests for violent crimes from 2006 to 2007 but also in the data for most offense categories, for males and females, and for white and minority youth. However, one area that merits continued attention is disproportionate minority contact with the juvenile justice system. For example, the arrest rate for robbery among black juveniles was more than 10 times that for white youth in 2007. Charts and tables.

The book examines the history of female delinquency in Canada from the intitial years of the Juvenile Delinquents Act, passed in 1908, to the first major, sustained critiques of the Act's usefulness in in the 1960s. Three themes are explored. What underlying material structures, social conditions and class norms shaped the very definition of delinquency under the Juvenile Delinquents Act and how was that definition gendered? What were the prescribed legal and social cures for girls' wrongdoing, and how successful were they? Last, how did girls and their families understand and react to their designation as delinquent, and to their experiences in court, probation and training school. To understand girls' conflicts with the law, their delinquency is described within the daily, lived economic, and social circumstances of their lives and contemporary understandings of 'normal' and 'deviant' behaviour, and illustrated by quotations and examples drawn from records and interviews. The experiences of Native and immigrant girls are also examined.