Why Girls*

Centering systems change on girls is at the heart of why the Coalition formed roughly a decade ago. Back then, a small group of advocates, academics and court administrators from across the state were asked to testify in Olympia on trends in the treatment of girls specifically in the juvenile justice system.  A powerful post-testimony takeaway was that we didn’t really know what the trends were.  

Girls’ pathway into the juvenile justice system often originate with surviving abuse, especially sexual violence. Racialized, gender biased pathways push girls out of school and into court involvement. When a girl ends up court involved, there are usually multiple other systems with whom she’s had contact, where interventions could potentially interrupt court contact in the first place. Efforts to create more effective programs and practices that are responsive to girls’ needs are growing, but we need more funding to evaluate and scale these efforts.