ABSTRACT
Previous research suggests an alleged gendered orientation of the youth justice system (YJS) implying that during decision-making practices different attitudes and perceptions would exist regarding girls and boys (Gelsthorpe, L. and Worrall, A. (2009) ‘Looking for trouble: A recent history of girls, young women and juvenile justice’, Youth Justice, 9(3), pp. 209–223; De Bus, S. (2015) ‘Exploring the gender dimension in the juvenile justice court. An analysis of Court hearings’ in Christiaens, J. (ed.) It’s for your own good. Researching youth justice practices. Brussel: VUBPress, pp. 99–119). International and national research has indicated a persistence of controlling the sexual behaviour of girls; concerns that hardly exist towards boys. In addition, significant differences are found between girls and boys in the reporting of the youth court files. In their own research, the author focused on how girls and boys are portrayed in the reporting of youth court files, and how youth court professionals handle the cases and perceive these girls and boys. This chapter will focus on gender in the YJS and the problematisation of girls, with specific attention to the functioning of the Belgian YJS.
