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Juvenile justice sentencing: Do gender and child welfare involvement matter?
Abstract
For young people who come into contact with the juvenile justice system, how they are sentenced following an arrest may profoundly influence the course of their development and adjustment as adults. Much of the research to date has focused on racial and ethnic disparities in juvenile justice sentencing policies and practices, and less is known about sentencing disparities based on other youth characteristics. Using Los Angeles County administrative data, this study investigates the effects of gender and child welfare statuses on sentencing for young people who are arrested for the first time (N = 5061). Results indicate that both young men and women are sentenced more harshly dependent upon the disposition, such that girls were more likely to be sentenced to group homes compared to boys, but boys were more likely to be sentenced to correctional facilities compared to girls. Child welfare-involved youth with a recent placement history are prone to more punitive sentences compared to their non-child welfare counterparts. Further, child welfare young women were not more likely to be sentenced to a harsher disposition compared to child welfare young men or non-child welfare young women. Implications for practice and future research are discussed.
... Tal como se ha mencionado en este capítulo, la mayoría de los países, entre los que se incluye Chile, han determinado que la remoción de una niña, niño o adolescente debe producirse solo en contextos en que permanecer con su familia o cuidadores principales atente contra el bien superior y la seguridad de la niña, niño o adolescente. Es decir, será una última medida (Cillero & Soto, 2019;Tam et al., 2016). Esto se traduce en que las niñas, niños y adolescentes que se encuentran hoy en programas de cuidado residencial son un subgrupo extremadamente vulnerable y vulnerado (Briggs et al., 2012); "Son niños y jóvenes con infancias caóticas marcadas por experiencias significativas de estrés y trauma" (Brady & Caraway, 2002). ...
... la justicia que las niñas, niños y adolescentes en la población general, con antecedentes de comportamiento delictual en un 42% de los casos (Van den Steene et al., 2018). Debido a las conductas manifiestas antisociales y de infracción a la ley, los niños tienen mayor probabilidad de ser ingresados a centros para infractores de ley, en tanto las niñas continúan en o son derivadas a residencias de protección (Tam et al., 2016). ...
... Instead, the child welfare and juvenile justice systems typically operate in siloes, maintaining clear and distinct boundaries around their missions, populations, and services . The systems' reluctance to recognize and respond to these youth arguably results in missed opportunities to prevent youth from touching both systems (Bogie and Ereth 2015) and increases the likelihood that dual system youth will fall deeper into the juvenile justice system (Tam et al. 2016). Such consequences necessitate a better understanding of how systems can collaborate to prevent and interrupt the trajectories that lead to deeper entrenchment in multiple systems. ...
... A study conducted in Los Angeles County, also found crossover youth were more likely to have group home placements at disposition than to receive probation supervision in the community ). Tam et al. (2016) reported a similar finding for firsttime offenders in Los Angeles County living in out-of-home placements at the time of their arrests. At disposition, these youth were more likely to receive an out-of-home placement than youth without open child welfare cases. ...
Insight into the characteristics and system experiences for youth who touch both the child welfare and juvenile justice systems has increased over the last decade. These youth are typically studied as one population and referred to as “crossover youth.” While this literature contributes valuable insight into who crossover youth are, studies are virtually silent on distinguishing characteristics and experiences across different pathways leading to dual system contact. This study reviews what is currently known about dual system youth generally (i.e., youth who have contact with both the juvenile justice and child welfare systems) and introduces a framework for consistently defining dual system youth and their pathways. The utility of the framework is then explored using linked administrative data for cohorts of youth aged 10 to 18 years old with a first petition to delinquency court in three sites: Cook County, Illinois between 2010 and 2014 (N = 14,170); Cuyahoga County, Ohio between 2010 and 2014 (N = 11,441); and New York City between 2013 and 2014 (N = 1272). The findings show a high prevalence of dual system contact overall, ranging from 44.8 to 70.3%, as well as wide variation in the ways in which youth touched both systems. Specifically, non-concurrent system contact is more prevalent than concurrent system contact in all sites, and individual characteristics and system experiences vary within and across these different pathway groups. Based on study findings, implications for future research on dual system youth and for developing collaborative practices and policies across the systems are discussed.
... Compared to youth who are solely involved in the JJ system (i.e., JJ-only youth), youth who have contact with both the CW and JJ systems (i.e., dual-system youth) are more likely to experience negative outcomes, including mental health difficulties, substance use problems (Dannerbeck and Yan, 2011;Herz and Ryan, 2008), and decreased educational attainment (Altschuler et al., 2009). Additionally, compared to JJ-only youth, dual-system youth often experience more severe and deeper involvement in the JJ system (Lee & Villagrana, 2015;Tam et al., 2016) and are more likely to have future contact with the adult criminal justice system (Baetz, 2015). Consequently, recent research and policy has stressed the importance of focusing not only on the extent to which youth with varying degrees of system involvement display differences in offending behavior, but also the distinct risk factors and correlates associated with the dual-system population. ...
... Ook in latere stadia van de strafrechtketen lijken bij meisjes andere beslissingen te worden genomen dan bij jongens. Zo blijkt, met name uit internationale literatuur, dat sekseverschillen een rol zouden spelen bij de adviezen van deskundigen (Jeffries et al., 2003) en het opleggen van straffen en maatregelen (Carr et al., 2009;Jeffries et al., 2003;Spohn & Beichner, 2000;Tam et al., 2016). ...
Er zijn vanuit de justitiële praktijk en beleid zorgen dat er te weinig zicht zou zijn op delinquente meisjes en jonge vrouwen; er zou mogelijk zelfs een ‘blinde vlek’ voor deze groep daders kunnen zijn. Om adequaat beleid te kunnen voeren gericht op meisjes die delicten plegen is nader inzicht in deze groep nodig.
In het huidige rapport zijn meerdere deelonderzoeken naar delinquente meisjes en jonge vrouwen in de leeftijd van 12 tot en met 27 jaar (vanaf hier aangemerkt als ‘meisjes’) samengenomen.
