1. The Double Standard of Juvenile Justice
Importance of Gender:
Not to be confused with biology, gender is cultural
Gender establishes expectations for behavior
Gender shapes all aspects of crime and criminal/ juvenile justice
Gender is important when it comes to the family, as boys and girls are brought up differently, which in turn relates to delinquency

2. Gender & Family
Adolescent girls live in a world that has not changed much despite alterations to the adult female role.
Modern girls, like girls in the past, are more closely watched than their brothers.
Much of the family disharmony is an outgrowth of the long-standing sexual double standard that tacitly encourages male sexual exploration and punishes female sexuality

3. Parents and Juvenile Court Referrals
Some parents turn to the family or juvenile court to enforce their authority.
For many parents, maintaining control over their children, especially girls, is extremely important.
One major reason for the presence of girls in juvenile courts is the insistence of their parents that they be arrested.
This pattern began to appear when the juvenile court was founded

4. Girls & the Child Saving Movement
Many early activities of the child savers revolved around monitoring the behavior of young girls, particularly immigrant girls, in order to prevent their “straying from the path.”
majority of girls appeared in court for such charges as “immorality” and other status offenses
Even today we see that girls are more likely than boys to appear on such charges (even though they are no longer called “immorality”)

5. Obsession over Sex
It was (and still is to a considerable extent) mostly about adults worrying about the sexual activities of girls
Reformers apparently wanted to make sure their daughters were “chaste” and “pure” for the young men of the nation
Note how many new “training schools” for girls opened in the early 1900s and what sort of “training” they received
To be “good wives and mothers”

6. The Best Place to Conquer Girls
This was the goal of the juvenile court and the double standard was and still is alive and well.
Some recent research reveals that this is still the case
Girls far more likely than boys to appear in court for status offenses and also to be detained and sent to a training school
Note how many studies have been done documenting this (covering most of the past century)
Also in other countries

7. 1992 Reauthorization of the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act
States were required to provide gender appropriate services to girls
To deal, for instance, with issues of sexual abuse
Despite such efforts, there remains evidence of the double standard
Girls continue to be arrested for mostly status offenses and minor assaults (domestic violence and fights at school)

8. Girls Favored Over Boys?
In some cases, girls who are involved with boys in serious offenses (e.g., burglaries and robberies) are often not arrested
Might be because their role is as an accessory or in some cases coercion was involved
In fact, the “lenient” treatment of women in general by the justice system stems more from the minor nature of their offenses
Yet girls are still over-represented for status offenses

9. Girls and referrals to juvenile court
The overall % of girls rose from 19% to 25% between 1985 and 2000
No significant change in girls overall level of criminal activity
So why the change? Zero tolerance, emphasizing petty offenses, and overall changes in policies, rather than changes in behavior

10. Commitment to juvenile prisons
13% of the girls, but only 3% of the boys in juvenile correctional facilities as of 2011 were status offenders
almost one-fourth of the girls in private facilities were status offenders, compared to only 7% of the boys.
Boys twice as likely as girls to be “chronic offenders”
Girls still more likely to be referred for shoplifting

11. The “New” Double Standard of Juvenile Justice
This involves girls of color
In LA courts, Latinas comprised the largest proportion of the population (45%), followed by white girls (34%), and African-American girls (23%).
white girls more likely to be recommended for a treatment than minorities
Resisting a negative label – resources is the key

12. The “New” Double Standard of Juvenile Justice
Note the study by Mike Males of race and girls processing in San Francisco
Blacks are around 12% of San Francisco’s total population of girls, but they represent about 61% of all girls arrested for felonies, two-thirds of those arrested for robbery and almost three-fourths (72%) of those arrested for drug felonies
Note what Males has to say about the drug problem – it largely a problem of whites over 30!