INVISIBILISED - A report about girls caught up in, or at risk of, crime and everything the people around them miss.
What is it about?
SHiFT works with young people who are caught up in crime, or at risk of it. Most of them are boys. A much smaller number are girls and this report is about those girls: what happens to them, what keeps going wrong, and what they say needs to change.
It was written by Ella Armstrong, our Research Lead at SHiFT. Most of what's in it came from girls who are working with SHiFT saying it out loud.
Who was involved?
Eight girls and young women sat down and talked about their lives before, during and after SHiFT.
Their mums and carers talked too.
So did SHiFT Guides, social workers, youth workers and other people whose job is to help.
The numbers come from all 30 girls SHiFT has worked with, plus government figures and other research.
THE SIZE OF THE PROBLEM
52%.
More than half of girls in custody have been in care.
74%
Nearly three quarters of girls in youth custody had already been permanently excluded from school.
4 in 10
Of the girls who came to SHiFT had been arrested in the year before.
"I don't really know why I got kicked out. Just behaviour. Over half term, they sent a letter saying I was kicked out but with no reason. But the people have a reason to get kicked out. They never kick them out."
- Sienna, 15 ( Not real name, chosen pseudonym) Four things the report says keep happening
1) Not enough people know how to work with girls
2) Girls get called difficult not in need of help and support
3) What girls are dealing with can be different than boys and it gets missed
4) Girls needs can be made invisible and then over visible. This can happen more to Black and global majority girls.
1. Not enough people know how to work with girls
"There's been like hundreds of Social Workers. I just don't talk to them. I [want them] to be involved… to actually talk [to me], get involved [and] to be there a bit more. I could open up." Sienna, 15
Because there are so few girls in the system, a lot of workers have never had much practice. So the ones who really get it are scattered about — it depends where you live and who you happen to be given. It isn't built in.
Sometimes things meant to keep a girl safe end up doing the opposite. Taking her phone off her to stop someone contacting her can land as a punishment, and like nobody trusts her.
2.Girls get called 'difficult' not in need of support and help
"Like, why don't you look at background? Maybe ask us, you know, what's going on? But they were just [like] 'naughty child, can't deal with her'. No one really listened. They weren't interested." Lucy's Mum
There's an idea floating about of what a girl who's been hurt is supposed to look like: quiet, polite, grateful. Girls who shout, argue or push back don't match it. So instead of anyone asking what happened to her, she gets treated as the problem.
And going the other way doesn't work either. Keeping yourself to yourself, saying you're fine, not wanting to talk - that gets read as not wanting help. For a lot of girls, being on your own isn't an attitude. It's what you learned to do to stay safe.
1. Not enough people know how to work with girls
"There's been like hundreds of Social Workers. I just don't talk to them. I [want them] to be involved… to actually talk [to me], get involved [and] to be there a bit more. I could open up." Sienna, 15
Because there are so few girls in the system, a lot of workers have never had much practice. So the ones who really get it are scattered about — it depends where you live and who you happen to be given. It isn't built in.
Sometimes things meant to keep a girl safe end up doing the opposite. Taking her phone off her to stop someone contacting her can land as a punishment, and like nobody trusts her.
2.Girls get called 'difficult' not in need of support and help
"Like, why don't you look at background? Maybe ask us, you know, what's going on? But they were just [like] 'naughty child, can't deal with her'. No one really listened. They weren't interested." Lucy's Mum
There's an idea floating about of what a girl who's been hurt is supposed to look like: quiet, polite, grateful. Girls who shout, argue or push back don't match it. So instead of anyone asking what happened to her, she gets treated as the problem.
And going the other way doesn't work either. Keeping yourself to yourself, saying you're fine, not wanting to talk - that gets read as not wanting help. For a lot of girls, being on your own isn't an attitude. It's what you learned to do to stay safe.