Er is aandacht voor meisjes die delicten rapporteren maar die niet in aanraking zijn gekomen met de politie, voor degenen die wel met de politie in aanraking zijn gekomen als verdachte en voor meisjes die vervolgd en veroordeeld zijn. De volgen de drie onderzoeksvragen worden beantwoord:
1 Wat blijkt uit de (internationale) literatuur over risico- en beschermende factoren van delinquente meisjes? Hoe verschillen delinquente meisjes in justitiële populaties van delinquente meisjes in algemene populaties?
2 Wat is er bekend over (zelfgerapporteerde) delinquentie bij Nederlandse meisjes (in de leeftijd van 12 tot en met 22 jaar) in een algemene populatie van jongeren? En wat is bekend over hun achtergrondkenmerken en risicofactoren?
3 Welke overwegingen spelen bij professionals ten aanzien van meisjes (in de leeftijd van 12 tot en met 27 jaar) betreffende de beslisvorming voor verdenking, vervolging en veroordeling?
Daar waar mogelijk is een vergelijking gemaakt met jongens. De resultaten worden beschreven in twee delen: resultaten van onderzoeken waarbij respondenten uit algemene populaties komen, en resultaten van onderzoeken waarbij respondenten
... Dual system youth consistently experience a high number of child welfare referrals, substantiated cases, and placements, and they have long histories in the child welfare system (Citizens for Juvenile Justice, 2015; Halemba & Siegel, 2011;Herz, 2016). When they enter the juvenile justice system, they are more likely to be charged with a violent offense, placed in pre-adjudication detention after arrest (Conger & Ross, 2001), and placed in a congregate care setting by the delinquency court (Ryan et al., 2008;Tam et al., 2016). They also have higher re-arrest rates than youth with no child welfare contact (Baglivio et al., 2015;Huang et al., 2012;Huang et al., 2015;Lee & Villagrana, 2015;Ryan et al., 2013). ...
Background:
The estimated number of youth who come into contact with both the child welfare and juvenile justice systems, or "dual system" youth, varies widely because studies use different methodologies. Recent work using linked administrative data shows promise for identifying a stable range of dual system rates, generalizable to other jurisdictions and useful for understanding the nature and timing of system involvement.
Objective:
This study replicates the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) Dual System Youth Design Study methodology to explore dual system overlap and six distinct dual system pathways defined by the type (i.e., nonconcurrent or concurrent) and timing (i.e., first contact with child welfare or juvenile justice) of dual system contact in Los Angeles County.
Participants and setting:
Using data from the Los Angeles Probation Department, a cohort of youth born in/after 1998 with a first juvenile justice petition between 2014 and 2016 was identified (N = 6877) and matched to statewide child welfare records between 1998 and 2017.
Method:
Descriptive statistics were produced for dual system youth and pathways, and differences across groups were tested using chi-square and t-tests.
Results:
Two-thirds of youth with a first juvenile justice petition interacted with the child welfare system. The majority of dual system youth did not have contact with both systems at the same time and nearly all dual system youth were involved with the child welfare system before the juvenile justice system. Female and Black youth were more likely to be dual system youth and to have more extensive involvement with the child welfare system. Probation experiences and outcomes were associated with the nature and chronicity of child welfare involvement.
Conclusion:
Implementing a delinquency prevention continuum that starts with community-based supports and continues throughout all levels of child welfare and juvenile justice involvement is essential to disrupting dual system involvement.
... As a result, they have more frequent contact with law enforcement. Studies indicate that child-welfare system involvement increases a youth's chances of being detained (Conger & Ross, 2001) and receiving a disposition for out-of-home placement (Jonson-Reid & Barth, 2000;Tam, Abrams, Freisthler, & Ryan, 2016). ...
In order to achieve equal opportunity and justice, our nation’s most vulnerable youth
must not bear a disproportionate burden of justice system involvement. In 2016, nearly
one million youth in the United States were arrested (Hockenberry & Puzzanchera,
2018). These youth are often those growing up with neglect, maltreatment, and abuse;
living without financial security; facing mental, emotional, and behavioral health
problems; and experiencing discrimination for various reasons not limited to race,
ethnicity, culture, gender identity, and sexual orientation. Moreover, once they become
justice-involved, they face diminished outcomes in development, education, and
employment, as well as an increased likelihood of continued system involvement.
Therefore, we propose rebuilding social work’s commitment to juvenile justice by
capitalizing on recent policy and systems change, cross-sector collaboration, and
evidence-based interventions. To transform the juvenile justice system over the next
decade, we propose five actionable goals for social work practice, policy, and research to
dismantle inequity and injustice and foster the full social, civic, economic, and political
integration of justice-involved youth.
... Youth and young adults who were arrested for a crime, but not booked, are not included in our population. It is unknown what demographic or geographic factors may influence booking decisions, especially for youth who may have recent or current CPS involvement (Ryan, Herz, Hernandez, & Marshall, 2007;Tam, Abrams, Freisthler, & Ryan, 2016). Additionally, it bears noting that child protection data cannot provide the true prevalence of child maltreatment given that not all instances of abuse and neglect come to the attention of CPS and not all reports made to CPS reports constitute true maltreatment. ...
In this study, we use population-based linked administrative data to document the full child protective service (CPS) histories of arrested youth and young adults. We extracted records for all individuals aged 24 and under who were arrested in California in 2014 and 2015. These records were probabilistically linked to statewide CPS records dating back to 1998. Overall, 43.4% of those arrested had a history of CPS involvement. Among individuals with uncensored CPS records (born in 1998 or later), 60.2% had past CPS involvement. Findings indicate that youth and young adults booked for a felony offense were more likely to have a history of CPS involvement than those booked for misdemeanors. A multinomial model served to confirm bivariate findings. This study provides further evidence that community concerns of childhood maltreatment were common among criminal justice–involved young adults.
