The numbers are huge: An Oregon study found that 93 percent of girls in the state’s juvenile justice system had been sexually or physically abused at some time. South Carolina research found that 81 percent of girls in its system had experienced sexual abuse.

Some are victims of sex trafficking. Some who have been abused run away from home and are truant. Some have been abused in the foster care system.

“It’s far more than the vast majority of people are aware of,” said Peter Edelman, faculty director of the Georgetown Law Center on Poverty and Inequality.

The center, along with the Ms. Foundation and the Human Rights Project for Girls, released a new report Thursday: “The Sexual Abuse to Prison Pipeline: The Girls’ Story.”

It pulls together the story of traumatized girls — and a story of punishment instead of assistance.

[For more of this story, written by Stell Simonton, go to http://jjie.org/report-girls-f...son-pipeline/114808/]