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Meeting the needs of juvenile female offenders.

Article Excerpt
Thirteen-year-old Keisha is in a juvenile correctional facility for a felony offense committed at her last placement. "She was just beginning to work on her family issues and then one day she went ballistic." Keisha's social worker said. Keisha is multiracial--black, Native American and white. Her mother, Margaret, was released from prison and is an addict, unable to care for herself, much less her six children. Keisha is the third oldest of Margaret's children and has not lived with her since she was 3 years old. She feels abandoned by her mother and has been shuttled back and forth between her mother's relatives on an Indian reservation during most of her childhood.

Unfortunately, Keisha's story is a familiar one to juvenile justice professionals. Juvenile court, probation, detention, corrections and continuing and aftercare/transition services staff are increasingly called upon to meet the unique needs of a growing number of juvenile female offenders within their service delivery areas.

Juvenile Female Offending

Female juvenile offenders are a small portion of the overall juvenile offender population and comprise an even smaller portion of the violent juvenile offender population. However, the way in which the juvenile system is responding to this population is changing. New efforts to objectively classify juvenile female offending patterns have drawn attention to the unique needs of this population.

Good statistical data...