Violence & Criminalization: Issues & Needs

Challenges facing girls before detention and/or incarceration

Sociologist Beth Richie has made the case that a key to understanding and responding to women as offenders is understanding their status as crime victims[1]. Laurie Schaffner (2007) extends this argument by suggesting that

“young women adjudicated delinquent in juvenile court report suffering inordinate amounts of emotional, physical, and sexual trauma in early childhood and adolescence.”[2]

She contends that

“a disproportionate number of girls come into the juvenile justice system with family histories of physical and sexual violence and emotional neglect.”

Substance abuse is often used as a means of escape for young women who have had to deal with victimization and trauma.

Ravoira & Lydia (2008) suggest that “male and female youth experience adolescence, trauma, relationships, peer pressure, cultural expectations and negative life experience in profoundly different ways” (p.10)[3].  They point out that girls are more likely to attempt suicide than young men as well as to present with higher rates of mental health problems and depression than boys.  This is borne out in research of girls and young women in Illinois as well.

Challenges facing girls while institutionalized

Young women face many hardships and injustices in the juvenile justice system.

According to Ravoira & Lydia (2008):

“The traditional policies and practices of confinement – including use of isolation rooms, shackles, staff insensitivity, loss of privacy, strip searches, rules that prohibit contact with siblings and children, prohibitions on use of make-up/beauty products, and use of bright-colored jumpsuits to indicate a specific problem area (escape risk, anger issues, etc…) or male clothing – can exacerbate girls’ existing negative self-image, depression, an post-traumatic stress disorder, and may result in increased suicidal ideation and self-mutilation/self-harm.”

Little data have been collected on the psychological well-being of detained youth.  Abram et al (2004) collected data between 1995 and 1998 regarding post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among youth detained at the Cook County Temporary Juvenile Detention Center (CCJTDC). The research revealed that 84% of females in the center reported having experienced a trauma.  The prevalence of trauma among girls in the center did not vary significantly across race.  Girls 14 and older were more likely to report trauma histories (86.5%) than girls aged 10 – 13 (59.1%).  The most common trauma that girls reported (63.5%) was seeing or hearing someone be killed or very badly hurt. 47.3% of females in the CCJDTC reported having been threatened by a weapon.  About 14.7% of the detained female youth met the diagnostic criteria for PTSD, with rates highest among Latinas (16.9%), followed by Blacks (14.7%) and then Whites (10.5%).  Many of the youth detained had experienced multiple traumas.  The authors assert that few traumatized at-risk and detained youth are screened for PTSD, and few receive services, which could lead to chronic problems with PTSD and to other mental health and social problems.  Abram and colleagues also note that the conditions of incarceration can make PTSD worse and that detention staff often respond to youth having psychiatric crises by using restraints and isolation, which can worsen anxiety, numb emotions, and increase aggression.

Prevalence of Trauma by Sex and Race/Ethnicity – Female Detainees[4]

Incarcerated individuals have been shown to have disproportionately high rates of STDs, high risk sexual practices, and substance abuse.  For some of this population, jail programs may be their only exposure to health care.  There are 17 juvenile detention centers in Illinois.  IDPH and the Chicago Department of Health had integrated STD screening and testing programs into many Illinois jails.  In 2007, jails and prisons identified and reported 2 percent of reportable STDs in Illinois.  For example, screening and testing programs at Cook County Jail and the Cook County Juvenile Detention Center identified 314 (1.4%) of the 22,181 Chlamydia, 94 (1%) of the 9,388 gonorrhea, and 4 (1.2%)of the 331 primary and secondary syphilis cases reported among Chicago residents in 2007.  Because of the high rates of infection identified by STD screening programs for inmates, especially at juvenile detention facilities, the Department encourages and supports jail-based STD screening programs by providing laboratory testing and medications for the treatment of STDs at no charge.  In 2007, STD screening and testing programs were supported by the Department of Public Health at 12 juvenile county and state detention facilities.

Illinois Juvenile Jail STD Screening and Testing Program – Chlamydia and Gonorrhea Positivity Rates at Jails Submitting at least 25 Specimens by Sex and Provider, 2007[5]

Sexual Victimization of Adjudicated Girls in Illinois Juvenile Facilities

According to a new study released by the Justice Department on January 7^th 2010, 11.4 percent of adjudicated female youth at Warrenville reported experiencing one or more incidents of sexual victimization[6] by another youth or facility staff in the past 12 months or since admission, if less than 12 months (National Survey of Youth in Custody, 2008-2009).

6.8% of adjudicated female youth at Warrenville reported one or more incidents of sexual victimization by facility staff; while 11.4 percent reported one or more incidents with another youth.

Table 1. Percent of Illinois adjudicated female youth reporting sexual victimization, by facility, National Survey of Youth in Custody, 2008-09

Table 2. Percent of Illinois youth reporting sexual victimization by another youth, by type of incident and facility, National Survey of Youth in Custody, 2008-2009

Table 3. Percent of Illinois youth reporting staff sexual misconduct, by type of incident and facility, National Survey of Youth in Custody, 2008-2009

Table 4. Percent of Illinois youth reporting staff sexual misconduct, by use of force and facility, National Survey of Youth in Custody, 2008-2009