Gender-Specific

Gender-Specific Services has been a Colorado priority for the past 7 years and several accomplishments have been realized including development of Guidelines for Effective Female-Specific Programming (Guidelines At a Glance), that are intended to encourage professionals to look critically at how services are provided to girls in both gender-specific and mixed gender programs. Despite this, we continue to see some troubling statistics.

In FY 2004-05 in Colorado, girls represented one-fourth of the admissions into detention, 22% of the juvenile prosecutions and 21% of the juveniles on probation, all of which have remained relatively stable over the past 2 years. But, we begin to see some troubling divergence from the juvenile male population in the girls who are penetrating further into the juvenile justice system. Although they represent only 15% of the juvenile population committed to the Division of Youth Corrections (DYC), 50% of those girls committed had no prior adjudications as compared to 70% of the boys committed to DYC. If 50% of the girls are committed on their first adjudication, is the offense type more serious? Data shows that the types of offenses for which boys and girls were committed were largely similar.

Source: Division of Youth Correction, Research and Evaluation Unit

How did the committed females differ from the committed males? Over 81% of the females reported a runaway history versus 65.4 % of the males. Almost 70% of the females were assessed as needing substance abuse treatment versus 53% of the males, and 60.3% of the females were assessed as having high-moderate to severe mental health treatment needs versus 39.5% of the males. It is also quite striking that almost 83% of the females had at least one prior out of home placement versus 66% of the males.

In Colorado’s Three-Year Plan, the JJDP Council has once again prioritized Gender-Specific Services and intends to look more closely at why girls are entering the system and how we can better utilize the “Guidelines at a Glance” to fund effective girls programming. We will focus our efforts on addressing the following:

• Determine the proper use of the guidelines. What combination of guidelines will make a program effective?;
• Determine the validity of the “Guidelines”; and,
• More consistently promote the use of the Guidelines” in juvenile programming across the state.

Additionally, the Council is planning to restructure Girls E.T.C., a coalition of service providers and others who are interested in gender-specific programming for girls in the juvenile justice system so it will take a more active role in leading the state in effectively meeting girls needs at all levels, including prevention, early intervention and treatment.

To learn more about Gender-Specific services and the Council’s efforts, contact Michele Lovejoy at 303-239-5712 or michele.lovejoy@cdps.state.co.us.