Female delinquency and adult female incarceration rates increased from the 1980s until the early 2000s. Many of these women and girls have been victimized, and their unresolved victimization issues may have led them to criminal behavior which may not be adequately addressed in the juvenile and criminal justice systems. The theoretical framework for this study consisted of 3 developmental theories (pathways, trauma, and addiction theories) that facilitated an understanding of the impact of victimization and criminality in these women and girls' lives. Florida's Department of Juvenile Justice implemented changes to address the victimization issue in the 10 female gender-specific programs in the state. The purpose of this study was to investigate the extent of that implementation by examining whether those programs use gender-specific interventions and if so, whether they address victimization issues. This quantitative descriptive study investigated the correlation between remedial programming, victimization remediation, and the delinquency facility quality improvement (QI) rating in Florida's gender-specific delinquency programs for girls. Using a checklist questionnaire to gather information on programming content and archival data that reported the state QI ratings, a Fisher's Exact Test was used to determine the relationship between the dependent variable and the independent variable. The results indicated that there was no relationship between the QI ratings and victimization intervention. This study's implication for social change includes the use of findings for future programming and empirical strategies, including victimization interventions. These strategies may decrease future recidivism rates for female delinquents and adult criminality.

The relations among physical and sexual abuse, alcohol and drug use, and dating violence were investigated in a sample of female juvenile delinquents. Various reasons for drinking and their associations with frequency of alcohol use were also explored. Data used in the current investigation were obtained at a state correctional facility for female juveniles in Indiana. The results indicated that physical and sexual abuse were associated with dating victimization in this sample. Further, greater frequency of drug use was associated with having a greater number of abusive romantic partners after controlling for total number of partners. The reasons for drinking assessed in this study differentially predicted frequency of alcohol use. Race/ethnicity differences were detected for several of the variables under investigation and these results are compared to the findings of prior empirical studies. The implications of these findings for future research and for meeting the specific programming needs of female juvenile delinquents are discussed.

L’objectif de ce mémoire est de décrire et expliquer le traitement des jeunes filles traduites devant la Cour des jeunes délinquants de Montréal durant toute la période de son existence, soit de 1912 à 1950. Une analyse statistique a tout d’abord été utilisée sur un échantillon de 1 465 jeunes filles pour lesquelles nous avions des données quantitatives provenant du plumitif de la cour. Une analyse documentaire a ensuite été utilisée sur un sous-échantillon de 126 mineures pour lesquelles nous avions accès aux divers documents contenus dans leur dossier judiciaire. L’analyse met particulièrement en évidence la différence d’application de la loi en fonction du sexe des mineurs traduits devant la cour. Les jeunes filles sont poursuivies pour des motifs différents de ceux pour lesquels on poursuit les garçons : elles sont particulièrement poursuivies pour des infractions spécifiques aux mineurs telles que l’incorrigibilité, les infractions à caractère sexuel, la désertion ou la protection. Les garçons, quant à eux, sont davantage poursuivis pour des infractions prévues au Code criminel (notamment le vol). Les mineures sont plus souvent amenées devant la cour par leurs parents plutôt que par les officiers de la cour et se voient imposer des mesures différentes de celles qu’on impose aux garçons pour une même infraction. Le placement est ainsi plus fréquemment utilisé chez les filles que chez les garçons et la probation plus fréquemment utilisée chez ces derniers. La définition de ce qui pose problème chez ces mineures et les solutions souhaitables pour y remédier varient en fonction des différents acteurs (les agents de probation, les officiers de la cour, les parents et les mineures elles-mêmes). / The objective of this thesis is to describe, understand and explain the treatment of young girls brought before the Montreal Juvenile Delinquents Court during the course of its existences from 1912 to 1950. First, a sample of 1,465 young girls for which we had extracted information from the court register was used in a quantitative statistical analysis. Second, a documentary analysis was used on a subsample of 126 girls based on various documents contained in their legal files. Several conclusions can be drawn from these analyses. One of them is that young girls brought before the Court were treated differently from boys who appeared before this same court. This means that the enforcement of the law differed depending on the sex of the minors brought into the juvenile justice system. Indeed, young girls were prosecuted for different reasons than boys. Girls were charged with incorrigibility, sexual related offenses, desertion and protection while boys were mostly charged with criminal offenses related to the Criminal Code. Furthermore, girls were more often taken into the juvenile system by their own parents rather than by officers of the Court. They also faced measures that differed from those imposed on boys for the same offence. Girls were more frequently placed in institutions or foster homes whereas boys were more often put on probation. The definition of what was problematic with these youngsters as well as the desirable solutions to their problems varied greatly according to various actors (probation officers, Court’s officers, parents and young girls).