Introduction

This chapter engages with the recommendations from the Corston Report (Corston, 2007) to explore key issues in relation to youth justice practice with girls. It engages with the academic literature and research findings and also draws on the author's professional knowledge and experience in this field. This review finds many parallels between policy and practice in relation to girls and women in terms of their experiences of being dealt with in the criminal justice system. However, there are some differences: from a positive viewpoint these can point to examples of good practice, which could be adopted more generally in relation to women as well as girls. Nonetheless, there are some areas of concern, particularly in relation to planned future developments that are highlighted here, not least to flag up the need for careful consideration from a gendered perspective before the implementation of major new approaches.

In the criminal justice system, girls are a minority within a minority in two senses. First, girls under 18 make up only a small proportion of the female offending population. Over the past few years, the number of girls in custody in England and Wales has remained constant at around 50, with exactly 50 girls in custody in June 2014. This contrasts with 3,932 adult women in custody in June 2014 (Howard League for Penal Reform, 2014a). Second, among juvenile offenders, themselves a small percentage of the overall offending population, there are far fewer girls than boys. Within the wider context of falling numbers of juveniles within the criminal justice system, the overall proportion of girls to boys has remained broadly consistent at approximately 20%/80%. In 2012/13, some 95% of young people in custody were male (Youth Justice Board, 2014). This indicates that the vast majority of offences seen by the courts as requiring custody continue to be committed by males.

It is clear, therefore, that within the wider offending population, girls are a very small proportion indeed. Their comparatively low number is relevant to their treatment within the criminal justice system, as this chapter will explore. Corston's criticism of the treatment by the criminal justice system of women who offend is highly relevant to the juvenile estate, although her report addresses adults only (Corston, 2007). Parallels can be drawn between how young females are treated within the microcosm of youth justice and how women are treated within the adult criminal justice system.