Taking the “Girl” Out of Gender-Responsive Programming in the Juvenile Justice System

Abstract

Since the early 2000s, state and local policy makers, practitioners, and advocates accelerated existing federal efforts to reform the youth justice system and dramatically reduce the number of youth detained in the juvenile justice system. States across the country achieved these drops through policy changes that created fiscal disincentives and legal roadblocks to state custody. Yet recent research shows that youth of color and LGBQ-GNCT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, questioning, gender-nonconforming, and transgender) youth continue to be overrepresented in many juvenile justice systems throughout the country. In this review, we interrogate these disparities more deeply in an effort to ( a) advocate for continued and increased efforts to reduce racial disparities in the juvenile justice system; ( b) break the silence around the experiences of LGBQ-GNCT youth in the system, which are overwhelmingly youth of color; and ( c) encourage a deeper appreciation of sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression and how they intersect with race when it comes to serving youth in the justice system.