... Interestingly, although the evidence is mixed, girls have often been found to receive more punitive dispositions during adjudication compared to boys (Schwalbe, Hatcher, & Maschi, 2009). There are many reasons why female juvenile offenders are often handled more punitively during adjudication compared to males (Tam, Abrams, Freisthler, & Ryan, 2016). For example, more severe dispositions for female juveniles for more serious crimes have been thought to be in some way associated with punishing girls for violating expected gender norms (e.g. ...
This paper discusses how biological and psychological literature on the developmental differences between juveniles and adults may affect juvenile judges in their “dual role” as retributive and rehabilitative decision‐makers in juvenile cases, specifically focusing on sentencing. Particularly, it discusses potential influences of this research on adolescent development regarding four factors known to be integral in juvenile judge decision‐making: legal factors, characteristics of juvenile offenders, and individual structural and social contexts in which judges’ decisions are made. To conclude, implications and recommendations stemming from this discussion are considered.
... Males and older youth were less likely to demonstrate externalizing behaviors, yet were more likely to be subjected to staff controls. gender biases in sentencing often result in higher rates of females being diverted to community alternatives in lieu of harsh carceral settings (Tam, Abrams, Freisthler, & Ryan, 2016). It is possible that females in this study were viewed as having behavioral problems that posed a level of risk too great to divert from confinement. ...
To maintain safety and order, some correctional settings permit the use of controls on youth in response to behavioral problems; however, use of controls may exacerbate trauma symptoms that many youth bring to the carceral experience. Data from the Survey of Youth in Residential Placement are used in this study (N = 7,073). Structural equation modeling was used to test three hypotheses: (a) youth with a history of physical, sexual, and emotional abuse report greater use of staff controls; (b) externalizing behaviors partially mediate this relationship; and (c) externalizing behavior and staff controls are mutually reinforcing. Findings suggest that youth with physical and sexual abuse histories experience greater staff controls. Externalizing behavior was a partial mediator and a reciprocal product of staff controls. Such findings warrant caution for institutional policies and staff practices that promote the use of control, and instead call for the use of trauma-informed responses to misbehavior.
... Our findings extend previous studies indicating that racial and ethnic minority youth with a history of CWS involvement are disproportionately referred to the JJS (Goodkind, Shook, Kim, Pohlig, & Herring, 2013;Graves et al., 2007;Johnson-Reid & Barth, 2000;Ryan et al., 2013;Tam, Abrams, Freisthler, & Ryan, 2016). This is troubling given evidence showing that Black and Hispanic crossover youth are also more likely to be rearrested compared to White crossover youth (Huang et al., 2012). ...
This study prospectively examines the transition from the child welfare system into the juvenile justice system among 10,850 maltreated children and adolescents and explores how patterns of risks, including severity and chronicity of maltreatment, adverse family environment, and social risk factors, affect service systems transition. Almost three percent of maltreated children and adolescents had their first juvenile justice adjudication within an average of approximately six years of their initial child protective services investigation (CPS). Social risk factors, including a child’s age at index CPS investigation (older), gender (boys), and race/ethnicity (Black and Hispanic) significantly predicted the risk of transition into the juvenile justice system. Recurrence of maltreatment and experiencing at least one incident of neglect over the course of the study period also increased the risk of transition into the juvenile justice system. However, subtypes of maltreatment, including physical, sexual, and other types of abuse did not significantly predict the risk of juvenile justice system transition. Finally, family environment characterized by poverty also significantly increased the risk of juvenile justice system transition. These findings have important implications for developing and tailoring services for maltreated children, particularly those at-risk for transitioning into the juvenile justice system.
Youth can become involved in the juvenile justice system through an arrest for a law or criminal violation or referral to the juvenile court for a status offense (crimes based on the youth's age such as truancy or curfew violations). Once involved in the juvenile justice system, there are several individuals and agencies that have decision-making power over youth's trajectory through the system (e.g., juvenile court judges, attorneys, probation officers). Justice-involved youth tend to have histories of trauma exposure and child welfare involvement. Once involved in the justice system, youth are often involved in multiple service systems such as mental health and education and experience a range of collateral consequences due to their involvement these system. As a result, there are several evidence-based programs that should be used to support justice-involved youth.
Behavioral health issues are disproportionately linked to juvenile justice-involved youth, with the majority of these youth experiencing elevated social, emotional, behavioral, and academic problems. Youth who experience early incarceration are often prone to recidivism and, even if they avoid the justice system after the initial offense, often experience numerous challenges later on. Schools can play an integral role in addressing risk factors that may predict classroom misbehavior or juvenile justice involvement, including untreated mental health issues. A range of themes are presented to improve identification of youth at risk for or involved in the juvenile justice system, matched with a continuum of effective supports corresponding to schools’ multi-tiered systems of support. Further, it is important to attend to the many transitions these students experience, along with challenges they experience in home and other environments. School behavioral health programs are well-positioned to promote prevention, early intervention, treatment, and other support for these youth and their families. However, schools often fail to attend to these youth and their needs, underscoring the public health significance of the agenda to enhance programming for students having or at-risk for juvenile justice involvement.
Existing research finds that LGBTQ youth of color are overrepresented in the child welfare and juvenile justice systems. Structural racism and LGBTQ stigma likely increase the risk of that LGBTQ youth of color will enter these systems. Once in the system, LGBTQ youth of color tend to remain longer and face an elevated risk of discrimination and violence compared to other groups of youth. However, scholars in this collection of working papers find that more research and data are needed to fully understand the experiences and needs of LGBTQ youth of color in the child welfare and juvenile justice systems and to prevent harm and promote positive outcomes for youth in the systems. The report also provides recommendations for future research to address the gaps in knowledge.
In this important new work, two respected criminologists challenge the characterization of the new 'bad girl' arguing that it is only a new attempt to punish girls who are not the stereotypical depiction of good. Through interviews with young women, educators and people in the criminal justice system, Beyond Bad Girls exposes the formal and informal systems of socio-cultural control imposed on girls.
