"x x x.
A report has revealed that girls now outnumber boys in the juvenile justice system and the amount of girls who have been arrested has increased over the past 20 years.
The report, 'Gender Injustice: System-Level Juvenile Justice Reforms for Girls' was carried out by the National Crittenton Foundation and the National Women's Law Center.
It found that the number of girls who had been arrested had risen by 45 percent over the past two decades. And suggests that girls are now getting caught up in all sections of the justice system.
The report found that the number of arrests of girls being had risen by 45 percent over the past two decades. And girls were getting caught up in all sections of the justice system
According to the report, many of the girls who ended up behind bars had previously experienced trauma.
Some had been the victims of violence and sexual abuse either at home or in society.
Figures showed that the detentions of girls had also increased by 40 percent.
The report author said: 'The traumatic and unhealthy social environments in which many girls live result in behaviors that are criminalized or are mishandled by other systems, resulting in girls' entry into the juvenile justice system.'
An examination of the types of crimes that girls carried out found that 37 percent were there for technical violations and fighting at home and 21 percent were for simple assaults.
And many of the young women had already been in contact with public bodies like child welfare, mental health and education but their offenses often pose little or no threat to public safety.
Often girls who ended up in the juvenile system did so because other services had been unable to help them.
Their offenses often posed little or no threat to public safety, The Hill reports.
Francine Sherman, lead author of the report said: 'Every day in the U.S., abused and traumatized girls enter and are pushed through the justice system.'
Sherman, a clinical law professor at Boston College Law School, told The Hill that there should be reform and police should offer alternatives to arrest for minor offenses.
x x x."
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook
