Dismantling the Sexual Abuse-to-Prison Pipeline: Texas's Approach

Abstract

The United States now has more than $19 trillion debt. With over 2.2 million people incarcerated, the United States has the highest prison population in the World. With over 1.6 million people incarcerated, China has the second highest prison population in the World. As the country with the highest prison population, the United States spends billions of dollars each year on prison cost, which continues to contribute to the United States debt. As a result of the United States debt and its relation to money spent on incarceration, Republicans and Democrats are working together in the federal government and state governments to decrease the prison population. Since 2007, several states have passed comprehensive, data-driven reforms designed to reduce recidivism and incarceration rates and to reduce new spending on prisons. For example, state governments are giving school districts the option to eliminate zero-tolerance policies in school discipline because of the recent research showing that zero-tolerance policies create a “School-to-Prison Pipeline.” In October 2015, the federal government took an unprecedented step by releasing 6,000 prisoners due to sentencing disparities in drug laws. On November 2, 2015, the National Bar Association partnered with the White House using funds from the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention to help expunge or seal residents’ records who are under the age of 24. Another equally important, comprehensive data driven reform that the United States can use to decrease the prison population is by stopping the criminalization of girls who have been victims of sexual abuse. One way of doing this is by recognizing that “gender neutral” laws fail to take into account social norms among genders. Despite the fact that most laws in the United States are “gender neutral” on its face, sexually abused females represent a small fraction of the United States population while representing a disproportionately higher rate of the United States incarcerated population than their male counterparts and females who have not been sexually abused. Ignoring gender differences under the law, especially for females who have been sexually abused, has led to the Sexual Abuse-to-Prison Pipeline. Because experiencing sexual abuse often time leads to prostitution and other behavior that violates the law, sexually abused girls are more likely than girls who have not been sexually abused to end up in the juvenile justice system. By recognizing that females are treated different from males socially and under the law, some states are decreasing arrests rates by choosing alternatives to arrest for sexually abused victims. Texas, for example, has implemented laws that require law enforcement to recognize potential victims of sexual violence. Texas has also implemented laws that treat children who are victims of sex trafficking as victims, instead of prostitutes. If states collectively recognize that females are treated different from males socially and under the law, the United States can decrease the prison pipeline even more than it currently has done.

Adopting Feminist Theory, this Article offers insight into some of the causes of gender inequality in the United States and in the criminal justice system specifically. Adopting Restorative Justice Theory, this article argues that alternatives policies to the current “gender neutral” policies that criminalize victims of sexual abuse are more efficient at decreasing the prison population than the current laws that are in place in most states.

In this Student Note, we will examine Texas’s response to sex trafficking and prostitution as a potential model for other juvenile justice systems. After adopting alternatives for juveniles involved in prostitution and sex trafficking, Texas significantly reduced prostitution related arrests and referrals to the juvenile justice system. Therefore, Texas has taken a step in the right direction of not re-victimizing sexual abuse victims and decreasing the future prison population. Juvenile justice systems can play their part in eliminating gender disparities in the criminal justice system while also saving taxpayers money by shutting off the Sexual Abuse-to-Prison Pipeline.

Keywords: sexual abuse, crime, feminism, criminal justice, prison pipeline, race, gender, Texas, police, national debt, implicit bias, policies, restorative justice, sex trafficking, human trafficking, zero tolerance

JEL Classification: D63, H63, K14, K42