Early intervention and targeted ?projects keep girls out of custody

Girls in the youth justice system are often affected by complex problems including gang involvement, abuse and poverty.

Youth Justice Board (YJB) figures show that in 2010/11, youth offending teams in England and Wales were working with 18,941 girls, making up 22 per cent of their total caseload.

However, examples of effective services tailored to the needs of this vulnerable group are few and far between. In a bid to improve the situation, the YJB has identified work with girls as a corporate priority this year.

Kate Morris, deputy chief executive at the YJB, says the organisation is working with successful projects to spread best practice. “We know there are some really good things going on, but they are not consistent across every area,” she says.
In Nottinghamshire, the youth offending service is running two projects designed specifically for girls. The Pink Project works with girls that have offended, while the Pearl Project sees staff visit schools in the county to work with 11- to 14-year-old girls who are at risk of offending.

Both projects draw on research to address issues that girls are likely to face.

Troubled past
“The focus is very much on self-esteem and identity and includes work on sexual health, relationships, friendships, self-image and peer pressure,” says Laurence Jones, head of the service in Nottinghamshire. “A lot of these girls have had very difficult early life experiences, such as abuse, neglect or exposure to domestic violence.”

The number of girls who were first-time entrants to the criminal justice system fell from 247 in 2010/11 to 140 in 2011/12 in the local area, and the proportion of girls sent to custody dropped from 27 per cent in 2009/10 to ?13 per cent in 2011/12.

Jones puts the improvements down to a combination of early intervention work and the girl-specific projects. “It’s really cost-effective because the work is done in groups of eight or nine girls, so you only need a couple of staff,” he adds.

In Birmingham, there are issues around young girls being sexually exploited, in some cases by older men and in other cases through gangs.

Since 2004, Michelle Virgo-Crooks has been running the girls element of Birmingham City Council’s intensive supervision and surveillance programme (ISSP), the most rigorous community alternative to custody. There are currently seven girls on the programme and there have been no breaches in the past two years.

Addressing issues
The council is meanwhile using part of the £1.2m it is receiving from a Home Office fund to work with girls on the cusp of gang activity, including mentoring.

Virgo-Crooks, who is the council’s ISSP project officer, says there is a real need for specialist help for girls who can be facing “overwhelming” issues.

“Prior to the intensive supervision and surveillance programme, a lot of girls were going straight into custody because there was nothing in the community that was tailored to them,” she says. “If you work with their families and support them through regular home visits, it helps the young person as well.

“Rather than looking at them as young offenders, if you treat them as young women who need help, and work with them regardless of the offence, it can really make a difference. The biggest issue you find with these girls is not normally their crimes, but the welfare issues alongside them.”