IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/cysrev/v64y2016icp60-65.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Juvenile justice sentencing: Do gender and child welfare involvement matter?

Author

Listed:
  • Tam, Christina C.
  • Abrams, Laura S.
  • Freisthler, Bridget
  • Ryan, Joseph P.

Abstract

For young people who come into contact with the juvenile justice system, how they are sentenced following an arrest may profoundly influence the course of their development and adjustment as adults. Much of the research to date has focused on racial and ethnic disparities in juvenile justice sentencing policies and practices, and less is known about sentencing disparities based on other youth characteristics. Using Los Angeles County administrative data, this study investigates the effects of gender and child welfare statuses on sentencing for young people who are arrested for the first time (N=5061). Results indicate that both young men and women are sentenced more harshly dependent upon the disposition, such that girls were more likely to be sentenced to group homes compared to boys, but boys were more likely to be sentenced to correctional facilities compared to girls. Child welfare-involved youth with a recent placement history are prone to more punitive sentences compared to their non-child welfare counterparts. Further, child welfare young women were not more likely to be sentenced to a harsher disposition compared to child welfare young men or non-child welfare young women. Implications for practice and future research are discussed.

Suggested Citation

  • Tam, Christina C. & Abrams, Laura S. & Freisthler, Bridget & Ryan, Joseph P., 2016. "Juvenile justice sentencing: Do gender and child welfare involvement matter?," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 60-65.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:cysrev:v:64:y:2016:i:c:p:60-65
    DOI: 10.1016/j.childyouth.2016.02.028
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0190740916300627
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.childyouth.2016.02.028?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jonson-Reid, Melissa & Barth, Richard P., 2000. "From placement to prison: The path to adolescent incarceration from child welfare supervised foster or group care," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 22(7), pages 493-516, July.
    2. Hyde, Justeen & Kammerer, Nina, 2009. "Adolescents' perspectives on placement moves and congregate settings: Complex and cumulative instabilities in out-of-home care," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 31(2), pages 265-273, February.
    3. Anna Aizer & Joseph J. Doyle, 2015. "Juvenile Incarceration, Human Capital, and Future Crime: Evidence from Randomly Assigned Judges," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 130(2), pages 759-803.
    4. Ryan, Joseph P. & Testa, Mark F., 2005. "Child maltreatment and juvenile delinquency: Investigating the role of placement and placement instability," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 27(3), pages 227-249, March.
    5. Graham, Sandra & Lowery, Brian S., 2004. "Priming Unconscious Racial Stereotypes about Adolescent Offenders," Research Papers 1857, Stanford University, Graduate School of Business.
    6. Ryan, Joseph P. & Marshall, Jane Marie & Herz, Denise & Hernandez, Pedro M., 2008. "Juvenile delinquency in child welfare: Investigating group home effects," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 30(9), pages 1088-1099, September.
    7. Ryan, Joseph P. & Herz, Denise & Hernandez, Pedro M. & Marshall, Jane Marie, 2007. "Maltreatment and delinquency: Investigating child welfare bias in juvenile justice processing," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 29(8), pages 1035-1050, August.
    8. Hawkins-Rodgers, Yolanda, 2007. "Adolescents adjusting to a group home environment: A residential care model of re-organizing attachment behavior and building resiliency," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 29(9), pages 1131-1141, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Good, Arla & Beaudry, Amy & Day, David, 2023. "Five key learnings from a court-based crossover youth program," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 155(C).
    2. Modrowski, Crosby A. & Chaplo, Shannon D. & Kerig, Patricia K., 2023. "Youth Dually-Involved in the child welfare and juvenile justice systems: Varying definitions and their associations with trauma exposure, posttraumatic stress, & offending," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 150(C).
    3. Kynn, Jax & Boyke, Hannah & McCarthy, Sam & Gzesh, Ari S., 2024. "Structural vulnerabilities and over-criminalization of LGBTQ + youth in the California justice system," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 160(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Huang, Hui & Ryan, Joseph P. & Sappleton, Antoinette & Chiu, Yu-Ling, 2015. "Crossover youth post arrest: Placement status and recidivism," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 193-200.
