Juvenile Justice System and Risk Factor Data - Illinois Criminal ...

Females in secure detention
Females accounted for 2,445 of the 14,154 admissions of youth ages 10 to 16 to secure detention
statewide in 2007 (17 percent). Table 19 depicts the percentage of male and female detainees by
type of offense in 2007.
In 2007, 48 percent of female admissions to detention were for offenses against a person,
com pared to 30 percen t for males. Males in 2007
w ere more
l ikely t o be admitted for property
offenses than females—27
percent and 20 percent of admissions,
respect
ively. Females had a
higher proportion of their detention
admissions for status offenses. In 2007, status offenses
accounted for 2 percent of female admissions, but only 0.3 percent of m ale admissions.
Table
19
Numb er of youth detainees by gender and type of offense in Illinois, 2007
Type of Offense Male Fem ale
Total
Number Percent of gender Number Percent of gender
Person 3,494 30% 1,171 48% 4,665
Property 3,167 27% 487 20% 3,654
Sex 302 3% 5 0 .2% 307
Drug 1,163 10% 112 5% 1,275
Status Offense 33 0.3% 43 2% 76
Contempt of court 297 3% 77 3% 374
Warrant 1,285 11% 165 7% 1,450
Weapons 630 5% 25 1% 655
Violations 750 6% 202 8% 952
Other 588 5% 158 6% 746
Total 11,709 100% 2,445 100% 14,154
Source: Juvenile Monitoring Information System
Females in corrections
While the percentages of females arrested and detained were 21 and 17 percent respectively, the
percentage of females committed to IDJJ is significantly lower. In FY07, females accounted for
11 percent of commitments of 13 to 16 year olds to IDJJ (145 of 1,362 commitments). This
finding seems to suggest that many offenses committed by female delinquents are not severe
enough to warrant a commitment to IDJJ. However, as shown by the analysis on arrests for
person offenses, the percentage of person offenses allegedly committed by females is slightly
higher. These data seem to indicate that females are either diverted from IDJJ more often than
their male counterparts or commit crimes that are less violent than those committed by males.
Ten percent of youth ages 13 to 16 committed to IDJJ for new adjudications were female (127 of
1,204 new sentence commitments). However, when examining youth ages 13 to 16 committed to
IDJJ for technical violations of parole or mandatory supervised release, females accounted for 11
percent (18 of 158 technical violation recommitments).
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