Report published by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, 2011, cited multiple times by the National Academy of Sciences 2014 report: Reforming Juvenile Justice: A Developmental Approach
Racial and gender disparities in case outcomes have recently been explained
by a focus on the characteristics of court officers within the context of the
interplay between discretion, stereotyping, and the perceptions of decisionmakers.
Using data within a single juvenile court jurisdiction, the present
study continues this line of inquiry to assess: (1) how race and gender, individually
and in combination, influence juvenile justice decision-making and
(2) how court outcomes for certain race/gender combinations are conditioned
by the gender of the court officer. Results indicate that, to some
degree, the race and gender of the youth along with the gender of the court
officer influenced case outcomes; however, the findings were not always in
the expected direction. The results have implications for broadening the
contexts of detention and intake decision-making, and may also better
inform efforts to address the equitable treatment of youth in the juvenile
justice system.
Based on interpretations of an integrated focal concerns and loosely coupling framework, individual and joint relationships involving race and gender with case outcomes were examined as well as possible tempering effects by crime severity and the stage in the proceedings. The results from multiple logistic regression indicate mixed support for the theoretical framework in terms of the ability to determine at what stages race and gender effects would be most evident. Crime severity was predictive of decision making and in some cases had a conditioning effect on the discovered race/gender relationships with case outcomes. The implications of the findings and directions for future research are discussed.
Over 130,000 juveniles are detained in the United States each year with 70,000 in detention on any given day, yet little is
known about whether such a penalty deters future crime or interrupts social and human capital formation in a way that increases
the likelihood of later criminal behavior. This article uses the incarceration tendency of randomly assigned judges as an
instrumental variable to estimate causal effects of juvenile incarceration on high school completion and adult recidivism.
Estimates based on over 35,000 juvenile offenders over a 10-year period from a large urban county in the United States suggest
that juvenile incarceration results in substantially lower high school completion rates and higher adult incarceration rates,
including for violent crimes. In an attempt to understand the large effects, we found that incarceration for this population
could be very disruptive, greatly reducing the likelihood of ever returning to school and, for those who do return, significantly
increasing the likelihood of being classified as having an emotional or behavioral disorder. JEL Codes: K140, I210.
Objectives
Drawing on focal concerns theory, as well as scholarship on the juvenile court’s mandate to consider youth culpability and amenability to treatment, we develop hypotheses that seek to examine whether the court will (1) punish Whites less severely and (2) be more likely to intervene with Whites through rehabilitative intervention and, simultaneously, be more punitive and less rehabilitative with minorities, and, in particular, Black males.
Method
Florida juvenile court referral data and multinomial logistic regression analyses are used to examine multicategory disposition and “subdisposition” measures.
Results
Findings suggest that minority youth, especially Black males, are not only more likely to receive punitive sanctions, they also are less likely than White youth to receive rehabilitative interventions and instead experience significantly higher rates of dismissals. The analyses indicate that similar racial and ethnic disparities emerge when “subdispositions”—specifically, placement options within diversion and probation—are examined.
Conclusions
The results underscore the salience of race, ethnicity, and gender in juvenile court decisions about punitive sanctioning and rehabilitative intervention, as well as the importance of employing multicategory disposition measures that better reflect the range of sanctioning and intervention options available to the court.
Rising costs, inefficient systems, and high recidivism rates have recently challenged the social and economic value of secure confinement for juvenile offenders; however, current empirical evidence is inconclusive concerning the value of placing violent youth offenders in secure settings to deter them from future involvement in crime. Using propensity score matching and survival analysis, this study examined the risk of recidivism for first-time violent juvenile offenders assigned to one of three judicial dispositions in Los Angeles County: in-home probation, group-home placement, or probation camp (a secure setting). Approximately half (48%) of first-time violent offenders experienced a subsequent arrest, and the risk of re-offending varied by disposition. Compared with in-home probation, the likelihood of recidivism was 2.12 times greater for youths assigned to probation camps and 1.28 times greater for youths assigned to group homes. African American adolescents, Hispanic adolescents, and adolescents with an open child welfare case were also at an increased risk of recidivism. The findings from this study indicate that in-home probation is a more sensible and effective approach to interrupting criminal trajectories of first-time violent offenders as compared with out-of-home placements. Implications for research, system collaboration, and the training of social work professionals are discussed.
Existing research on dispositional decisions typically models the outcome as merely placed or not placed. However, this does not accurately reflect the wide variation in residential options available to juvenile court actors. In this research, we combine data from ProDES, which tracks adjudicated youth in Philadelphia, with data from the Program Design Inventory, which describes over 100 intervention programs, to further examine the factors that influence court actors' decision making in selecting an appropriate program for a juvenile offender. We find that even after controlling for legal and needs-based factors, race continues to exert a significant influence, with decision makers being significantly more likely to commit minority youth to facilities using physical regimen as their primary modality and reserving smaller, therapeutic facilities for their white counterparts. Using focal concerns theory as an explanatory lens, we suggest that court actors in this jurisdiction employ a racialized perceptual shorthand of youthful offenders that attributes both higher levels of blame and lower evaluations of reformability to minority youth.
In the Progressive Era, many immigrant and working-class girls were tried for crimes of immorality, were confined to reformatories, and were sometimes forced to undergo sterilization. This article discusses social workers' relationship to these practices that criminalized adolescent female sexuality by examining two branches of the burgeoning profession: the social reformers and the caseworkers.
Significant advances have been made in our understanding of the origins and dynamics of minority overrepresentation in the juvenile justice system. Nevertheless, much remains to be learned. In this article, the authors explore the impact of race on juvenile justice processing by examining the organizational contexts in which decisions are made. They offer a theoretical framework that combines insights from organizational theory and the focal concerns perspective and that focuses on the organizational players (action sets) involved in decision making from intake to final disposition. Based on the composition of action sets, and their corresponding value orientations, the authors make predictions regarding the influence of sociodemographic, legal, and extralegal variables at each processing juncture. The empirical test provides a reasonably good fit with the data. Implications for further research are discussed.
