Linsey Belisle, assistant professor of Criminal Justice, recently published an article titled “Examining the prevalence of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) among justice-involved youth in the U.S.: The importance of accounting for race/ethnicity, gender and gendered racial/ethnic groups.”
According to Belisle, “It is a well-established fact that youth in the U.S. juvenile justice system are more likely to be exposed to adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) than their counterparts in the general public. However, there is a significant gap in our understanding of how these experiences present themselves across gendered racial/ethnic groups of justice-involved youth.”
To bridge this gap, this exploratory study is the first to apply an intersectional lens to examine the prevalence of ACEs among a group of justice-involved youth in the U.S. Using secondary data the study investigates ACEs by gender, race/ethnicity, and six gendered racial/ethnic groups of justice-involved youth in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The study’s findings, which are consistent with previous research, highlight the need to consider race/ethnicity and gender simultaneously to understand the unique experiences of ACEs among justice-involved youth.