This article reviews the literature on gender-specific services for girls in the juvenile justice system. Drawing on feminist theorizing, it offers four critiques: (a) that the increasing involvement of girls in the system is taken as a real indicator of greater crime and delinquency; (b) that an essentialized notion of gender is used; (c) that the problem is located in the individual, to the exclusion of solutions that focus on system/structural changes; and (d) that a focus on girls’ victimization obscures girls’ agency and perpetuates girls’ continued punishment for behaviors that are more acceptable among boys. The article concludes by proposing a framework for rethinking gender in the design and delivery of services within and outside the juvenile justice system.
Acoca, L. (1999). Investing in girls: A 21st century strategy. Juvenile Justice, 6(1), 3-13.
2.
Ainsworth, J. E. (1991). Re-imagining childhood and reconstructing the legal order: The case for abolishing the juvenile court. North Carolina Law Review, 69, 1083-1133.
3.
Allen, F. A. (1981). The decline of the rehabilitative ideal: Penal policy and social purpose. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
4.
American Bar Association and National Bar Association. (2001). Justice by gender: The lack of appropriate prevention, diversion and treatment alternatives for girls in the juvenile justice system. Washington, DC: Authors.
5.
Belknap, J., Dunn, M., & Holsinger, K. (1997). Moving toward juvenile justice and youth-serving systems that address the distinct experience of the adolescent female: Areport to the governor by the Gender Specific Services Work Group. Columbus, OH: Office of Criminal Justice.
6.
Belknap, J., Holsinger, K., & Dunn, M. (1997). Understanding incarcerated girls: The results of a focus group study. The Prison Journal, 77, 381-404.
7.
Belknap, J., Winter, E. J., & Cady, B. (2001). Assessing the needs of committed delinquent and preadjudicated girls in Colorado: A focus group study. Denver: Colorado Division of Youth Corrections.
8.
Berger, P. L., & Luckmann, T. (1966). The social construction of reality. Garden City, NY: Doubleday.
9.
Bordo, S. (1987). Feminism, postmodernism, and gender-skepticism. In L. J. Nicholson (Ed.), Feminism/postmodernism (pp. 133-156). New York: Routledge.
10.
Butler, J. (1990). Gender trouble: Feminism and the subversion of identity. New York: Routledge.
11.
Chesney-Lind, M., & Okamoto, S. K. (2001). Gender matters: Patterns in girls’ delinquency and gender responsive programming. Journal of Forensic Psychology Practice, 1(3), 1-28.
12.
Chesney-Lind, M., & Shelden, R. G. (1998). Girls, delinquency, and juvenile justice (2nd ed.). Belmont, CA: West/Wadsworth.
13.
Collins, P. H. (1990). Black feminist thought: Knowledge, consciousness, and the politics of empowerment. New York: Routledge.
14.
Crenshaw, K. (1991). Demarginalizing the intersection of race and sex: A Black feminist critique of anti-discrimination doctrine, feminist theory, and anti-racist politics. In K. T. Bartlett & R. Kennedy (Eds.), Feminist legal theory: Readings in law and gender (pp. 57-80). Boulder, CO: Westview.
15.
Crinall, K. (1999). Challenging victimisation in practice with young women. In B. Pease & J. Fook (Eds.), Transforming social work practice: Postmodern critical perspectives (pp. 70-83). London: Routledge.
16.
Daniel, M. D. (1999). The female intervention team. Juvenile Justice, 6(1), 14-20.
17.
Dohrn, B. (2002). The school, the child, and the court. In M. K. Rosenheim, F. E. Zimring, D. S. Tanenhaus, & B. Dohrn (Eds.), A century of juvenile justice (pp. 267-309). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
18.
Figueira-McDonough, J. (1998). Toward a gender-integrated knowledge in social work. In J. Figueira-McDonough, F. E. Netting, & A. Nichols-Casebolt (Eds.), The role of gender in practice knowledge: Claiming half the human experience (pp. 3-40). New York: Garland.
19.
Finn, J. L. (2001). Text and turbulence: Representing adolescence as pathology in the human services. Childhood, 8, 167-191.
20.
General Accounting Office. (2003). Child welfare and juvenile justice: Federal agencies could play a stronger role in helping states reduce the number of children placed solely to obtain mental health services. Washington, DC: Author.
21.
Gilligan, C. (1982). In a differentvoice: Psychological theory and women’s development. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
22.
Girls Inc. (1996). Prevention and parity: Girls in juvenile justice. Indianapolis, IN: Girls Incorporated National Resource Center.
