Gender, Violence, and Trauma

Developing trauma-informed and trauma-responsive practice and policy is crucial for effective juvenile justice practice and has particular resonance when working with girls. Indeed, trauma-informed practice that attends to girls’ safety is included in definitions of gender-responsive programming.[]See Louisa Treskon and Charlotte Lyn Bright, Bringing Gender-Responsive Principles into Practice (New York: MDRC, 2017), 3-4; and Francine T. Sherman and Annie Balck, Gender Injustice: System-Level Juvenile Justice Reforms for Girls (Portland, OR: National Crittenton Foundation, 2015), 31, https://perma.cc/GQ7D-V7CE.  Although nearly all children in the juvenile justice system, regardless of gender, have experienced significant trauma, research has shown that children’s experiences of trauma vary considerably according to gender and sexual orientation, among other factors.[]To read more about boys’ experience of trauma, see Danielle Sered, Young Men of Color and the Other Side of Harm: Addressing Disparities in our Responses to Violence (New York: Vera Institute of Justice, 2014), https://perma.cc/E6Q6-KJEN; and Kevin L. Nadal, Addressing Trauma Among Gay, Bisexual, and Queer Boys of Color (New York: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, 2016), https://perma.cc/2FTV-Q7JT. Understanding how sexual violence and complex trauma can drive girls into the juvenile justice system, as well as the gender differences in the trauma that children commonly experience, can help systems design and implement prevention and intervention strategies best tailored to support girls.