    2. Farineau, Heather M. & McWey, Lenore M., 2011. "The relationship between extracurricular activities and delinquency of adolescents in foster care," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 33(6), pages 963-968, June.
    3. Summersett, Faith C. & Jordan, Neil & Griffin, Gene & Kisiel, Cassandra & Goldenthal, Hayley & Martinovich, Zoran, 2019. "An examination of youth protective factors and caregiver parenting skills at entry into the child welfare system and their association with justice system involvement," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 99(C), pages 23-35.
    4. Novak, Abigail & Benedini, Kristen, 2020. "Sibling separation and self-reported offending: An examination of the association between sibling placement and offending behavior," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 111(C).
    5. Chiu, Yu-Ling & Ryan, Joseph P. & Herz, Denise C., 2011. "Allegations of maltreatment and delinquency: Does risk of juvenile arrest vary substantiation status?," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 33(6), pages 855-860, June.
    6. Malvaso, Catia G & Delfabbro, Paul H & Day, Andrew, 2017. "Child maltreatment and criminal convictions in youth: The role of gender, ethnicity and placement experiences in an Australian population," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 57-65.
    7. Simmons-Horton, Sherri Y., 2017. "Providing age-appropriate activities for youth in foster care: Policy implementation process in three states," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 82(C), pages 383-391.
    8. Ryan, Joseph P. & Hong, Jun Sung & Herz, Denise & Hernandez, Pedro M., 2010. "Kinship foster care and the risk of juvenile delinquency," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 32(12), pages 1823-1830, December.
    9. Lee, Sei-Young & Villagrana, Margarita, 2015. "Differences in risk and protective factors between crossover and non-crossover youth in juvenile justice," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 18-27.
    10. Cutuli, J.J. & Goerge, Robert M. & Coulton, Claudia & Schretzman, Maryanne & Crampton, David & Charvat, Benjamin J. & Lalich, Nina & Raithel, JessicaA. & Gacitua, Cristobal & Lee, Eun Lye, 2016. "From foster care to juvenile justice: Exploring characteristics of youth in three cities," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 84-94.
    11. Shook, Jeffrey J. & Goodkind, Sara & Herring, David & Pohlig, Ryan T. & Kolivoski, Karen & Kim, Kevin H., 2013. "How different are their experiences and outcomes? Comparing aged out and other child welfare involved youth," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 35(1), pages 11-18.
    12. Anne Dannerbeck-Janku & Clark Peters & Jacob Perkins, 2014. "A Comparison of Female Delinquents: The Impact of Child Maltreatment Histories on Risk and Need Characteristics among a Missouri Sample," Laws, MDPI, vol. 3(4), pages 1-18, October.
    13. Izzo, Charles V. & Smith, Elliott G. & Sellers, Deborah E. & Holden, Martha J. & Nunno, Michael A., 2020. "Improving relationship quality in group care settings: The impact of implementing the CARE model," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 109(C).
    14. Williams-Butler, Abigail & Duron, Jacquelynn F. & Costantino, Amanda & Schmidt, Adam, 2020. "Relational permanence and the potential for delinquency among African American adolescents in foster care," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 116(C).
    15. Marshall, Jane Marie & Haight, Wendy L., 2014. "Understanding racial disproportionality affecting African American Youth who cross over from the child welfare to the juvenile justice system: Communication, power, race and social class," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 82-90.
    16. Huang, Hui & Ryan, Joseph P., 2014. "The location of placement and juvenile delinquency: Do neighborhoods matter in child welfare?," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 33-45.
    17. Shipe, Stacey L. & Shaw, Terry V. & Betsinger, Sara & Farrell, Jill L., 2017. "Expanding the conceptualization of re-entry: The inter-play between child welfare and juvenile services," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 256-262.
    18. McWey, Lenore M. & Acock, Alan & Porter, Breanne E., 2010. "The impact of continued contact with biological parents upon the mental health of children in foster care," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 32(10), pages 1338-1345, October.
    19. Malvaso, Catia G. & Delfabbro, Paul H. & Day, Andrew & Nobes, Gavin, 2018. "The maltreatment-violence link: Exploring the role of maltreatment experiences and other individual and social risk factors among young people who offend," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 35-45.
    20. Lee, JoAnn S. & Courtney, Mark E. & Tajima, Emiko, 2014. "Extended foster care support during the transition to adulthood: Effect on the risk of arrest," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 34-42.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:cysrev:v:64:y:2016:i:c:p:60-65. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/childyouth .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.