Improving Juvenile Justice for Females: A Statewide Assessment in California

This article reports findings from a survey of officials from various California state agencies and a series of interviews and focus groups with female youth and professionals serving this population. The study examined types of services provided, program barriers, and facilitation of change. The findings were used to make gender-specific policy and program recommendations. The authors found that meeting the needs of girls and young women requires specialized staffing and training, particularly in terms of relationship and communication skills, gender differences in delinquency, substance abuse education, the role of abuse, developmental stages of female adolescence, and available programs and appropriate placements and limitations. Effective programming for girls and women should be shaped by and tailored to their real-world situations and problems. In order to do this, a theoretical approach to treatment that is gender-sensitive and that addresses the realities of girls' lives must be developed.