Defining Gender-Responsive Services in a Juvenile Court Setting

Gender-Responsive Approaches in Juvenile Justice: How the System Prioritizes the Content- and Context-Related Needs of Girls

“…This type of model supports the production of innovation and focus on this translation of science (Flaspohler et al, 2008; Miller & Shinn, 2005). Researchers have advocated for the use of gender-responsive services; however, the current state of the literature is still far from broad implementation and dissemination, in part because of the broadness of the gender-responsive construct and the failure to operationalize it in a cogent way for academic and practitioner evaluation purposes (see, for example, Anderson, Hoskins, et al, 2019; Salisbury, 2015). Wandersman (2003) argued that the dominant prevention/intervention research paradigm is necessary but not sufficient and community-centered models provide a complementary approach.…”

“…First, the juvenile justice system should prioritize services located outside of the court that are community-based especially for girls deemed lower risk or posing a risk to themselves. A diversionary approach may funnel resources into addressing relationship-based needs and trauma-informed services to align with best practices in gender-responsive intervention (Anderson, Walerych, et al, 2019; Javdani & Allen, 2016). Moreover, while practitioners frequently reflected on the need for resources specific to girls, they also highlighted the very limited nature of these resources.…”

“…That is, the interview questions in this study were set up in a way to facilitate a general discussion about girls’ involvement with the juvenile justice system that allowed the researchers to learn from practitioners. Preliminary work has been done to unpack meaning and definitions (e.g., Anderson, Hoskins, et al, 2019), but future research should dig deeper into the gender-responsive construct, aiming for more operational specificity, with larger and more generalizable samples.…”

“…In essence, programming that is effective for girls involved in the juvenile justice system should be specifically designed and targeted for their unique, gendered needs. However, while this construct has strong conceptual and theoretical foundations in the feminist criminological literature (see Belknap et al, 1997;Bloom et al, 2004), there is weaker evidence for, and operationalization of, gender-responsiveness or gender-specific programming in the empirical juvenile justice literature (Anderson, Hoskins, et al, 2019;Matthews & Hubbard, 2008). Kerig and Schindler (2013) outlined 10 academic and practitioner-based publications that addressed the recommendations set forth by the OJJDP for genderresponsive intervention for girls involved in the juvenile justice system.…”

Examining Sex-Based Measurement Invariance in the Youth Level of Service/Case Management Inventory

“…For instance, although rates of family dysfunction are elevated within the population of court-involved youths generally, girls are more likely than boys to experience interpersonal stressors, such as abuse, neglect, and other forms of violence within their households (Chamberlain & Moore, 2002; Kerig & Becker, 2012). In addition to unstable home environments, girls’ unique pathways to court-involvement involve a high prevalence of victimization and trauma experiences, unsafe neighborhoods and schools, educational struggles, substance misuse, and health problems (Anderson et al, 2019; Chesney-Lind et al, 2008; Kerig & Ford, 2014; Ravoira et al, 2012). Moreover, court-involved girls’ first arrests are more frequently for status offenses tied to their trauma, either directly (e.g., via running away from abusive home) or indirectly (e.g., substance use as a coping mechanism for post-traumatic stress disorder) (Chesney-Lind & Belknap, 2004; Kerig & Becker, 2012).…”