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The juvenile justice system's fastest growing group of girls is that of the African American females. Between 1992 and 2008 the number of African American girls detained has increased by 75%.

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Girls being detained at such a young age can have serious affects on their lives as adults. It has been found that girls arrested or detained at a young age are five times as likely to die by the age of 29.

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Girls of color are 20% more likely to be detained than white females- another barking issue in the system.

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37% of girls were detained and held for technical violations, compared to just 25% of boys detained for the same reasons.

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The council has devised a 7-pronged approach to fix the issue of the gender gap that has sprouted in the juvenile justice system. They have argued that it is necessary to weave in girl focused reforms into the broader scheme, rather than isolating it because it allows the issue to die out and become under-funded.

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The system tends to detain girls in an attempt to 'protect' them. While many girls that commit these offenses are victims of past abuse, poverty, or trauma, the options available to help them recover are minimal. The system instead detains them in order to prevent them from committing such acts again, but actually only contributes to further trauma these young girls experience. The department of Health and Human Services has stated that states should be using trauma focused screening in these instances in order to prevent girls being directed into facilities that will not benefit them.

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“The system is structured to pull girls in, rather than to use available ‘off-ramps’ to divert them to more appropriate interventions.”

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"Judges find abused young women from traumatic backgrounds in front of them and will put them into the system to “protect” the girl"

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Stop criminalizing behavior resulting from environments that girls can’t control

Decriminalize “prostitution” for minors- they are victims of sexual exploitation and should be offered alternatives to arrests and charges

Decriminalize minor school offenses commonly charged to girls, such as being verbally disruptive

Reduce system involvement for misdemeanors

Remove the juvenile-justice system from enforcing and punishing curfew and ordinance violations

Change school policies so that they help girls in need

And very importantly, spend health dollars on evidence-based practices and programs for girls

Alternatives to detention and incarceration for girls are in short supply and must be developed. Girls with complex needs who pose little or no risk to public safety should not be detained or incarcerated.

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Over the past 20 years, there's been a promising decline in arrests of youths in the United States. The reasons for the drop are elusive, but one factor might be a renewed interest within the juvenile justice system in paying better attention to child welfare before kids are drawn to crime. States are also seeking alternatives to traditional punishment once kids are in the system.

But a new report out this weekfinds that for young girls, the trend is going in the opposite direction. The proportion of girls in the juvenile justice system has increased at every stage of the process over the last 20 years, from arrests to detention and probation.

The report's authors, Boston College law professor Francine Sherman and Annie Balck, a policy consultant at the National Juvenile Justice Network, attribute the gender gap to the juvenile justice system's long-standing "protective and paternalistic" approach to dealing with delinquent girls. The system tends to detain girls, the authors write, because they're seen as needing protection. It's a strategy that is ill-suited to the personal histories of trauma, physical violence, and poverty that lead many girls into bad behavior. Even when the system acknowledges these factors, there are limited options available beyond traditional arrests and detention.

This report highlights several disparities in the treatment of girls in the system. For instance, there's a gender gap in the detention of girls for low-level crimes: Nearly 40 percent of detained girls were brought in on status offenses (behavior that is only illegal when you're under 18), compared with just 25 percent of boys.

Among girls in the system, there's also stark racial inequity. In 2013, African American girls, the fastest-growing segment of the juvenile justice population, were 20 percent more likely to be detained than white girls, while American Indian girls were 50 percent more likely.

The authors also argue that detention is uniquely harmful to youths, and can lead to catastrophic consequences for girls. One study cited in the report found that girls who had been detained were five times more likely to die by age 29 than children who had not. For Latina girls, that likelihood increased-they were nine times more likely to die by age 29 than the general population. Detention is a drastic and developmentally incorrect measure to take, the report's authors maintain, because in most cases the crimes girls commit are the result of past trauma that isn't being properly addressed. Few have been found delinquent for more serious offenses such as assault.

The report cites a 2014 study of traumatic experiences in justice-involved youth. In the study, 31 percent of girls reported a personal experience of sexual violence in the home, 41 percent reported being physically abused, and 84 percent reported experiencing family violence. Girls reported having been sexually abused at a rate 4.4 times higher than boys.

