New Blog Post – Finding Permanent Homes for LGBT Youth in the Child Welfare and Juvenile Justice Systems
July 16, 2012 | by
The child welfare, education, and juvenile justice systems have concurrently created disparate outcomes for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and gender non-conforming youth. For example, Himmelstein and Brückner (2010) uncover evidence that LGBT youth are more seriously punished for the same crimes committed by straight youth. They found that nonheterosexual youth are more likely to be expelled from school, arrested, and convicted of a juvenile offense compared with straight youth engaged in the exact same transgressive behaviors.[1]
The child welfare, education, and juvenile justice systems have concurrently created disparate outcomes for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and gender non-conforming youth. For example, Himmelstein and Brückner (2010) uncover evidence that LGBT youth are more seriously punished for the same crimes committed by straight youth. They found that nonheterosexual youth are more likely to be expelled from school, arrested, and convicted of a juvenile offense compared with straight youth engaged in the exact same transgressive behaviors.[1]
Given the high rates of running from home, group homes, and foster care placements for LGBT youth, as well as the poor conditions of confinement LGBT youth face in detention, NCCD has started a project called Improving Permanency for LGBT Youth. In this blog entry, NCCD’s Director of Research, Angela Irvine, describes this project and its importance in stopping the cycle of running away and homelessness that anchors LGBT youth into the juvenile justice system.