Little Women

Abstract

Despite the growing trend of waiving youth to adult/criminal court, little is known about how convicted youth experience adult prison. To date, no research has been published about girls in adult prisons. In this study, intensive interviews were conducted with 22 girls serving time in a women's prison in the Midwest, as well as four staff working in the girls ' unit. The findings describe the complex lives of girls housed in an adult women's prison, in particular, their difficulties in gaining access to adequate schooling, work training, counseling, and health care. We also address the girls' contact with adult women prisoners, as well as their relationships with staff at the prison. Beyond improving their conditions of confinement, our research highlights the need to consider the appropriateness of placing girls in adult institutions.     

Feminist Perspectives on Female Offending

Abstract

This paper explores new approaches in theorizing about delinquent girls that overcome the shortcomings of traditional theories. Organized under the broad framework of feminist perspectives, recent research is reviewed for its contribution to a better understanding of delinquent girls. This review suggests that acknowledging the sexism, victimization, and racism experienced by female offenders is crucial in attempts to theorize about and respond to girls' delinquency.     

Media Exposure, Current and Future Body Ideals, and Disordered Eating Among Preadolescent Girls: A Longitudinal Panel Study

Internalization of the thin body ideal is considered by many to account for the relationship between media exposure and disordered eating among girls and young women, but almost all supporting research has employed adolescent and adult samples. Using longitudinal panel survey data collected from 257 preadolescent girls at 2 points in time 1 year apart, we tested relationships between self-reported television and magazine exposure at wave 1 and current (prepubescent) and future (postpubescent) body ideals and disordered eating at wave 2. Controlling age, race, perceived body size, and body ideals and disordered eating measured at wave 1, television viewing at wave 1 predicted increased disordered eating and a thinner postpubescent body ideal at wave 2. In contrast, none of the media variables predicted a thinner prepubescent body ideal at wave 2. These findings suggest that the thin-ideal internalization construct needs refinement to enhance its developmental sensitivity.

基于和谐社会视角的女童教育发展观

男女性别平等和教育公平是两性和谐发展的基础。女童教育是国际社会普遍关注的重要问题,它反映了男女教育的平等问题和男女性别的公正问题。在女童教育问题上,坚持科学发展观,促进女童教育与经济社会的协调发展,实现男女教育公平与性别平等,是构建社会主义和谐社会的题中应有之义和当务之急。     

为了女童和男童享有平等的权利

多年来,儿童工作部坚持以维护女童权益、推动两性平等为目的,在服务内容上注重女童的需求,在服务过程中注重女童的反应,在服务效果上注重女童的受益程度和能力增长,做了大量工作并取得了很大的成效。今后,要进一步强化女童生存发展状况的调查研究,为有关部门决策提供参考,推动有利于女童发展的法律法规和政策措施的出台,开展国内外合作并加强与媒体的合作,改善女童生存发展的环境。     

农村留守女童遭遇性侵犯问题及对策研究

近年来,由于农村剩余劳动力大量向城镇转移,农村中出现了为数众多的留守女童。与非留守儿童和留守男童相比,农村留守女童是一个常常被忽视的弱势群体,极易受到不法分子的侵害,尤其是性侵害。这一问题应当引起人们的重视,需要针对其产生的原因采取有效对策,以切实保护农村留守女童的身心健康。     

Girls in Traditional and Gender-Responsive Juvenile Justice Placements

There is no shortage of policy, research, or practice recommendations for implementing gender-responsive programming. There is, however, substantial variation in the way in which gender-responsive has been defined and operationalized in practice. This exploratory study represents an examination of girls’ lived experiences in traditional and gender-responsive juvenile justice programs from an insider’s perspective. Participants’ narratives were overwhelmingly positive about gender-responsive programming; however, the findings in this study also suggest that it is critical to incorporate important gender-neutral skills into gender-responsive programming to enable girls to succeed economically and interdependently as they attempt to maintain themselves and their families once they are released from custody.     

Achieving the Promise to Leave No Girl behind in Commonwealth Countries

ABSTRACT

The education Sustainable Development Goal includes a commitment to ensuring that all children – regardless of their gender and circumstances within which they are born – should complete free, equitable and quality primary and secondary education. The Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in April 2018 re-affirmed the importance of 12 years of quality education for all, particularly marginalised groups including disadvantaged girls. To inform these commitments, this paper aims to situate the current evidence on girls’ education across the 53 countries in the Commonwealth, with a particular focus on low- and lower-middle income countries where the challenges are the greatest. It identifies the current status of access to school and learning, and highlights trends in domestic and aid financing to support the targets. It then presents evidence on interventions aimed at tackling barriers to girls’ access and learning to achieve the commitments. The paper argues a need not only to focus on gender parity in education – i.e. an equal proportion of girls and boys in school and learning – but also to pay greater attention to the more ambitious target of gender equality, which requires an end to discrimination if a truly level playing field is to be achieved.     

What Is the Hidden Figure of Delinquency in Girls? Scaling Up From Police Charges to Self-Reports

Research on males shows discrepancies between official records and self-reports of delinquency, thus creating a scaling-up factor. Comparable information for girls is still needed. We investigated discrepancies (scaling up factors) from official records to self-reports in a large sample of girls between ages 12 and 17 (N = 2,450). On average there were three self-reported juvenile female offenders for every individual charged by the police, and for every police charge there were four offenses that were committed. The scaling-up factor was highest in early adolescence, indicating that female offenders at a young age were more likely to stay undetected by the police. The scaling-up factor was significantly lower for African American than white girls: a higher proportion of African American delinquent girls were charged by the police. Racial differences in scaling up were significant only for prevalence, not for frequency of offending. Knowledge about scaling-up factors is important for the design and implementation of intervention programs. We discuss racial differences, implications for justice administration, and practical implications for intervention science.     

Rethinking the future-seeking narrative of child migration: the case of Ethiopian adolescent domestic workers in the Middle East

ABSTRACT

Recent research on child migration has largely departed from the early trafficking narrative and has tended to highlight young people’s agency and the ways in which children’s migration can play a key role in their ‘future-seeking’. While we acknowledge that Ethiopian girls migrating to the Middle East in order to undertake domestic work primarily move voluntarily for economic reasons, our research – which used a multi-layered, qualitative research approach with girls and their families in the West Gojjam and North Wollo Zones of the Amhara National Regional State – found that the financial, physical, and psychological costs of such migration can far outweigh the benefits. Indeed, we conclude that the earlier trafficking narrative may, in this case, represent the most appropriate lens through which to view girls’ choices and experiences.