دختران واقعا دچار مشکل: تفاوت های جنسیتی در رفتارهای جنسی پرخطر و عوامل مرتبط با آن در یک نمونه از مجرمین نوجوان

Despite numerous studies on the myriad of psychosocial factors that affect youthful offenders, research on gender differences with respect to risky sexual behavior are limited. Using data on juvenile offenders in a residential facility, we analyzed impact of gender on sexual behavior (N = 227). Girls reported higher likelihood of diagnosis with sexually transmitted diseases, and injecting drug use including heroin and cocaine than boys. Multivariate analysis indicated that number of sexual partners, childhood trauma, and services received from emergency shelter and psychiatric settings were associated with risky sexual behavior. Discouraging, abusive and dysfunctional home environment with little support from parents/caregivers, or teachers, priests/religious leaders appear to dispose youth to a life of risky sex, drugs and delinquency.

Relative to males, girls in the juvenile system are an understudied population (Patino, 2009 and Postlethwait et al., 2010). Despite the myriad risks female juvenile offenders face, relatively little research attention has been focused on risky sexual behavior, especially when linked with responding to challenging situations such as delinquency, gang involvement, and neglect. This is important to study given the substantial increases in the number of girls who are caught up in the juvenile justice system especially within the last decade (Chesney-Lind, 2010). Delinquent youth engaging in risky sexual behavior such as unprotected sexual intercourse with multiple partners of unknown status as well as sexual intercourse under the influence of drug/alcohol threatens both those within and outside the juvenile justice system (Romero et al., 2007). Previous studies have found sexual risk behavior, especially those pertaining to HIV/AIDS and STDs is higher among detained youth when compared to the general population (Teplin, Mericle, McClelland, & Abram, 2003). Estimates suggest that girls now account for almost 30% of nationwide juvenile arrests in the United States (Chesney-Lind, 2010) including an increased presence of girls in the juvenile detention system (Pasko & Chesney-Lind, 2010). While the overall juvenile incarceration rate has decreased nationwide in the last ten years, the rate of decrease among girls has been slower compared to boys (8% versus 18%) (Patino, 2009). Several factors are associated with the increased presence of girls in the juvenile justice system such as unmet mental health needs (Patino, 2009), lower school achievement and family dynamics (Zahn, Hawkins, Chiancone, & Whitworth, 2008), and different definitions of what constitutes assault (Chesney-Lind, 2006). In addition to mental health challenges, both boys and girls in juvenile justice settings also report substantial substance use and abuse histories (Morris et al., 1995 and Vaughn et al., 2007). While some evidence pertaining to substance use among adolescents in the juvenile justice system relates to negative coping behavior (Robertson, Xu, & Stripling, 2010), others find influence of gang membership (Harper, Davidson, & Hosek, 2008), social bonding and peer culture (Ramaswamy & Freudenberg, 2010), as well as trauma exposure and post traumatic stress (Dixon, Howie, & Starling, 2005). Irrespective of the underlying reasons, substance use and abuse such as injecting drug use, has been intrinsically linked with health risks including HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases in this population (Borek et al., 2010 and Merkinaite et al., 2010). Research has shown that adolescents in the juvenile justice system increasingly present with a history of physical, emotional and sexual abuse resulting in unmet mental health needs and negative coping behavior (Chesney-Lind, 2010, Goodkind et al., 2009, Lippman, 2010 and Pasko and Chesney-Lind, 2010). The empirical evidence suggests there are gender differences. For example, a study assessed post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptomatology among juvenile offenders and found rates of PTSD among female delinquents in incarceration were higher compared to PTSD incidences among male delinquents in incarceration (Cauffman, Feldman, Watherman, & Steiner, 1998). While experiential childhood trauma was found to be associated with higher likelihood of risky health behavior among female juvenile offenders, the same relationship was not supported by diagnostic assessment of PTSD (Smith, Leve, & Chamberlain, 2006). Among the dearth of studies on sexual risk among female juvenile offenders, only one study explored relational pathways of sexual risk behavior specifically among female juvenile offenders and reported mixed findings (Lopez et al., 2010). While a direct effect was found between increased levels of child maltreatment and non-condom use among female juvenile detainees, study results found no support for a relationship between depressive self concept, a measure of depression and self esteem, and non-condom use. Risky sexual behavior has been linked with the population of juvenile offenders, mainly in males (Brooks et al., 2011, Khurana et al., 2011 and Leslie et al., 2010). Studies of detained adolescents found that sexual risk behavior was associated with factors such as concurrent sexual partners, sporadic sexual activities, involvement of drugs and alcohol during sexual encounters, as well as unmet mental health needs (Bryan et al., 2009, Dembo et al., 2009 and Kerr et al., 2009). In addition to the few epidemiologic and survey studies of sexual risk behavior among girls randomized controlled trials testing the efficacy of sexual risk reduction interventions have also primarily targeted more boys than girls, and the limited interventions that have focused on delinquent girls have produced mixed results (Bryan et al., 2009 and Robertson et al., 2011). Barriers in successful implementation of sexual risk reduction among female juvenile offenders suggest girls are a hard to reach population (Zahn, 2008). Further, existing racial and gender disparity in the juvenile justice system make female focused interventions difficult (Moore & Padavic, 2010), and extant skills and behavior specific interventions such as increased condom use (Robertson et al., 2011 and Voisin and Neilands, 2010) do not necessarily target condom negotiation skills among young girls. Even though associations among contextual factors such as history of abuse and trauma with respect to adolescent offenders have been mentioned repeatedly, research is limited on how such contextual factors affect risky sexual behaviors of female juvenile offenders. Negative affect among adolescent offenders were associated with risky sexual behavior, including lower HIV/AIDS knowledge, lower frequency of condom use as well as negative attitudes towards condom use (Lucenko, Malow, Sanchez-Martinez, Jennings, & Devieux, 2003). While evidence suggests female adult offenders with history of sexual abuse are more likely to report risky sexual behavior (McCartan & Gunnison, 2010), a gap remains in examining impact of such negative experiences on sexual behavior among young girls in the juvenile justice system.