The criminalization of girls

Research investigating girls’ delinquency and offending has tended to focus on samples of convicted, and often incarcerated, girls. Consequently, while increasing understanding of justice system-involved young women’s backgrounds and life experiences, the institutional pathways through which they enter the justice system have often been obscured. This chapter examines the institutional processes and practices that lead to criminalization and illustrates the parallels and interconnections between the regulation and disciplinary punishment of young women across different institutional spaces. It focuses on the gendered patterns of law enforcement and penal decision-making which contribute to the selective criminalization of girls. In addition, it analyzes how the (in)actions of education and welfare institutions towards troubled and troublesome young women serve to increase their likelihood of criminalization, particularly if they are marginalized, racialized, gender-expansive, or neurodiverse.