My report aimed to explore how young women affected by youth violence face de-prioritisation, credibility judgment, and adultification, while examining why they feel disbelieved and powerless. It also highlights where these girls and young women found respect and belonging after experiencing marginalisation, and presents their views on peer groups, emphasising themes of coercive control and patriarchy.

I conducted a literature review and interviews with five women and two men who self-identified as having been affected by youth violence, and a policy and research manager for a national charity. I analysed the literature review and data collected to conclude with the following findings and recommendations.

Addressing the issue of girls and young women affected by youth violence feeling unheard and disbelieved is urgent. Incorporating lived experience experts in policing strategy and creating public scrutiny groups for violence against women and girls’ (VAWG) responses are essential. Interviewees emphasised the need for girls to feel respected and included in education, particularly during transitions and for those removed from mainstream schools. Integrating VAWG reduction into youth violence strategies is critical to avoid further marginalisation and to recognise the complexity of their experiences.

The overall numbers of girls in the youth justice system and in the secure estate have fallen rapidly over the past decade. The recent decline in the use of custody is very welcome but poses significant challenges for the commissioning of placements, custodial establishments and resettlement services. Girls have become increasingly overlooked by the penal system at both a policy and a practice level and their diminishing minority in custody has exacerbated the marginalisation of their needs. Analysis of the existing literature has underlined the damaging and disruptive nature of incarceration, identified a lack of policy focus on the female population in the youth secure estate and found a paucity of available data about the nature of recent custodial sentencing, remand and placements for girls.

The primary aim of this research project is to critically examine the use of penal custody for girls in England and Wales, in order to fill a gap in the existing research, policy and practice literature. This study aimed to address this gap by analysing recent custody data, to investigate how penal detention is being used for girls from a gendered perspective.

While concern has grown in recent years about the extent of gang activity in Britain, the ways in which girls and young women are affected tends to be overlooked or distorted. This research aimed to address this gap by investigating how those working closely with young women defined their gang-association and what they believed to be the most effective way of responding to this. It looked to a small but vibrant number of voluntary and community sector organisations (VCSOs) to see how they have responded to meet girls' needs through their work and the challenges they faced in delivering this.

The original aim of this research was to examine the efficacy of the gender specific community based provision offered to young women by Nottingham City and Nottinghamshire youth offending services. It was also to consider whether girls responded more positively to a gender specific approach. During the preliminary preparations it became apparent that this would require research with a larger sample size. Accordingly, taking into account the limitations of the sample group, and without a matched
cohort who had not attended the gender specific programmes, sustainability became the main focus of the research proposal.

The objective of this project was to examine the processes that assist with effective resettlement for juvenile girls with specific reference to the work of the Rivendell Unit* by:
• identifying the concerns that young women and staff have about effective resettlement specifically in terms of gender;
• identifying successful current practice for this group in resettlement;
• identifying barriers to effective resettlement; and
• charting the experience of resettlement for these young women and follow-up issues over a set period of time.