  • Sexual violence. Children—especially girls—in the juvenile justice system are disproportionately survivors of trauma, including sexual abuse. While 20 percent of girls in the United States will experience child sexual abuse, state-level studies have found much higher rates—up to 81 percent—for girls in the juvenile justice system, with girls often reporting multiple incidents of sexual abuse.[]For national rates of sexual violence experienced by girls, see National Center for Victims of Crime, “Child Sexual Abuse Statistics,” https://perma.cc/DWY2-QHRT. State-level studies have found that between 40 and 81 percent of justice-involved girls have experienced sexual abuse. See Malika Saada Saar, Rebecca Epstein, Lindsay Rosenthal, and Yasmin Vafa, The Sexual Abuse to Prison Pipeline: The Girls’ Story (Washington, DC: Georgetown Law Center on Poverty and Inequality, 2015), 8-9 (discussing studies in South Carolina and California), https://perma.cc/V6K7-6VNQ.  Studies have shown that girls in U.S. juvenile justice systems have experienced sexual abuse and assault at a higher rate than boys.[]Saar, Epstein, Rosenthal, and Vafa, The Sexual Abuse to Prison Pipeline (2015), at 9; Carly B. Dierkhising, Susan J. Ko, Briana Woods-Jaeger, et al., “Trauma Histories Among Justice-Involved Youth: Findings from the National Child Traumatic Stress Network,” European Journal of Psychotraumatology 4, no. 1 (2013), table 1, http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3714673/; and Michael T. Baglivio, Kimberly Swartz, Mona Sayedul Huq, et al., “The Prevalence of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) in the Lives of Juvenile Offenders,” OJJDP Journal of Juvenile Justice 3, no. 2 (2014), 12-34, 19. See also Patricia K. Kerig and Stephen P. Becker, “Trauma and Girls’ Delinquency” in Delinquent Girls: Contexts, Relationships, and Adaptation, edited by Shari Miller, Leslie D. Leve, and Patricia K. Kerig (New York: Springer Science & Business Media, 2012), 134 (finding in a review of the literature on trauma and delinquency that in every study in which differences in prevalence of sexual abuse or sexual assault is assessed, girls experience higher rates than boys).  While girls of color experience the highest rates of sexual violence (with the highest prevalence among Native American girls), they may be less likely to be regarded as victims of sexual violence because of stereotypes that paint them as promiscuous.[]For statistics on sexual violence against Native American and Native Alaskan women, see Futures Without Violence, “The Facts on Violence Against American Indian/Alaskan Native Women,” https://perma.cc/37AV-DGNF. For statistics on sexual violence against all women of color, see Women of Color Network, Facts & Stats: Domestic Violence—Communities of Color (Washington, DC: Women of Color Network, 2006), https://perma.cc/U7P7-MJFJ. On stereotypes of Latina girls, see Vera López and Meda Chesney-Lind, “Latina Girls Speak Out: Stereotypes, Gender and Relationship Dynamics,” Latino Studies 12, no. 4 (2014), 527-49. On stereotypes of black girls, see Rebecca Epstein, Jamilia J. Blake, and Thalia González, Girlhood Interrupted: The Erasure of Black Girls’ Childhood (Washington, DC: Georgetown Law Center on Poverty and Inequality, 2017), 8, https://perma.cc/6QH9-5FE8.  (See “How sexuality influences girls’ experiences with the justice system,” below.) LGB/TGNC children also face disparities in rates of sexual violence.[]See Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “Health Risks Among Sexual Minority Youth—CDC Report: First National Study (2015)” (lesbian, gay, and bisexual high school students were significantly more likely to report being physically forced to have sex and experiencing sexual and physical dating violence than their heterosexual peers), https://perma.cc/U5X6-J8HE; and U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Office for Victims of Crime, “Responding to Transgender Victims of Sexual Assault” (12 percent of transgender children report being sexually assaulted in school settings by peers or staff), https://www.ovc.gov/pubs/forge/sexual_numbers.html. For rates of sexual violence among LGB/TGNC adults, see National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey (NISVS), NISVS: An Overview of 2010 Findings on Victimization by Sexual Orientation (Atlanta, GA: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2013) (rates of some form of sexual violence were higher among lesbian women, gay men, and bisexual women and men compared to heterosexual men and women), https://perma.cc/PRR3-F5BR.  Once LGB/TGNC children are victims of crime, they may be less likely to come forward or seek support due to a lack of LGB/TGNC-inclusive environments in victim services or fear of discrimination based on negative perceptions of their gender identity, expression, or orientation.[]See Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “Health Risks Among Sexual Minority Youth—CDC Report: First National Study (2015)” (lesbian, gay, and bisexual high school students were significantly more likely to report being physically forced to have sex and experiencing sexual and physical dating violence than their heterosexual peers), https://perma.cc/U5X6-J8HE; and U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Office for Victims of Crime, “Responding to Transgender Victims of Sexual Assault” (12 percent of transgender children report being sexually assaulted in school settings by peers or staff), https://www.ovc.gov/pubs/forge/sexual_numbers.html. For rates of sexual violence among LGB/TGNC adults, see National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey (NISVS), NISVS: An Overview of 2010 Findings on Victimization by Sexual Orientation (Atlanta, GA: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2013) (rates of some form of sexual violence were higher among lesbian women, gay men, and bisexual women and men compared to heterosexual men and women), https://perma.cc/PRR3-F5BR.
  • Complex trauma. Although the rate at which girls in the justice system experience sexual violence is particularly glaring, most children in the juvenile justice system, regardless of gender, have experienced multiple types of trauma and violence, often over a sustained period.[]See Baglivio, Epps, Swartz, et al., “The Prevalence of Adverse Childhood Experiences” (2014) (in study of 64,329 justice-involved juveniles in Florida, finding “disturbingly high rates” of adverse childhood events); and Dierkhising, Ko, Woods-Jaeger, et al., “Trauma Histories Among Justice-Involved Youth” (2013) (finding that justice-involved children have high rates of trauma exposure that “typically begins early in life, is often in multiple contexts, and persists over time”). Complex trauma is defined by the National Child Traumatic Stress Network as children’s “exposure to multiple traumatic events, often of an invasive, interpersonal nature, and the wide-ranging, long-term impact of this exposure.”[]National Child Traumatic Stress Network, “Complex Trauma,” https://perma.cc/BER5-TTDM.  This type of trauma is strongly associated with significant health disparities and a higher risk of justice system involvement, including for status offenses.[]Baglivio, Epps, Swartz, et al., “The Prevalence of Adverse Childhood Experiences” (2014), at 13-14.  Girls in the juvenile justice system commonly experience a constellation of co-occurring traumas, including, for example, family violence, teen dating violence, sexual abuse, physical abuse, and having an incarcerated parent.[]See ibid. at 20 & fig. 1 (girls had a higher prevalence rate for all ten ACE indicators studied); and Saar, Epstein, Rosenthal, and Vafa, The Sexual Abuse to Prison Pipeline (2015), at 7-8 (state-level studies of justice-involved girls showed high rates of physical abuse, sexual abuse, sexual violence, and dating violence).

Sexual violence can profoundly impact girls’ family relationships. If sexual violence occurs in the home—or the abuser is a relative or family friend—it may be at the root of girls’ challenges there. Additionally, given the high prevalence of sexual violence among women and girls, mothers of girls in the juvenile justice system may have had similar traumatic experiences to those of their daughters—part of a multigenerational cycle of abuse where families may need support to recognize and interrupt these patterns.[]Maria Testa, Joseph H. Hoffman, and Jennifer A. Livingston, “Intergenerational Transmission of Sexual Victimization Vulnerability as Mediated Via Parenting,” Child Abuse and Neglect 35, no. 5 (2011), 363-71.

