R E S E A R C H T R I A N G L E P A R K , N O R T H C A R O L I N A

1. OJJDP GIRLS STUDY GROUPStephanie R. Hawkins, Ph.D.Coordinating Council on Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Quarterly MeetingJune 6, 2008 Washington, DC R E S E A R C H T R I A N G L E P A R K , N O R T H C A R O L I N A Crime, Violence, and Justice Center

2. GIRLS STUDY GROUP ACTIVITIES • Literature Review • Secondary Data Analysis • Screening and Assessment Instrument Review • Program Review

3. HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE LITERATURE REVIEW

4. GENDER SIMILARITIES IN RISK AND PROTECTIVE FACTORS • Family dynamics • Structure and stability • Supervision and control • Family criminality • Maltreatment • School involvement • Neighborhood disadvantage • Availability of community-based programs

5. GENDER SENSITIVITY TO RISK AND PROTECTIVE FACTORS • Early puberty or developmental factors • Sexual assault • Depression and anxiety • Romantic partners • Attachment and bonding to school and pro-social institutions

6. TAKE HOME POINT FROM LITERATURE • Girls and boys experience many of the same risks, but they differ in sensitivity to and rate of exposure to these risks and, as a result, they may have different programming needs.

7. HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE SECONDARY DATA ANALYSES

8. TRENDS IN GIRLS’ VIOLENCE: REPORTS OF ARRESTS • Gap between juvenile female and juvenile male arrests for aggravated assault has declined • Female arrests for simple assault have increased while male arrests for simple assault have declined (National Center for Juvenile Justice 2007)

9. TRENDS IN GIRLS’ VIOLENCE: SELF-REPORT • Levels of assault for juvenile females and males have been fairly constant over the past two decades • Female involvement in violence has not increased relative to male violence • There has been more change in girls’ arrests than in underlying violent behavior of girls

10. POSSIBLE EXPLANATIONS • Increases in girls’ arrests may be an artifact of changing policies and attitudes • Mandatory arrest policies and domestic violence laws • School’s zero-tolerance policies • Widening definitions of violence • Shift in societal attitude

11. NATIONAL INCIDENT BASED REPORTING SYSTEM (NIBRS) • Mandatory and pro-arrest policies increased the likelihood of arrest for girls and boys. • Effects are stronger for girls. • Youth more likely to be arrested when mother is assaulted

12. RESILIENCE • Some protective factors not strong enough to mitigate the influence of childhood risks. • Must know how protective factors operate in the lives of girls and when these protective factors are most relevant to girls’ development • Caring adult was protective during adolescence and not protective during young adulthood when girls have been physically abused • Must know the risk confronting adolescent girls and consider which protective factors are strong enough to buffer against particular risks • For sexually assaulted girls, doing well in school was protective during adolescence and religiosity was protective during young adulthood

13. SEXUAL ABUSE AND DELINQUENCY • Meta-analysis of 13 studies found solid relationship between sexual abuse and female delinquency • This relationship is comparable to many other risk factors for female delinquency • No gender difference in delinquency outcomes for sexually abused youth

14. PATHWAYS TO DELINQUENCY • Girls are involved in a range of delinquent behaviors • Runaway – neither most common or 1st offense • Sizeable number of girls are involved in serious delinquency but this is short-lived and they revert back to lower levels of delinquency • Delinquent behaviors begin before middle school

15. HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE SCREENING AND ASSESSMENT INSTRUMENT REVIEW

16. SCREENING AND ASSESSMENT INSTRUMENTS • Some of the challenges with screening and assessment instruments for girls include • Inability to accurately identify behaviors • Inappropriate or misclassification • 143 instruments reviewed • 51% provided separate norms or scoring systems for girls or showed favorable gender analysis • Mental health instruments are most likely to address gender performance • Only 3 gender-appropriate risk assessment instruments were developed and tested across multiple jurisdictions (out of 35)

17. HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE PROGRAM REVIEW

18. PROGRAM REVIEW • Reviewed programs designed to prevent and reduce female delinquency • Out of 62 programs cataloged, 18 had been evaluated. • None of the 18 programs met the criteria to be rated as “Effective,” “Effective with Reservation,” or “Ineffective.” • 4 programs met the criteria to be rated as “Promising.” • 4 programs met the criteria to be rated as “Inconclusive Evidence.” • 10 programs met the criteria to be rated as “Insufficient Evidence.”

19. SUSTAINABILITY ISSUES 11 of the 18 evaluated programs are still operating: None of the 4 programs rated “Promising” are still operating 2 of the 4 programs rated “Inconclusive Evidence” are still operating 9 of the 10 programs rated “Insufficient Evidence are still operating

20. BLUEPRINTS FOR VIOLENCE PREVENTION PROGRAMS • Model programs in Blueprints work well for girls as well as boys. • Why? • They are multi-dimensional • Have individualized treatment plans to meet individual needs • Connection to pro-social institutions

21. WHAT IS NEEDED? • Gender responsive programs need more focus on evaluation to determine effectiveness • Promising gender responsive programs need more focus on sustainability

22. PRODUCTS FROM THE GIRLS STUDY GROUP

23. PRODUCTS • Book • Delinquent Girls: Findings From the Girls Study Group. Temple University Press. • Articles • Zahn, M. A. (2006) The Girls’ Study Group: Its Creation and Achievements, The Criminologist, 31(5): September/October, 1-4. • Zahn, M. A. (2006) The Causes of Girls’ Delinquency and the Challenges of the Rise in Female Delinquency, Family Court Review, 12.

24. BULLETINS • Violence by Teenage Girls: Trends and Context (released) • The Girls Study Group – Charting the way to Gender-responsive delinquency prevention • Resilient Girls – Factors that Protect Against Delinquency • Causes and Correlates of Girls’ Delinquency • Examining the Gender-based performance of risk-assessment and treatment-focused instruments for delinquents • Gender-Responsive Delinquency programs: An evidence-based review • Developmental Sequences of Girls’ Delinquent Behavior

25. TOOLS FOR THE FIELD • Bibliographic search page includes all the citations used in the development of the literature review from the Girls Study Group members. • Contains 2,388 citations • Online searchable database of the screening and assessment instruments examined and information collected about each instrument (in process)

26. THE GIRLS STUDY GROUP WEBSITEhttp://girlsstudygroup.rti.org/

27. GIRLS STUDY GROUP WEB SITE STATISTICS (January 1, 2008 through May 31, 2008) • The website received 17,299 hits • The bibliographic search page received 834 hits • Documents were downloaded 4,784 times • The average number of people who visit the website each day has steadily increased over the years • 51 (2005) • 58 (2006) • 101 (2007) • 113 from Jan- May 2008