Demasiados Problemas: Exploring Differences in Latina and Caucasian Girls’ Pathways to Court Involvement

• In Event: At-Risk Youth in the Community and Juveniles in the Justice System

Abstract

Girls’ increased participation in juvenile justice, along with the confounding problems created by inadequate understanding and treatment of them by the system, necessitates that feminist criminological research further explore female delinquency. In particular, research needs to explicate ethnic differences in girls’ pathways toward criminal activities as well as the institutional response to them. Using in-depth interviews with 23 court-involved girls, this paper rectifies this deficit through an examination of Latina girls’ experiences inside and outside the justice system. With a particular focus on differences between Latina and Caucasian girls’ pathways toward criminality and court involvement, it investigates the social stressors (family, school, peer and romantic attachments) leading to delinquency as well as the girls’ reactions to their justice involvement. This paper concludes with policy recommendations for gender- and culturally-sensitive programming.

Author

• Lisa Pasko, University of Denver