Understanding developmental life-course theory for justice-involved girls and women residing in rural coercive sexual environments

ABSTRACT Coercive sexual environments (CSE) spotlight spatial disadvantage and sexual exploitation of at-risk girls in the United States. While existing literature explores sexualised culture in rural places, little is known about rural CSEs. The current study folds a developmental life-course framework together with the CSE phenomenon and gendered pathways to assess rural communities’ responses to ‘difficult’ girls. Incarcerated girls and women, as well as community stakeholders from rural communities, were interviewed to assess the gendered pathways of delinquent girls. Findings confirmed girls (juveniles) and young women (adults) can identify overt and covert community (in)actions that ignore their abuses and criminalise their trauma. Within this study, 37.5% of the sample moved from the juvenile justice system to the adult criminal justice system, with all previously residing in non-urban locations. Evidence suggests traditional gendered norms influence the community's responses to girls in rural CSEs, which partially explains the abuse-to-prison pipeline and later involvement in the criminal justice system.