Responding to escalating rates of divorce, illegitimacy, and prostitution, the Progressive Era ushered in a wave of cultural anxiety concerning sexual morality, Progressive reformers implemented a variety of state interventions to monitor and correct sexual "misconduct" among working-class and immigrant young women. This article focuses on the leading social I reformers from Chicago's Hull House settlement and investigates their paradoxical thinking concerning the "girl problem." Primary source analysis reveals that the social reformers' stance as "guardians of virtue" for working-class young women's sexuality was integrally tied to larger concerns about human welfare and progress in twentieth-century industrial America.
In this paper we focus on program commitment decisions for first-time offenders, comparing the explanatory effect of factors traditionally included in this type of analysis with that of variables describing child and family functioning. Using data derived from a subsample of youths followed by ProDES (Program Development and Evaluation System), a system of outcome evaluation that tracks youths in Philadelphia's juvenile justice system, we use chi-squared automatic interaction detector (CHAID) analysis to compare the relative effects of these factors on the likelihood of commitment to in-home versus out-of-home settings. We find that child and family functioning are key factors in programmatic decisionmaking for first-time offenders, but are less important in decisionmaking for juveniles with prior offenses. Yet the treatment modalities of specific program commitments for first-time offenders frequently do not match the needs presented by the juvenile at the point of disposition.
Our study suggests that (a) there are universal sex differences in the behavior of children 3–11 years of age, but the differences are not consistent nor as great as the studies of American and Western European children would suggest; (b) socialization pressure in the form of task assignment and the associated frequency of interaction with different categories of individuals—i.e., infants, adults, and peers—may well explain many of these differences; (c) aggression, perhaps especially rough and tumble play, and touching behavior seem the best candidates for biophysical genesis; (d) all of the behaviors that are characteristic of males and females seem remarkably malleable under the impact of socialization pressures, which seem to be remarkably consistent from one society to another; and (e) the difference in many of the types of behavior seems to be one of style rather than intent: i.e., seeking help (“feminine”) rather than attention (“masculine”), and justifying dominance by appealing to the rules (“feminine”) rather than straight egoistic dominance (“masculine”).Although our findings do not speak for adolescent and adult male and female behavior, they should caution the social scientists and animal ethologists who are interested in possible evolutionary and survival theories not to underestimate the effect of learning environments. These learning environments may well be responsible for the behavior frequently attributed to the innate characteristics of male and female primates as inherited by their human descendants.
Using the intersectional perspective and results from prior research, the individual and combination relationships of gender and race with juvenile justice decision making are examined in one jurisdiction in a Midwestern state. Results reveal that both gender and race, individually and jointly, influence case outcomes net relevant legal and extralegal considerations. These relationships involve receiving both more severe and more lenient outcomes and point to the variable effects of gender and race in juvenile justice proceedings.
The authors examine gender segregation and cross-sex play in a comparative perspective. Although some level of gender segregation seems to be a universal feature in children's play, taking an interpretive view, it was found that children in some peer cultures emphasize gender differences and ritualize cross-sex interactions and in other cultures, children seldom enforce gender boundaries. Gender identity varies in salience and practice among Italian children, lower-class African American children, and upper-middle-class White American children. Thus, studying gender segregation as something that is constructed and negotiated in children's peer cultures rather than a universal phenomenon that is strictly based on biological or cognitive factors provides a clearer picture.
Objective:
The purpose of this research was to provide a prospective look at the relationship between change in placement and problem behaviors over a 12-month period among a cohort of foster children.
Method:
The sample contained 415 youth, and was part of a larger cohort of children who entered foster care in San Diego, California and remained in placement for at least 5 months. The Child Behavior Check List was used to assess behavior problems. Every change of placement during the first 18 months after entry into the foster care system was abstracted from case records.
Results:
The results suggest that volatile placement histories contribute negatively to both internalizing and externalizing behavior of foster children, and that children who experience numerous changes in placement may be at particularly high risk for these deleterious effects. Initial externalizing behaviors proved to be the strongest predictor of placement changes for the entire sample and for a sub-sample of those who initially evidenced problem behaviors on at least one broad-band CBCL scale. Our findings also suggest that children who initially score within normal ranges on the CBCL may be particularly vulnerable to the detrimental effects of placement breakdowns.
Conclusions:
On the basis of these findings we argue for an analytical approach that views behavior problems as both a cause and as a consequence of placement disruption. Children who do not evidence behavior problems may in fact constitute a neglected population that responds to multiple disruptions of their primary relationships with increasingly self-defeating behaviors.
This study uses data on the experiences of families involved with child welfare services to examine the nature of housing problems and needs among these families and whether housing status affects case outcomes. First, the article describes the housing difficulties faced by two distinct child welfare service populations: families receiving voluntary in-home services and families with children in court-ordered out-of-home care. Second, the study demonstrates the relationship between housing problems and the likelihood of family reunification for children in out-of-home care. The findings have implications for the delivery of child welfare services and the provision of housing assistance to low-income families with children.
Using cross-sectional analyses in conjunction with dynamic modeling (hierarchical linear modeling), the authors profiled 119 treatment foster care youth and constructed behavioral change trajectories for a subset of 97 children. Children generally showed improvements in internalizing and critical pathology problem domains but remained the same on measures of externalizing behaviors and total problem score. The number of previous out-of-home placements was positively associated with increased levels of psychiatric symptomatology and served as the most robust predictor for modeling treatment response trajectories across problem domains. Placement instability places the well-being of children at heightened risk, therefore, accurate assessment of child need and risk in relation to caregiver capacities is critical.
Despite decades of attention, the proportion of girls in the juvenile justice system has increased and their challenges have remained remarkably consistent, resulting in deeply rooted systemic gender injustice. The literature is clear that girls in the justice system have experienced abuse, violence, adversity, and deprivation across many of the domains of their lives - family, peers, intimate partners, and community. There is also increasing understanding of the sorts of programs helpful to these girls. What is missing is a focus on how systems - and particularly juvenile justice systems - can be redesigned to protect public safety and support the healing and healthy development of girls and young women.
