Adolescent girls face a rising rate of sexual violence, according to a recent report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. There’s a parallel crisis that’s not spelled out: Many of the young survivors are punished as if they were criminals.
This is known as the “abuse-to-prison pipeline.” Girls who are sexually abused are often pushed into the legal system and charged with offenses that can trigger a cascade of consequences: a criminal record that can haunt a person for years; confinement in facilities that are unsafe; and long-term sentences that can keep them imprisoned for decades, even for life. For girls of color, the risk of entering the criminal justice system is far higher than for white girls.
Examples of the pipeline are all too common. It happens when girls escape a violent home, but then are charged as runaways. It happens when girls report sexual abuse to police but are charged with false reporting. It happens when girls fight back against adult rapists in self-defense and then are charged with serious offenses. And it happens when children who are sex-trafficked are arrested on suspicion of prostitution or charged as traffickers themselves.
