Preventing Female Incarceration 

Last week we told the story of Bridges Reentry, a small nonprofit dedicated to helping formerly incarcerated females successfully reenter society after they had paid their debt to society. This week we'll be looking at why women end up incarcerated in the first place, and what School Counselors are doing to help them avoid involvement with the juvenile justice system.

Female Incarceration Stats

Girls have historically been less likely than boys to become involved in the juvenile justice system, especially at the “deeper end” of the system involving secure residential placement (incarceration) and transfer to adult court. The arrest rate for girls peaked in 1996 at 4,030 arrests per 100,000 girls. This rate declined to about 3,400 arrests per 100,000 girls from 2000 through 2008 and then began to drop again. By 2020 the juvenile arrest rate for girls was 756 per 100,000 girls.

Status Offenses

In 2020, girls accounted for 44 percent of the estimated 57,700 juvenile court status offense caseload. Status offenses are acts that are illegal because the persons committing them are of juvenile status (e.g., truancy, running away from home, curfew violations). When looking only at the status offense cases involving girls, 59 percent were for truancy, 14 percent were for running away, 10 percent were for liquor law violations, 8 percent were for ungovernability, 3 percent were for curfew violations, and 5 percent were listed as miscellaneous.

Gang Involvement

As girls mature through adolescence, they face an increased chance of experiencing risk factors for gang involvement that often leads to an increase in the severity of offenses. While the types of delinquent acts that girls in gangs commit are often less severe than boys, their involvement with gangs is still a concern and demands unique prevention, response, and rehabilitation efforts. Research on this topic has identified key factors that are significantly correlated with girls’ delinquency leading to gang involvement:

• Physical and sexual abuse and assault.
• A violent family environment where there is parental substance abuse, physical abuse, or sexual abuse is also a significant predictor of gang involvement for female youth.
• A lack of family supervision and monitoring has been shown to have a causal link to delinquency for both boys and girls, but ineffective parenting practices (harsh or inconsistent discipline), family conflict, growing up in poverty, a lack of a consistent caregiver, and frequent family moves are more likely to affect the chance that girls will be involved in gangs and conduct delinquent acts.
• Early dating has been established as a key risk factor for girls’ gang membership.
• A lack of connection or engagement with school is correlated with increased rates of delinquency for girls.
• Other school related factors such as low academic performance or academic failure, low educational aspirations, frequently getting into trouble at school, and negative labeling are all correlated with gang involvement for girls.

Avoiding Gang Involvement

Education social workers who work as "guidance counselors" in high schools have identified the following positive environmental factors that can help dissuade eventual female gang involvement:

• A strong attachment or connection with school, high educational aspirations and self-esteem are key protective factors against gang involvement, particularly for girls.
• Not living with a gang member is a protective factor for female gang membership.
• Positive feelings toward self and towards parents have been found to be protective factors that decrease likelihood of gang involvement.
• Strong parental supervision of youth behavior and choice of friends is an important protective factor against gang violence.

School Counselors

Education social workers (now known as "school counselors" rather than the outdated term "guidance counselor") report that early involvement and positive intervention are the key to preventing young girls from falling into gang involvement and graduating from status offenders to felons. School Counselors are no longer simply reacting to problems that students bring to them but rather are establishing proactive programs that are designed to serve not only female, but all students. Modern school counselor programs are:

• Proactive/data-driven
• Programs for all students
• Impact measured via achievement, attendance, and behavior data.
• Play an essential role in the school improvement process.
• School counselors serve as school leaders.
• School counselors develop, manage and evaluate a comprehensive school counseling program.
  

   

  This kind of Early intervention remains the key to success.