A separate justice system for juveniles has existed in the USA for over 100 years. It was originally intended to function as a social welfare system with dual aims: to shield young delinquents from the corrupting influence of seasoned adult offenders, and to provide delinquents and status offenders1 with the guidance and treatment necessary to make the often difficult transition through adolescence to become law abiding adults. Over the last century, and most especially since the 1960s, juvenile justice policy has shifted dramatically, undergoing a series of reforms that have reshaped the system and challenged the principles on which it was founded.
In this study, the authors examined the facillty-to-communlty transition experiences - focusing specifically on employment - of 531 incarcerated youth following their release from Oregon's juvenile correctional system. They gathered data on the sample while these youth were still in custody and then every 6 months through phone Interviews to describe the participants' community work, educational, and living and social experiences of the study particlpants.The authors documented the participants' return to the juvenile correctional system and entry Into the adult correctional system from extant state databases. In this study, being employed at 6 months poitexrt was related In a marginally statistically significant manner (p = .07) to remaining in the community and out of the correctional system at that same point in time. Generally, young men, participants without special education disabilities, those youth committed to the juvenile correctional system for person-related crimes, and Individuals who were not gang members exhibited better employment outcomes. Services provided by mental health agencies and other social service agencies were Inversely related to employment rate, but substance abuse treatment and completion of career/vocational classes while In custody were positively related to selected employment outcomes. The results suggest that Individualized job placement and support services should be offered to members of this population upon their parole to the community-with special attention paid to distinct subgroups, such as young women, juvenile offenders with special education disabilities, gang members, and those with a history of property crimes.
This book seeks to analyze the issue of race in America after the election of Barack Obama. For the author, the U.S. criminal justice system functions can act as a contemporary system of racial control, even as it adheres to the principle of color blindness.
Running away is a serious problem behavior that occurs frequently among youth in the foster care system. Given the severity of the problem, it is important to understand the phenomenon and seek solutions. The purpose of this paper is to examine the literature to determine what is known about youth running away from foster care placements and to identify strategies that have been implemented to reduce the magnitude of the problem. We begin by describing how running away has been defined within the child welfare system and what is known about the prevalence of runaway behavior among youth in foster care. We then consider risk factors related to running away, along with ramifications for youth when they run away. Lastly, we discuss motivations for running and offer suggestions of strategies that can be helpful in efforts to prevent or reduce running. Strategies include promising research that uses a behavioral functional assessment and intervention approach to decrease running and stabilize placements.
This article examines how gender-role ideology may affect racial/ethnic disparities, using data on the population of Black, White and Hispanic female juvenile offenders in Florida. As expected, Black girls received harsher dispositions than White girls, but contrary to predictions, Hispanic girls’ dispositions were no harsher than White girls’. Interaction models revealed that the effects of race/ethnicity depend on legal variables; up to a certain threshold, White girls appear to be granted leniency. As their offending severity and prior records increase, however, the juvenile justice system becomes increasingly intolerant, and sentencing decisions become harsher for White girls than for Black girls.
This study examines the independent and interactive effects of race and gender on juvenile justice decision making. Using data from a sample of juvenile court referrals from two midwestern juvenile courts, this study looks at males and females separately by race. The results indicate that the effect of race on the pre-adjudication detention and disposition outcomes varies by gender. The severity or leniency of the outcomes is determined by race, gender, and an interaction of the two. This study underscores the need to examine juvenile justice decision making with a multistage analysis to unravel the intricate effects of race and gender.
Policy makers and juvenile justice officials express alarm over the rise in arrests of girls for simple and aggravated assault. Others see this perceived increase as an artifact of decreased public tolerance for violence, changes in parental attitudes or law enforcement policies, or heightened surveillance of domestic violence, which disproportionately affects girls. The author contends that the social construction of girls' violence may reflect policy changes in the juvenile justice system itself, especially the deinstitutionalization of status offenders. The Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act deinstitutionalization mandates encouraged “bootstrapping” or “relabeling” female status offenders as delinquents to retain access to facilities in which to confine “incorrigible” girls. The author analyzes data on changes in arrest patterns and confinement for boys and girls charged with simple and aggravated assault, arguing that differences in rates, victims, and confinement for “violent” boys and girls support a relabeling interpretation of the supposed rise in girls' violence consistent with the social construction thesis.
Despite federal and state legislation aimed at producing equitable treatment of youth in the juvenile court system, studies continue to find that race and ethnicity play a significant role in juvenile court outcomes. To date, few studies have examined the cumulative effects of race and ethnicity in juvenile court outcomes. In this study, a random sample of youth processed in Arizona during 2000 (N = 23,156) was used to examine how race and ethnicity influence diversion, petition, detention, adjudication, and disposition decisions. Analyses show that black, Latino, and American Indian youth were treated more severely in juvenile court outcomes than their white counterparts. Also, youth who were detained preadjudication were more likely to have a petition filed, less likely to have petitions dismissed, and more likely to be removed from the home at disposition. Implications for policy and practice are discussed.
This article is an empirical examination of gender bias in the handling of seriously delinquent youths at three stages of the juvenile justice system: arrest, adjudication, and disposition. The sample included 391 Black and White 14- to 17-year-old youths (100 girls and 291 boys), all heavily involved in crime when they were interviewed on the street during the period 1985-1987 in Miami for a study of drug/crime relationships. The tests for gender bias used controls for pertinent factors identified in prior research: race, type of offense, and level of involvement (for arrests, number of crimes done; for adjudication, age at arrest; and for dispositions, number of prior adjudications). Results indicated a number of significant differences in male and female juvenile justice outcomes. Discussion of these findings emphasizes two offense-particular reasons for gender differences which are not generally discussed, evaluates the evidence of system gender bias for this sample, and traces the methodological implications of this study for future research.
