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American Morning
Study Shows More Girls Under 18 Arrested
Aired May 01, 2001 - 11:22 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: A new study by the American and National Bar Associations say that more girls are going to jail.
Joining us with more on that is CNN's Jeanne Meserve, she's in Washington -- Jeanne, hello.
JEANNE MESERVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Daryn.
Overall, the juvenile crime rate is dropping -- but as you mentioned, not for girls. In 1999, 678,000 girls under 18 were arrested, accounting for almost one-third of all juvenile arrests.
Joining me now: some people who know the problem and the system well: Evett Simmons is president of the National Bar Association, which, along on with the American Bar Association issued today's report, which is about young women like Fabia and Dayna.
Fabia Clark, 16, has spent time in several juvenile detention facilities and Dayna Phillips, another 16-year-old, also has been arrested.
Dayna, let me start with you. Under what circumstances were you arrested?
DAYNA PHILLIPS, PACE PARTICIPANT: I had a very bad case, because I'm the one who called the cops as a domestic battery charge against me and my mom. It was a fight, a domestic fight. And I called the cops and they came and arrested me.
MESERVE: Did you feel you were treated unfairly?
PHILLIPS: Yes. The cops told me that my mom had the right to beat with a chair if she wanted to.
MESERVE: And was there a history of violence in your family?
PHILLIPS: Not in my family -- I'd had domestic fights with my boyfriend before, but that was not within my family.
MESERVE: And how did the system deal with your boyfriend when you had fights with him?
PHILLIPS: He got a slap on the wrist, when I ended up with almost a broken nose and a busted lip. My mom ended up with no bruises and I got put on hard -- probation. He got a slap on the wrist.
MESERVE: Fabia, what about you? How did you come to be in the juvenile justice system?
FABIA CLARK, PACE PARTICIPANT: I had battery charges -- basically domestic fights with friends blown out of proportion.
MESERVE: Why do you feel they were blown out of proportion?
CLARK: Because everyone has fights. I mean, nine times out of 10, girls are friends the next day. So why have a record behind it?
MESERVE: You also have said that you had a bit of an attitude problem?
CLARK: Yes. I had a major attitude problem. But, thanks to the PACE Center for Girls, it's all turned around.
MESERVE: And we'll get to that in just a second. What do you think, Fabia, might have been the root of your problems with the law?
CLARK: I really didn't have any problems. There's just basically stuff blown out of proportion so -- nothing major, everything minor.
MESERVE: Evett Simmons, let me ask you how these two young women are representative of the problem your report is talking about?
EVETT L. SIMMONS, PRESIDENT, NATIONAL BAR ASSOCIATION: They're representative because there's been a redefining of crime in this society, this country. For instance, the altercation in the family prior to this time was something that could be dealt with outside of the system. Now that that is considered a crime, you have more girls going into the system.
And then when girls come into the system, we do not have the programs or the facilities to take care of them.
MESERVE: Well, are there more girls acting aggressively and violently?
SIMMONS: We don't have any statistics at this point that would suggest that as much as it would suggest the redefining of what girls did in previous times.
MESERVE: Are many of these girls who get into problems with the law -- are there certain common threads in their background?
SIMMONS: Definitely. One in four of them were victims of sexual abuse. They experience depression. They have low-self-esteem. And going into their early ages -- the teenage years -- boys get stronger, girls develop more problems and feel self-conscious.
MESERVE: What are the long-term implications if this is not addressed? SIMMONS: We are looking at a national disaster. This is a national emergency. Because girls are the mothers of the generations of this country and if we do not look at them and take care of this problem, we do not know what the future's going to hold.
MESERVE: These young women both, have gone through or are going through the something called the PACE program. Are there enough treatment programs that are tailored to meet girls' needs?
SIMMONS: No, there are not. That is one of the reasons why Martha Barnett, president of the American Bar Association, and I are here today, not only because we are women -- and we were one-time girls -- but because we need more programs such as the one that is in Florida. It needs to be replicated across the country.
OK, you've got Simmons, Dayna Phillips and Fabia Clark -- thank you, all three, for coming in.
SIMMONS: Thank you.
PHILLIPS: Thank you.
CLARK: Thank you.
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