Females in the Texas juvenile justice system are often at greater risk of serving longer sentences and having a mental health need than their male counterparts, according to new research from The University of Texas at Austin.
In a cross-system study, Erin Espinosa, a research associate at the School of Social Work’s Texas Institute for Excellence in Mental Health, looked at 5,019 juveniles across three large urban counties in Texas during a two-year period. Results, published in the latest issue ofCriminal Justice and Behavior, show that female juveniles serve significantly longer periods of confinement in local facilities than their male counterparts. Findings also show that females with histories of traumatic experiences such as sexual abuse are kept in out-of-home care for longer periods than males. These findings complement prior research by Espinosa, published in 2013, which showed that female juveniles are approximately at seven times greater risk of out-of-home placement.
[For more of this story go to http://news.utexas.edu/2015/09...ys-in-justice-system]
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