"Greater restriction is rarely the answer and cannot address the violence and deprivation underlying so many girl offenses," write the authors. To reverse the growing gender gap in juvenile justice, they say, "systems must craft reforms that directly address the root causes of their behavior and provide an alternate, non-justice-system path for girls' healthy development and healing."

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Girls are the fastest-growing group in the juvenile justice system

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Over the past 20 years, there's been a promising decline in arrests of youths in the United States. The reasons for the drop are elusive, but one factor might be a renewed interest within the juvenile justice system in paying better attention to child welfare before kids are drawn to crime.

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Girls who are victims of abuse are being inappropriately funneled into juvenile detention halls that fail to treat them for mental-health needs, a report unveiled Thursday argues.

" The Sexual Abuse to Prison Pipeline: The Girls' Story" was produced by the Human Rights Project for Girls in Washington, D.C., as well as the Center on Poverty and Equality at Georgetown University Law Center and the Ms. Foundation for Women. The Human Rights Project for Girls' leaders have fought for legislation to require prompt help for sex-trafficking victims who are foster-care children, and to expose sex trafficking of minors through Craigslist ads. Craigslist has publicly defended itself over several years against allegations its services may have facilitated trafficking.

The report notes that girls' involvement in juvenile justice systems nationally is "growing disproportionately," and that girls of color are especially affected; the girls are sent to juvenile facilities largely because they're accused of offenses of some kind, but critics say many of those infractions are minor, and should not result in incarceration. And many of these young women have at some point been victims of abuse.

The authors of the report note that Congress has an opportunity to address lapses in how girls in crisis are treated by tying state funding to certain requirements under federal law.

As the Center for Public Integrity recently reported, Congress is currently reviewing how it might reauthorize the 1974 Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act. The act governs rules states must abide by when they confine and treat prosecuted juveniles, if they want federal money for related programs.

The reasons why girls are being disproportionately referred to juvenile-justice systems require more study, the report says, but existing research shows that the phenomenon is not driven by increases in violent or criminal behavior.

Instead, according to the report, girls are getting arrested and detained mostly for misdemeanors, technical violations, such as disobeying probation orders, or so-called status offenses-which are infractions that only minors can commit, such as running away from home and truancy from school.

The report notes that even though these girls' problems are often rooted in emotional, physical and sexual abuse, no national requirements exist to screen detainees for such trauma.

A number of state surveys suggest that many or the majority of girls held in detention have experienced physical or sexual abuse at home or elsewhere.

"Yet when girls enter the juvenile justice system," according to the report, "mental health screenings are rarely administered by licensed professionals, and follow-up assessments and treatment are frequently inadequate."

Based on recent research findings, the report says, most confined youth are held in facilities in which mental-health counselors are not licensed professionals.

The authors of the report urge Congress to amend the 1974 federal juvenile-justice act to require states to evaluate all children for trauma as they enter juvenile-justice systems, and then provide specific treatment.

The authors also urge a requirement that states-if they want federal juvenile-justice funds-"screen children at intake for commercial sexual exploitation and divert identified victims away from the juvenile justice system whenever possible."

In addition, the report calls for states to end arrest and prosecution of minors for prostitution.

"Such laws," the authors write, "would be consistent with state laws that declare minors to be legally incapable of consenting to sex, as well as federal law, which defines any act of commercial sex with a person under the age of 18 as a severe form of trafficking in persons."

In 2013, as the Center reported, agencies under the auspices of the National Academy of Sciences also urged all states to treat child prostitutes as victims and prohibit their arrest, prosecution and detention.

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Report says girls being misdirected into juvenile detention - Center for Public Integrity

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Girls who are victims of abuse are being inappropriately funneled into juvenile detention halls that fail to treat them for mental-health needs, a report unveiled Thursday argues. " The Sexual Abuse to Prison Pipeline: The Girls' Story" was produced by the Human Rights Project for Girls in Washington, D.C., as well as the Center on Poverty and Equality at Georgetown University Law Center and the Ms. Foundation for Women.