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.
Juvenile justice systems reform is occurring across the country as a result of a growing
understanding of developmental and neurological differences between youth and adults,
the high cost of incarceration, and the consistent failure of a punitive juvenile justice
model. However, even as systems are initiating reforms and changing their approach,
they are routinely failing to modify those reforms for girls or even to collect data on how
girls, specifically, are affected by the problems they are seeking to remedy. As a result,
the particular impact on girls of failures in the juvenile justice system is not understood
and few juvenile reforms are tailored to girls’ needs and pathways into the system -
meaning girls and young women are unlikely to fully benefit from system reforms.
Many of the problems discussed in this report are not unique to girls - and many of
the suggested paths forward can benefit both boys and girls. However, because girls
are frequently left out of reform discussions, an intentional focus on girls is needed to
ensure that they fully benefit from system reforms. Indeed, in writing this report we were
struck by the number of promising national and large-scale juvenile justice reform efforts
that have not fully considered the role of gender in the problems they address or in the
solutions they propose. If this intentional gender focus does not coexist with current
large-scale system reforms, an important opportunity for gender justice and equity and
developmental system reforms will be missed.
To facilitate developmental juvenile justice system reform for girls, this report will:
1. Map girls’ current paths into and through the juvenile justice system;
2. Describe the social contexts driving girls’ behavior and involvement in the
juvenile justice system;
3. Detail recommendations for an alternative, developmental approach to
redesign juvenile justice systems to address harmful social contexts and
girls’ resulting behaviors, rather than penalize and punish girls for challenges
beyond their control. The recommendations included in this report are consistent with decades of research
on adolescent development, as well as newer data on the development of girls in
particular. With continued research on girls and an intentional focus on their needs,
system stakeholders and policymakers can capitalize on current reforms that are already
underway and ensure girls are not simply wedged into solutions meant for boys.
