Final Report - RI Department of Children, Youth & Families

APPENDIX N: GENDER SPECIFIC PROGRAMMING
REVIEW OF IMPORTANT RESEARCH FINDINGS
In order to develop and implement effective programs for at-risk females and female
offenders, policymakers, administrators, managers, staff, and community providers and
advocates must be familiar with a core body of well-documented research regarding:
1. Female psychosocial development (including the impacts of socialization, girls’
relational orientation, and girls’ unique decision-making processes and motivators),
and
2. Unique factors that place young women at risk of involvement in the child welfare
and juvenile justice systems, as well as their unique pathways into such systems
Female Psychosocial Development
Research has evinced developmental differences in males and females and distinct
variations in the way they see and understand the world. Cutting-edge scholarship
regarding female development has revealed that females have a relational orientation to
the world and focus on connection with others. Armed with a more detailed and accurate
picture of how females develop, new research is replacing outdated studies that came to
wrongful conclusions about female moral, psychological, and social development
(Caplan & Caplan, Gilligan, C., Jordan). Research continues to show the negative
aspects of socialization and their particular effects on girls and young women. Socially
determined gender roles and male/female stereotypes can be limiting and damaging, and
objectification, abuse, harassment, and extensive family responsibilities are now being
understood as major themes in the lives of girls and women (Chesney-Lind, 1997, OJJDP
1998). Programming must incorporate these themes so that girls and young women can
learn how to deal effectively with the issues that impact their lives and choices and
services can effectively reach this population.
Abuse and Exploitation
Female Risk Factors for System-Involvement
Girls and young women are sexually abused almost three times more often than boys
(Sedlack & Broadhurst, 1996). Girls and young women who have been sexually abused
are more likely to have high stress, depressive symptoms, and low self-esteem. The
prevalence of abuse in the lives of girls and young women points to the need for services
that directly address issues of victimization and survival.
“The abuse and exploitation of young girls should be viewed as a major and pervasive
public health threat and a primary precursor to involvement in the criminal justice
system” (OJP Coordination Group on Women, 1998). “Girls need access to a continuum
of placement options in which their safety can be ensured while they address the issues
that brought them into the system and receive the services they will need to leave it (OJP
Coordination Group on Women, 1998).” Such options should be non-punitive.
System of Care Task Force Report (January 2003) 173