This article describes the current status of minority youths in juvenile justice systems. With nearly 20 years of federal support, there has been considerable research attention to identifying, explaining, and reducing the disproportionate minority contact with juvenile justice systems. Although progress is evident, the achievements of the Disproportionate Minority Contact (DMC) initiative have made it clear that the questions are more complicated than initially appeared. The answers do not appear in simple comparisons of youths by race but require “similarly situated” youths who differ only by minority status. Assuring that youths are similarly situated requires knowing their status on many complex and interrelated factors that exist across multiple levels of individuals, families, communities, and juvenile justice systems. The ways in which DMC can be reduced also require addressing parity in opportunities and expectations, both in the community and throughout juvenile justice systems.
This article argues that existing delinquency theories are fundamentally inadequate to the task of explaining female delinquency and official reactions to girls' deviance. To establish this, the article first reviews the degree of the androcentric bias in the major theories of delinquent behavior. Then the need for a feminist model of female delinquency is explored by reviewing the available evidence on girls' offending. This review shows that the extensive focus on disadvantaged males in public settings has meant that girls' victimization and the relationship between that experience and girls' crime has been systematically ignored. Also missed has been the central role played by the juvenile justice system in the sexualization of female delinquency and the criminalization of girls' survival strategies. Finally, it will be suggested that the official actions of the juvenile justice system should be understood as major forces in women's oppression as they have historically served to reinforce the obedience of all young women to the demands of patriarchal authority no matter how abusive and arbitrary.
This article traces the historical coverage of the gender issue in the criminological literature. It also provides contemporary empirical evidence about differences and similarities between girls and boys with respect to juvenile crime and to processing by the juvenile justice system, by analyzing several national juvenile crime data series, all of which have been recently updated. This research has produced numerous results that indicate that female and male delinquents possess more similarities than differences concerning arrest rates, arrest statistics, juvenile court data, and juvenile corrections data.
Recent research suggests a link between childhood maltreatment and later involvement in delinquency. This study examines this issue using official and self-report data from the Rochester Youth Development Study. The analysis addresses three central issues: the magnitude of the relationship between early child maltreatment and later delinquency, official and self-reported; the possibility of spuriousness in this relationship; and the impact of more extensive measurement of maltreatment on later delinquency. A significant relationship between child maltreatment and self-reported and official delinquency is found and this relationship, especially for more serious forms of delinquency, remains when controlling for other factors. The results also suggest that more extensive maltreatment is related to higher rates of delinquency. Implications and suggestions for further research are discussed.
This article integrates arguments from three perspectives on the relationship between communities and crime—constrained residential choices, social capital, and street context perspectives—to specify a conceptual model of community disadvantage and the violence of individual adolescents. Specifically, we propose that status characteristics (e.g., race, poverty, female headship) restrict the residential choices of families. Residence in extremely disadvantaged communities, in turn, increases the chances of violent behavior by youths by influencing the development and maintenance of community and family social capital, and by influencing the chances that youths are exposed to a criminogenic street context. We assess our conceptual model using community contextual and individual-level data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. Our findings suggest that individual or family status characteristics influence violence largely because of the communities in which disadvantaged persons and families reside. Although we find that community social capital does not predict individual violence, both family social capital and measures of an alternative street milieu are strong predictors of individual violence. Moreover, our street context variables appear to be more important than the social capital variables in explaining how community disadvantage affects violence.
This study focused on hypotheses about the contributions of neighborhood disadvantage, collective socialization, and parenting to African American children's affiliation with deviant peers. A total of 867 families living in Georgia and Iowa, each with a 10- to 12-year-old child, participated. Unique contributions to deviant peer affiliation were examined using a hierarchical linear model. Community disadvantage derived from census data had a significant positive effect on deviant peer affiliations. Nurturant/involved parenting and collective socialization processes were inversely associated, and harsh/inconsistent parenting was positively associated, with deviant peer affiliations. The effects of nurturant/involved parenting and collective socialization were most pronounced for children residing in the most disadvantaged neighborhoods.
Nearly half a million children are victims of abuse and neglect and part of our foster care system. Over time, many of these youth cross into our juvenile and then adult justice systems; some will end up as federal offenders, immersed in a process where mandated penalties provide little room for flexibility or consideration of the characteristics and needs of the individual. This article will offer the perspectives of a former prosecutor and child welfare advocate on: (i) the current conditions and challenges within our foster care system—the feeder for many youth into gangs and criminal activity; (ii) the misaligned priorities and disheartening patterns we currently see in our justice system; and (iii) the ill-advised practices, that set our nation apart from the rest of the world, allowing juvenile offenders to receive life without parole sentences. The article will then discuss a series of recommendations in all of these areas that would enable us to turn the corner and chart an improved and more hopeful path for our nation's vulnerable and at-risk children and youth.
A separate justice system for juveniles has existed in the USA for over 100 years. It was originally intended to unction as a social welfare system with dual aims: to shield young delinquents from the corrupting influence of seasoned adult offenders, and to provide delinquents and status offenders1In the USA, the juvenile justice population is classified into delinquents—those who commit crimes—and status offenders—those who commit special juvenile offenses like truancy, running away from home, and “being beyond parental control” that would not be crimes if committed by adults. The jurisdiction over status offenders has historically been justified on the grounds that these are youth at-risk for delinquency.with the guidance and treatment necessary to make the often difficult transition through adolescence to become law abiding adults. Over the last century, and most especially since the 1960s, juvenile justice policy has shifted dramatically, undergoing a series of reforms that have reshaped the system and challenged the principles on which it was founded.
Children who experience maltreatment are at increased risk of engaging in delinquent behavior. Although little is known about the mechanisms responsible for this increased risk, the use of substitute care placement and placement instability are often identified as correlates. It is not clear from prior studies, however, whether delinquency precedes or follows placement instability. The current study adds significantly to the literature by identifying selected factors related to child maltreatment and delinquency and disentangling the timing of delinquency petitions relative to movements within the child welfare system. The results indicate that substantiated victims of maltreatment average 47% higher delinquency rates relative to children not indicated for abuse or neglect. In addition, approximately 16% of children placed into substitute care experience at least one delinquency petition compared to 7% of all maltreatment victims who are not removed from their family. Placement instability further increases the risk of delinquency for male foster children, but not for female foster children. Other characteristics related to delinquency include race, age, and recurrence of maltreatment.