23.
Goodkind, S., & Miller, D. (2003). A widening of the net of social control? “Gender-specific” treatment with young women in the U.S. juvenile justice system. Unpublished manuscript.
24.
Greene, Peters, & Associates. (1998). Guiding principles for promising female programming: An inventory of best practices. Washington, DC: Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.
25.
Harris, A. P. (1990). Race and essentialism in feminist legal theory. Stanford Law Review, 42, 581-616.
26.
Hilgartner, S., & Bosk, C. (1988). The rise and fall of social problems: A public arenas model. American Journal of Sociology, 94, 53-78.
27.
Holsinger, K., Belknap, J., & Sutherland, J. L. (1999). Assessing the gender specific program and service needs for adolescent females in the juvenile justice system. Columbus, OH: Office of Criminal Justice Services.
28.
Johnston, L. D., O’Malley, P. M., & Bachman, J. G. (2003). Monitoring the Future national survey results on drug use, 1975-2002. Volume 1: Secondary school students (NIH Publication No. 03-5375). Bethesda, MD: National Institute on Drug Abuse.
29.
Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Appropriations Authorization, Pub. L. 102-586, § 1, 106 Stat. 4982 (1992).
30.
Kelly, L., Burton, S., & Regan, L. (1996). Beyond victim or survivor: Sexual violence, identity, and feminist theory and practice. In L. Adkins & V. Merchant (Eds.), Sexualizing the social: Power and the organization of sexuality (pp. 77-101). London: Macmillan.
31.
Kempf-Leonard, K., & Sample, L. L. (2000). Disparity based on sex: Is gender-specific treatment warranted?Justice Quarterly, 17, 89-128.
32.
Males, M. A. (1996). The scapegoat generation: America’s war on adolescents. Monroe, ME: Common Courage Press.
33.
Ms. Foundation for Women, Collaborative Fund for Healthy Girls and Women. (2001). The new girls’ movement: Implications for youth programs. New York: Author.
34.
Mullaly, B. (1997). Structural social work: Ideology, theory, and practice (2nd ed.). New York: Oxford University Press.
35.
Nathanson, C. A. (1991). Dangerous passage: The social control of sexuality in women’s adolescence. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
36.
Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. (1999). Juvenile justice (Vol. 6). Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice.
37.
Oyewumi, O. (1998). Deconfounding gender. Signs, 23, 1049-1062.
38.
PACE Center for Girls. (2000). Informational brochure. Jacksonville, FL: Author.
39.
The Peters Group. (2001, March). Gender-specificprograms for girls. Paper presented at the Gender-Specific Program Conference, Auburn Hills, MI.
40.
Phillips, A., & Van Schoick, L. (2001). Juvenile justice policies and procedures sub-committee report. Detroit, MI: Wayne County Female Services Advisory Committee.
41.
Pipher, M. (1994). Reviving Ophelia: Saving the selves of adolescent girls. New York: Ballantine.
42.
Poe-Yamagata, E., & Butts, J. A. (1996). Female offenders in the juvenile justice system. Washington, DC: Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.
43.
Rubin, G. (1986). Thinking sex: Notes for a radical theory of the politics of sexuality. In A. Henry, M. Barale, & D. Halpern (Eds.), The lesbian and gay studies reader (pp. 3-44). New York: Routledge.
44.
Scott, J. W. (1988a). Deconstructing equality-versus-difference: Or, the uses of poststructuralist theory for feminism. Feminist Studies, 14, 33-50.
45.
Scott, J. W. (1988b). Gender and the politics of history. New York: Columbia University Press.
46.
Scott, J. W. (1991). The evidence of experience. In A. Henry, M. Barale, & D. Halpern (Eds.), The lesbian and gay studies reader (pp. 397-415). New York: Routledge.
47.
Steedman, C. (1986). Landscape for a good woman: The story of two lives. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
48.
U.S. Department of Justice. (2003). Juvenile court statistics 1999. Washington, DC: Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.
49.
Weedon, C. (1999). Feminism, theory and the politics of difference. Oxford, UK: Blackwell.
50.
Young, I. M. (1990). Justice and the politics of difference. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
51.
Young, I. M. (1994a). Gender as seriality: Thinking about women as a social collective. Signs, 19, 713-738.
52.
Young, I. M. (1994b). Punishment, treatment, empowerment: Three approaches to policy for pregnant addicts. Feminist Studies, 20, 33-57.
53.
Zimring, F. E. (1998). American youth violence. New York: Oxford University Press.
