Imagine being a child abused or neglected by someone you know, feeling unsafe in your own home, being betrayed by people who you should be able to trust. Where would you go? How would you cope with such traumatic experiences? For girls involved in the juvenile justice system, their options are very limited, and none of them would be seen as good choices from a middle class perspective. Girls typically turn their rage inward — they run away from home, are truant from schools, become defiant, or engage in self-harming behaviors. As a result, girls disproportionately end up in the juvenile justice system for status offenses—actions that would not be considered criminal if committed by adults—rather than for violent or person-to-person crimes.
In October, during the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention’s National Girls Initiative Roundtable, a woman in her early thirties, who had been detained at the young age of 15, shared her story about the childhood experiences that led up to her involvement with the juvenile justice system. I sat still listening, moved by her strength and the courage it took to share the harsh realities of her childhood — a childhood marked by adverse experiences including sexual, physical and emotional abuse, neglect, and a lack of the kind of family support so many of us take for granted.
[For more of this story, written by Jessie Domingo Salu, go to http://sparkaction.org/content...rls-juvenile-justice]
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