Saturday, 15 January 2005 - 8:00 AM

This presentation is part of: Delinquency in Female Adolescents

The Impact of Sexual Abuse in the Lives of Young Women Involved or at Risk of Involvement with the Juvenile Justice System

Purpose: Experiences of sexual abuse are common among young women in the juvenile justice system, with previous research estimating that over half have experienced sexual abuse. However, the relationship between sexual abuse and justice system involvement is not well understood. Using data from a longitudinal study funded by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, we add to understandings of this connection and of the relationships between sexual abuse and negative outcomes with analyses of data collected from survey interviews of 169 young women involved with, or at risk of involvement with, the juvenile justice system.

Methods: Young women surveyed were receiving services at one of five participating agencies with the following three service-delivery approaches: community-based non-residential emphasizing prevention and education; community-based open residential including prevention, treatment, and transitional services; and closed residential with a “traditional” juvenile justice treatment approach. The survey questionnaire included questions on their living situations, school experiences, service use, mental health, delinquent behavior, substance use, traumatic childhood experiences (including abuse), more recent negative life events, sexual and reproductive behavior, and demographic characteristics. Using bivariate and multivariate analyses, we compared risk factors and outcomes of girls who reported experiencing sexual abuse with those who reported no sexual abuse. First, we used chi-square analyses (for dichotomous factors) and independent samples t-tests (for continuous factors) to test for significant differences between the two groups. For multivariate analyses, we used regression to examine the effects of sexual abuse on a number of dependent variables, including school experiences, mental health, substance use, delinquent behavior, and sexual and reproductive behavior, while controlling for age, race, placement type, and family background.

Results: Girls experiencing sexual abuse had more negative outcomes, both overall and in the areas of mental health, school, substance use, risky sexual behaviors, and delinquent behaviors. Specifically, in bivariate analyses we found that girls who had experienced sexual abuse were significantly more likely to be in closed residential placement, have been in foster care, have a mother who has been incarcerated, be experiencing multiple school problems, be depressed, have attempted suicide, feel badly about their lives overall, use substances, have engaged in vandalism and delinquent behaviors overall, report barriers to service use, have used substances during recent sexual encounters, engage in risky sexual behaviors overall, and have negative outcomes overall as measured by a composite scale. In multivariate analyses that controlled for age, race, placement type, and family background, we found that young women who had experienced sexual abuse were significantly more likely to have attempted suicide, feel badly about their lives overall, have been expelled from school, have multiple school problems, have engaged in vandalism, have multiple sexual partners in the previous six months, engage in risky sexual behaviors overall, and have negative outcomes overall.

Implications: These findings highlight a need for interventions to assist young women who have experienced sexual abuse, both within and outside of the juvenile justice system, as well as efforts to prevent abuse and improve our child welfare and other social service systems.

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