Office of Justice Programs in DOJ study dispels myths about girls' delinquency, prevention programs needed

This is from the October 2008 OJJDP Girls Study Group Series bulletin.


The Justice Department's Office of Justice Programs' (OJP) Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) today released a research bulletin, Charting the Way to Delinquency Prevention for Girls, which reports that despite the rise in female juvenile crime, violence among female youth has not increased.

Following a sharp increase in arrests among female juveniles in the 1990s, OJJDP convened the Girls Study Group (GSG) to gain a better understanding of girls' delinquency and guide policy toward female juvenile offenders. While the majority of delinquent offenders are boys, little research exists on female juvenile delinquency. This first bulletin, part of a forthcoming series, summarizes findings from a comprehensive research project into girls' delinquent behavior.

"The Office of Justice Programs created the Girls' Study Group to fully understand why an increasing number of girls are entering the juvenile justice system and to better understand how to prevent and intervene in girls' delinquency," said Jeffrey L. Sedgwick, Assistant Attorney General for OJP.

Key findings of the OJJDP-sponsored Girls Study Group:

-- Girls are not more violent now than in previous years.

One of the factors discussed in the bulletin is the unintended impact of relatively
new mandatory or pro-arrest policies put in place to protect victims of
domestic violence.

"By convening the Girls' Study Group, we made understanding girls involvement in delinquency a priority," said J. Robert Flores, Administrator of OJJDP. "We will use the data collected from this study to assist government and community leaders in responding to the needs of girls."

Read on.

This is interesting that OJP find a rise in female youth crime but not an increase in female youth violence. This was the exact findings for female youth in the May 2008 bulletin:

From a July 2008 posting on Justice League:

In May 2008 publication, the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) had published "Violence by Teenage Girls: Trends and Context." The first in a series of publications from OJJDP's Girls Study Group, the bulletin assessed trends of juvenile arrest rates for violent crimes.

Here's an excerpt of conclusion on page 15:

Available evidence based on arrest, victimization, and self-report data suggests that although girls are currently arrested more for simple assaults than previously, the actual incidence of their being seriously violent has not changed much over the last two decades. This suggests that increases in arrests may be attributable more to changes in enforcement policies than to changes in girls' behavior. Juvenile female involvement in violence has not increased relative to juvenile male violence. There is no burgeoning national crisis of increasing serious violence among adolescent girls.

Now are we supposed to believe from the OJJDP and OJP that the female youth violence hadn't changed or increased since May 2008? Maybe that is why these organizations were rejected by J. Robert Flores in the grant decision process.

From Youth Today:

Rejected

Justice Research and Statistics Association: Wanted to continue running the Juvenile Justice Evaluation Center, which it has operated for several years under competitive and noncompetitive OJJDP grants, says Executive Director Joan C. Weiss. The center’s website says its goal is “to enhance the capacity of states and local program personnel to conduct and/or participate in the evaluation of juvenile justice programs or juvenile justice system(s).”

The center’s main activity is JJEC Online, a Web tool to help “juvenile justice practitioners, policymakers and state agency administrators with the assessment and evaluation of programs and initiatives,” the website says.

National Partnership for Juvenile Services: To create a National Center for Juvenile Detention and Corrections, which would focus on developing research, training and technical assistance products for juvenile corrections facilities, says CEO Earl Dunlap. He said those products would “focus on most of the hot issues of the day,” such as disproportionate minority confinement.

National Council on Crime and Delinquency: One bid was to create a national training and technical assistance center to help serve court-involved girls, said council President Barry Krisberg. A second bid, he said, “focused on how to improve family-based prevention strategies for immigrant kids.”

Finally, from Flores' testimony with the Senate Judiciary Committee on December 5, 2007, Flores told the committee that he was releasing a series of bulletins on the Girls Study Group findings in fiscal year of 2008 to identify issues facing youth. Flores said:

Already, we see that the increase in arrest rates for girls may be explained in large measure by changes in policing that resulted from changing community demands. Whatever the cause, the number of girls entering the juvenile justice system is increasing, and states and localities need guidance on how best to handle the increase. We are currently in the process of putting together a series of bulletins on the Girls Study Group findings. We expect results to be released in Fiscal Year 2008.

Through efforts such as the Girls Study Group, the juvenile justice field is making great strides in increasing its knowledge of the issues facing youth, identifying what programs work, and assuring that practitioners receive the information they need.

Now that the bulletins provided by the Girls Study Group had been released this year, I see no improvement from the OJJDP and OJP departments since the scandal in the OJJDP nor do I see a willingness to aid the female youth and juveniles with programs. Flores said that they "made understanding girls involvement in delinquency a priority." If it was a priority, why did Flores rejected the organization, National Council on Crime and Delinquency, for a grant?

Finally,

Look at what is happening in a city in California:

Measure OO on the Nov. 4 ballot in Oakland would require the City Council to increase by $16.4 million a year the amount it sets aside each year for after-school programs.

"Our commitment to protect young people should be there whether the city is flush or the economy is in trouble," said Olis Simmons, executive director of Youth UpRising, a teen center in East Oakland that receives $175,000 a year in Measure K funds.

"The children served by these programs are the poorest in Oakland. They are counting on the mayor and the City Council to protect them."

The measure supports anti-gang, anti-violence and drug-prevention programs in the city. Proponents say student test scores have improved and juvenile arrests have declined since Measure K was enacted.