This is in response to a May 27, 2003 article by Francie Latour on the front page of the Boston Globe, “Report Says Legal System Fails Girls in Trouble”.
The following quote is stranger than fiction and is from the home page of the Girls Justice Initiative (GJI) “The Girls Justice Initiative is building a powerful and effective collaborations among girl-serving agencies in San Francisco, finally bringing our community together to make girls a priority. The emphasis is mine and the question is, why would any agency want to place the needs of girls ahead of boys unless it is sexist and biased?
GJI really thinks the way to bring a community together is by working collaboratively to make the needs of one group a priority over the needs of another? How about bringing the community together by making the needs of male golfers more important than those of female golfers?
Would not a more commendable, ethical and moral community goal be to unite collaboratively together to protect the rights of both girls and boys? What is it about justice that GJI does not understand?
Even more ironic is that GJI is a member of the United Fund. Do both GJI and the United Fund really not understand they are proffering that girls are more important [a priority] than boys?
What would be the response of the media if the community collaboratively united to form an organization that made Koreans a priority over African Americans, Hispanics a priority over Asians or Dominicans a priority over Haitians. What is about collaborative, united and justice that GJI and the United Fund do not understand?
According to a report released in May 2003 from a survey sponsored by GJI nearly 90% of 118 juvenile defense attorneys and almost two-thirds of 92 juvenile court judges claim that female juvenile programs are inadequate. Does GJI really think that these judges and attorneys believe boy’s juvenile programs are adequate?
More than 72% of the attorneys claim that job training for girls is lacking and that often when judges and lawyers want to provide girls with vocational training there is little available. Does GJI really think that these judges and attorneys believe boy’s vocational training is available?
Approximately 85% of the attorneys and 64% of the judges agree that mental health programs fail to properly diagnose or treat girls that have high rates of sexual abuse and other traumas. Does GJI really think that these judges and attorneys believe boys are being properly diagnosed?
The GJI report notes that, “With today’s harsh drug laws we see more girls and women being targeted by law enforcement.” Using statistical percentages the arrest of girls has risen faster than boys but, the total number of boys arrested still is far greater than girls.
GJI also notes that girls suffer from violence in their homes and that they are arrested because of zero tolerance [mandatory and preferred domestic violence laws] for violence in the home. Boys not only suffer from more violence in the home than girls do, they are also arrested at rates far greater than girls.
GJI notes that many of these girls are criminals and victims as well and the juvenile justice system needs to address that. Is it that GJI does not understand or simply does not care that boys face the same problem? Perhaps they will claim that they do care, however, it is just not their priority. What is it about code words that GJI does not understand?
First fundamental feminism brought us the victimization of all women and now they present to us the victimization of girls. GJI claims, “It’s not unusual for a girl to be running away from abuse and victimization.” As a criminologist and someone who worked within the criminal justice system for 21 years I do not dispute that fact.
However, all unbiased researchers of the juvenile criminal justice system understand that many of these young people, regardless of gender, suffer from an unfair and unjust juvenile justice system. If GJI would or could drop their gender agenda blinders they might begin to understand the concept that the community should be united and concerned with the plight of both girls and boys.
The fact is that 84% of juveniles in the custody of the juvenile justice system are boys. The majority of boys suffer from many of the same problems documented in this report that girls suffer from, both in their homes and neighborhoods.
In fact the findings of violence experienced as a minor from the National Violence Against Women Survey (NVAWS) documents that more boys are abused in their homes than girls. The NVAWS report documents that 40% of women and 53.8% of men surveyed said they experienced some type of physical assault by an adult caretaker as a child.
If the fundamental feminists has gotten their way only half the truth would have been revealed by the NVAWS. Similar to the GJI survey, fundamental feminists only wanted skewed data and they originally did not want to include any males in the NVAWS.
The NVAWS also documents that 54% of the female rape victims and 71% of the male rape victims identified by the survey, were younger than age 18 when they suffered their first attempted or completed rape.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Children’s Bureau report, Child Maltreatment 1996: Reports From the States to the National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System, documents that 17,590 children were physically abused by men and 21,757 children were physically abused by women. Although there are more female children than male this report documents male children suffer more abuse than females.
In his book, Beating the Devil out of Them, researcher Murray Straus documents that two-thirds of mothers with children six years of age or under hit their children three or more times each week.
The report, Use of Home-Based Microcomputer to Analyze Community Data from Reported Cases of Child Abuse and Neglect, documents that mothers commit the abuse of their children 58 percent of the time, fathers 16 percent, and both parents 13 percent.
Rather than having fundamental feminists researchers foist their gender war on our children should not all of us, both men and women, agree that juvenile prevention services be targeted equally towards all children regardless of gender? Anyone without a single gender agenda and without the intent to skewer the facts, understands quite clearly, that the juvenile legal system fails both girls and boys who are in trouble. All data document that far more boys are abused and in trouble than girls.
Juvenile victim services should be provided for both girls and boys, first and foremost where reams of data and mountains of documents note they are needed the most. While all juveniles are at risk of violent behavior the need for services is greatest in neighborhoods that are disadvantaged because they are at the lower end of the socioeconomic educational strata of our society.
I’m sorry to tell GJI this, but as the parents of three girls and two boys my wife and I have decided it is best, as parents to care about both their female and male children. And we intend to collaboratively unite together to see that their needs are equally met. What is it about equal justice that GJI and fundamental feminism does not understand?
