What staff need to know: using elements of gender-responsive programming to create safer environments for system-involved LGBTQ girls and women

ABSTRACT

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and/or questioning (LGBTQ) youth and adults are disproportionately in contact with the juvenile and criminal justice systems. Despite disproportionate representation, the system is ill-equipped to attend to the needs of these populations. While one of the greatest contributions of feminist criminology was gender-responsive programming, assuming that all girls and women share the same struggles and needs renders non-heterosexual and non-gender binary identities invisible. The purpose of this article is to focus on training staff in two primary elements of gender-responsive programming, developing cultural appropriateness and competence, and responses to sexism and homophobia, in order to provide safer environments for system-involved LGBTQ girls and women.

KEYWORDS:

• gender-responsive programming
• queer responsive programming
• LGBTQ youth

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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Lindsay L. Kahle

Lindsay Dr. Kahle is a Teaching Assistant Professor of Criminology in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology. She is also affiliate faculty of the WVU Research Center on Violence, and the Laboratory for Youth Inequality and Justice. Dr. Kahle received her BA in Psychology and her MA in Sociology from Indiana University of Pennsylvania, before pursuing her Ph.D. in Sociology at Virginia Tech. Her preliminary areas of specialization are in Criminology and Women’s and Gender Studies. Thus, her areas of teaching include: Criminology, Gender and Crime, Race/Class/Gender and Justice, Youth Violence, and Victimology. Her research interests focus primarily on the intersections of gender, sexual orientation, and race and ethnicity in youth violence and victimization. Her dissertation, entitled: Examining Victimization in the Lives of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Questioning Youth, assessed the effects of bullying, homophobic bullying, dating violence, and sexual assault on school avoidance, substance use and poor mental health outcomes in LGBQ youth. Dr. Kahle’s research has been published in peer-reviewed journals such as: Criminal Justice Studies, Journal of Child and Family Studies, Victims and Offenders, Sociological Spectrum, Violence and Victims, Gender, Place, and Culture, Journal of Interpersonal Violence, Journal of Criminology, Sociology Compass, Encyclopedia of Research Methods and Statistical Techniques in Criminology and Criminal Justice, and The Handbook of Race, Ethnicity, Crime, and Justice.

Jill Rosenbaum

Jill Leslie Rosenbaumis a Professor Emerita at California State University, Fullerton. She has published numerous articles and book chapters on the experiences of young women in the criminal justice system. In addition, her work on the value of “art behind bars” has been published in numerous venues, including the Special Issue of The Prison Journal on Art and Mindfulness and Implementing a Gender Based Arts Program for Juvenile Offenders (Elsevior).