However, a recent increase in the female crime rate is drawing more attention to this population, just as increases in arrests of juvenile females are drawing attention to young female offenders. The emerging profile of women offenders bears strong resemblance to the profile of female delinquents, with many of the same risk factors impacting women's and girls' lives. More than four in 10 female adult inmates report a history of physical or sexual abuse. Nearly six in 10 grew up in a household with at least one parent absent. Minorities are disproportionately represented among the adult female offender population.
Women prisoners are likely to be poor, undereducated, and single parents.
For many of the women currently housed in prisons, these issues have gone unaddressed and untreated since childhood. Gender equity in juvenile justice programming is an important focus of the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act, reauthorized in 1992. The needs of females in the juvenile justice system have not kept pace with societal changes in the roles and goals of women. In reauthorizing the Act, lawmakers have attempted to address these discrepancies. The Act encourages states to empower young women to defend themselves, assert their rights, overcome abuse, aspire to rewarding and lucrative careers, and lead healthy, independent lives.