Final Report - RI Department of Children, Youth & Families

APPENDIX N: GENDER SPECIFIC PROGRAMMING
options have not been tailored to correspond to their needs as a subgroup, and both
locally and nationally there is a paucity of program options tailored to meet their unique
needs. Without programming and services that are attentive to their risk profile, girls and
young women will continue to enter and re-enter the court system at alarming rates.
The Federal Mandate to Implement Gender-specific Programming for Females
In recent years, the rising numbers of girls and young women entering and re-entering the
court system has stimulated national concern regarding the availability of services for
females and the effectiveness of programs serving females. During the 1992
Reauthorization of the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act of 1974,
Congress paid close attention to the concerns brought by researchers and youth-serving
professionals in which they expressed and identified a necessity to address the genderspecific
needs of girls and young women. This was accomplished through Congress’
references to and emphasis on importance of equity and gender-specific services
throughout the Reauthorization legislation. The final Act outlined three specific areas in
which states were required to respond and take action. It required each state to:
! Conduct an analysis of gender-specific services for the prevention and treatment of
juvenile delinquency, including the types of such services available and the need for
such services for females;
! Develop a plan for providing needed gender-specific services for the prevention and
treatment of juvenile delinquency; and
! Provide assurance that youth in the juvenile justice system are treated equitably on
the basis of gender, race, family income, and mentally, emotionally, or physically
handicapping conditions.
These provisions recognized the Act’s previous failure to deal with gender bias in a
meaningful way and provided the impetus for states to begin to look more closely at the
girls and young women moving through their juvenile justice systems. Several states,
including Rhode Island, have begun to proactively address these issues within their
juvenile justice systems.
New research and national best practices have provided a foundation of knowledge that is
allowing researchers, practitioners, administrators, and policy makers to understand the
utility of effective service delivery for girls in the context of goals to reduce courtinvolvement
and recidivism. Research has shown that girls in the juvenile justice system
are more likely than boys to be victims of abuse, to enter the system with status offenses,
and be sanctioned to programs that serve more serious, male offenders. Since girls
exhibit specific behaviors that are unique to their gender, they require different
interventions, sanctions and services. The majority of juvenile justice providers
nationwide lack the skills, tools, and resources necessary to be effective in providing a
framework for girls to be successful in changing negative behaviors.
Strengthening Services for Girls and Young Women Along the Continuum of Care
The concept of gender-specific programming is grounded in sound theoretical and
practical research on female development and the unique risk profile shared by girls and
System of Care Task Force Report (January 2003) 178