There is at least thirty years of research that focuses on the increased risk of delinquency associated with child maltreatment. Yet there are few studies that investigate the outcomes associated with victims of child abuse and neglect beyond the initial arrest. Using child welfare and juvenile justice administrative data from Los Angeles County, the current study investigates the relationship between child welfare status and two judicial outcomes: case dismissal and probation. The results indicate that delinquency cases originating in child welfare are less likely to receive probation, controlling for a wide range of factors including age, gender, race, and type of offense. The results also indicate that the child welfare system is a significant source of overrepresentation for African American youth in juvenile justice. Adolescents simultaneously involved with child welfare and juvenile justice may require alternative arrangements with regard to juvenile justice dispositions and placements.
Group homes fall into the broad category of residential care, a category that also includes half-way homes, campus based homes, emergency shelters, self-contained settings, and staff secured setting. In general, residential care services represent an option of last resort. In the current study we use administrative records from a large urban county and propensity score matching to investigate the relationship between group home placements in child welfare and the risk of delinquency (n = 8226). The results indicate that the relative risk of delinquency is approximately two and one half times greater for adolescents with at least one group home placement as compared with youth in foster care settings. This finding raises serious questions about the use of group homes for victims of physical abuse and neglect.
While many residential care models focus on the environment that existed within group homes, there is a need for these programs to concentrate on how some adolescents begin to adjust to life in a unique new environment. Nurturance and consistent care cannot be underestimated for displaced adolescents who have experienced a disruption in their attachment organization. This model includes two components: one that supports a stable and secure environment which is essential in re-organizing attachment behavior and another component of care and treatment that builds resilient adolescents through effective therapeutic teaching. This residential model has been designed to supplant unstable family models that many of the adolescents have experienced and to ultimately enhance the adolescent's resiliency in managing life after the group home. Case samples are included to illustrate the implementation of the model.
Based on repeated in-depth interviews with youth aged 16-19 in the care of the Department of Social Services in Massachusetts, this paper examines adolescents' perspectives on out-of-home placements. It answers calls for scholarly focus on the voices of those who have experienced foster care and to ways their words can inform child welfare research, policy, and practice. Material from interviews illustrates the complex and cumulative instabilities adolescents experience in out-of-home placements and their impact on them. Since the majority of adolescents interviewed, and many others in child welfaresystems, spend some or all of their teenage years in congregate care settings, understanding theirexperiences in such settings is important. The conclusion examines implications of adolescents'perspectives for research, in particular on how to improve measurement of stability and instability in care.Implications for policy and practice include developing system-level strategies for minimizing transitions andseizing opportunities to strengthen skills among adolescents facing transitions. In addition, providingtrauma-informed training and support for caregivers to encourage appropriate handling of so-called "problembehaviors" and modeling of healthy transitions can help youth avoid the many negative outcomes associatedwith having lived in out-of-home placements and develop into mature and independent adults.
This study focused on hypotheses about the contributions of neighborhood disadvantage, collective socialization, and parenting to African American children's affiliation with deviant peers. A total of 867 families living in Georgia and Iowa, each with a 10- to 12-year-old child, participated. Unique contributions to deviant peer affiliation were examined using a hierarchical linear model. Community disadvantage derived from census data had a significant positive effect on deviant peer affiliations. Nurturant/involved parenting and collective socialization processes were inversely associated, and harsh/inconsistent parenting was positively associated, with deviant peer affiliations. The effects of nurturant/involved parenting and collective socialization were most pronounced for children residing in the most disadvantaged neighborhoods.
Two studies examined unconscious racial stereotypes of decision makers in the juvenile justice system. Police officers (Experiment 1) and juvenile probation officers (Experiment 2) were subliminally exposed to words related to the category Black or to words neutral with respect to race. In a presumably unrelated task, officers read 2 vignettes about a hypothetical adolescent who allegedly committed either a property crime (shoplifting from a convenience store) or an interpersonal crime (assaulting a peer). The race of the offender was left unstated and the scenarios were ambiguous about the causes of the crime. Respondents rated the hypothetical offender on a number of traits (e.g., hostility and immaturity) and made judgments about culpability, expected recidivism, and deserved punishment. They also completed a self-report measure of conscious attitudes about race. As hypothesized, officers in the racial prime condition reported more negative trait ratings, greater culpability, and expected recidivism, and they endorsed harsher punishment than did officers in the neutral condition. The effects of the racial primes were not moderated by consciously held attitudes about African Americans. The implications of the findings for racial disparity in the juvenile justice system and for changing unconscious stereotypes were discussed.
The problems children have upon entering foster care can potentially explain prior research findings that frequent placement changes are associated with poor outcomes. This study sought to disentangle this cascading relationship in order to identify the independent impact of placement stability on behavioral outcomes downstream.
Placement stability over the first 18 months in out-of-home care for 729 children from the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-being was categorized as early stability (stable placement within 45 days), late stability (stable placement beyond 45 days), or unstable (never achieving stability). Propensity scores predicting placement instability based on baseline attributes were divided into risk categories and added to a logistic regression model to examine the independent association between placement stability and behavioral well-being using the Child Behavior Checklist and temperament scores from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth.
Half (52%) of the children achieved early stability, 19% achieved later stability, and 28% remained unstable. Early stabilizers were more likely to be young, have normal baseline behavior, have no prior history with child welfare, and have birth parents without mental health problems. After accounting for baseline attributes, stability remained an important predictor of well-being at 18 months. Unstable children were more likely to have behavior problems than children who achieved early stability across every level of risk for instability. Among low-risk children, the probability of behavioral problems among early stabilizers was 22%, compared to 36% among unstable children, showing a 63% increase in behavior problems due to instability alone.
Children in foster care experience placement instability unrelated to their baseline problems, and this instability has a significant impact on their behavioral well-being. This finding would support the development of interventions that promote placement stability as a means to improve outcomes among youth entering care.