Not surprisingly, escaping from sexual violence is often why girls engage in status offense behaviors. Running away in particular is the only status offense for which girls outpace boys in referrals to court, and may be a way to cope with difficult circumstances.[]Sarah Hockenberry and Charles Puzzanchera, Juvenile Court Statistics 2014 (Washington, DC: National Center for Juvenile Justice, 2017), 73, https://perma.cc/3PEF-5SHM. Runaway children with a history of sexual abuse are at high risk of commercial sexual exploitation.[]Development Services Group, Inc., Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children/Sex Trafficking (Washington, DC: Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, 2014), 3, https://perma.cc/62AQ-CY6H.  Sexual harassment and violence at school can also factor into truancy if girls are avoiding school because they feel unsafe.[]For sexual harassment of girls in school, see Catherine Hill and Holly Kearl, Crossing the Line: Sexual Harassment at School (Washington, DC: AAUW, 2011), 3, https://perma.cc/6H3Q-3P55; Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw, Priscilla Ocen, and Jyoti Nanda, Black Girls Matter: Pushed Out, Overpoliced and Underprotected (New York: African American Policy Forum and Columbia University Center for Intersectionality and Social Policy Studies, 2015), 34-35, https://perma.cc/7EJC-CVEC; NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. and National Women’s Law Center (NWLC), Unlocking Opportunity for African American Girls: A Call to Action for Educational Equity (Washington, DC: NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. and NWLC, 2014), 24-26, https://perma.cc/6RZV-BXYG; and Saar, Epstein, Rosenthal, and Vafa, The Sexual Abuse to Prison Pipeline (2015), at 18.  One study also found that having a history of sexual abuse predicted girls’ risk of recidivism, while the same was not true for boys.[]Selby M. Conrad, Nicole Placella, Marina Tolou-Shams, et al., “Gender Differences in Recidivism Rates for Juvenile Justice Youth: The Impact of Sexual Abuse,” Law and Human Behavior 39, no. 4 (2014), 305-14.

Understanding complex trauma and its effects on girls can guide the design of prevention and intervention strategies for girls and LGB/TGNC children most at risk of entering the juvenile justice system for status offense behaviors. The Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) questionnaire is a tool used to assess exposure to 10 categories of childhood trauma, including sexual abuse, neglect, and death of a parent.[]Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, “Adverse Childhood Experiences,” https://perma.cc/4WGD-8P6E. A 2014 study in Florida assessed gender differences in ACEs among more than 60,000 children in the state’s juvenile justice system, and found that girls and boys experienced similar rates of many ACEs, including family violence, physical or emotional abuse, and having an incarcerated parent.[]Baglivio, Epps, Swartz, et al., “The Prevalence of Adverse Childhood Experiences” (2014), at 20 & fig.1. The study also found differences by gender: girls experienced more types of trauma (46 percent of girls and 28 percent of boys had five or more ACEs) and the rate of sexual violence was four times higher among girls than boys.[]Baglivio, Epps, Swartz, et al., “The Prevalence of Adverse Childhood Experiences” (2014), at 20 & fig.1. at 19-20. See also National Crittenton Foundation, Beyond ACE: Summary Findings from the Crittenton Family of Agencies 2014-2015 Administration of the Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Survey (Washington, DC: National Crittenton Foundation, 2016) (in survey of children involved in the juvenile justice, mental health, and child welfare systems, finding a 32 percent difference in experiences of sexual abuse between females and males), https://perma.cc/7SEV-8HUH.  To date, research utilizing ACEs among justice-involved children has not assessed differences for LGB/TGNC children. Important efforts are underway focused on expanding ACEs to include measures for child trauma based on race discrimination or feeling unsafe in one’s neighborhood.[]See for example Peter Cronholm, Christine Forke, Roy Wade, et al., “Adverse Childhood Experiences: Expanding the Concept of Adversity,” American Journal of Preventive Medicine 49, no. 3 (2015), 354-61 (studying ACEs using a more socioeconomically and racially diverse urban population in the Philadelphia area as well as expanding the types of trauma measured to include experiences of childhood trauma specific to racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic status), https://perma.cc/5HYU-N59D.  Similar efforts should consider the types of trauma that specifically relate to issues of sexual orientation or gender identity.