DAMAGED DAUGHTERS: THE HISTORY OF GIRLS' SEXUALITY AND THE JUVENILE JUSTICE SYSTEM

Throughout transformations and legal changes in juvenile justice, the character and constitution of the female juvenile offender population has changed very little, with girls infrequently charged with serious law violations and commonly judged in terms of their moral welfare and sexual behavior. This Article examines the treatment of girls' sexuality in the justice system, from the early reformatories to the contemporary era. It looks at how juvenile courts and girls' correctional institutions have traditionally constructed and controlled girls' sexual choices, sexual abuse histories, identities, and orientation. Specifically, it shows how, over the past one hundred years, legal actors and correctional practitioners have consistently focused on girls' sexuality and identified similar causes for girls' sexual deviance (disrupted families, economic deprivation, educational and vocational deficits, and unhealthy relationships with older men), but have framed such causes, as well as their responses, differently.