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Summary: Although girls make up a small minority of children who come in conflict with the law, they are vulnerable to violence, particularly sexual abuse and rape, by both police and staff in detention facilities. This 5-page background paper documents violence against girls by police and correctional staff in Brazil, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Papua New Guinea, and the United States.
Violence against Girls in Conflict with the Law Girls make up a minority of children who come in contact with justice systems, but are vulnerable to violence, particularly sexual abuse and rape, by police as well as staff in detention facilities. Girls who live or work on the street are often easy targets for police violence because they are young, often poor, ignorant of their rights, and lacking responsible adults to look out for them. Once in detention, girls may be vulnerable to physical and sexual violence and humiliating treatment, particularly by male staff, and subjected to violent or harmful disciplinary measures. Because of their smaller numbers, girls are more likely than boys to be held in unsuitable and often dangerous conditions. A lack of adequate facilities for girls may result in placement in adult facilities; inadequate segregation from other, more dangerous detainees; detention at remote locations that limit contact with their family; or a lack of female staff to provide appropriate oversight. Since 2002, Human Rights Watch investigations of police violence and juvenile justice systems have documented abuses against girls in Brazil, Egypt, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Papua New Guinea, and the United States. Police Violence, Including Rape and Sexual Assault The cops came and got the girls one by one. There were five guys. There were five girls so they each had one for themselves. One came to me. I was crying and said, “You guys hit me already.” . . . The same guy who hit me wanted to take me out. I said, “You have already belted me around so how can I go?” He booted me on the ass and slapped me. He pushed me. I had a lump on my back and bruises on my bum. . . After that, they took the other four out. They did whatever they wanted to do with them. . . There was moonlight. It was on the dirt. It was right in front of me. I could see through the window. It was forcible. The others had injuries from where they were belted—they had bruises on their bums and where they were forced to have sex. - Alice O, Papua New Guinea, describing an experience when she was fourteen or fifteen. In Papua New Guinea, Human Rights Watch investigations in 2004 and 2006 found that girls are often subjected by police to sexual abuse, including rape – frequently pack rape (gang rape, also described as “lineup sex”). Girls told us about rapes in police stations, vehicles, barracks, and other locations. Some described seeing police rape girls vaginally and orally, sometimes using objects such as beer bottles. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, Human Rights Watch also found that sexual violence against street girls by members of the police and military was common. Counselors at centers for street children reported that they received frequent reports from girls, some as young as ten, of soldiers, police, and other men in uniform raping street girls, demanding sex in exchange for protection or release from custody, or offering them small amounts of money for sex. Thirteen-year-old Margaret told Human Rights Watch: In early 2005, men in uniform arrested all the kids in the market and we were confined in a house nearby. Those men said we were under arrest because their superiors had given orders that all children should get off the street. They arrested many boys and girls. Some of the boys were beaten but not the girls. The soldiers slept with some of the older girls. They said, ‘if you don’t sleep with us, we won’t let you go.’ So, many of the girls accepted. They said the same thing to me, but I was spared because a nun came and secured my release. Who could do something like this? In Egypt, Human Rights Watch found that police routinely arrest and detain both girls and boys who they consider “vulnerable to delinquency.” Both girls and boys were routinely subjected to police beatings and sexual abuse and violence, and detained in unsanitary and dangerous conditions for days or weeks. Some girls reported that police extorted sex from street girls in exchange for protection from sexual violence from other men. In Northern Brazil, where Human Rights Watch found that police routinely beat children during and after arrest, nearly every girl interviewed reported being hit by police officers while in a local police station. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, girls also reported beatings by police. Seventeen-year old Rebecca reported that in 2005, "A few kids were stealing from the market, and the police arrested a whole group of street kids in the area. We were more than twenty kids in one small room at the lockup. We were whipped with a plastic cord on the buttocks. The kids would cry and scream. My friends paid the police 400 francs (U.S. $0.80) to make them stop." Violence in Detention Facilities “He [the officer] curses me and makes me stand while he hits me with a stick. When I fall to the ground he makes me stand again. He hits me all over my body—from my head to my feet.” —Amal A., sixteen, detained in Cairo, Egypt Girls in detention facilities are at heightened risk of physical and sexual violence or harassment. Because girls make up such a small proportion of children in detention, appropriate facilities are often not available, resulting in placement in adult facilities. A lack of female guards also significantly contributes to girls’ vulnerability to sexual abuse. In many countries, sexual harassment and violence by male guards and officers supervising girls in detention is common. In Egyptian lock-ups, police frequently use obscene and degrading language to intimidate and humiliate children in their custody. Fifteen-year old Samara said, “They say filthy things, sexual things, to the girls.” Warda, a sixteen year old girl, reported, “The guard here says, ‘You are a woman [sexually].’ He keeps saying that to me. I keep saying, ‘No, I’m a girl [i.e. a virgin].’ Yesterday, he said, ‘If you are really a girl, take your clothes off so we can examine you.’ Then he grabbed my breasts, but I hit him.” Girls may suffer violence at the hands of other children. When Human Rights Watch interviewed Josefina, held in Amapá in Northern Brazil, she bore fresh cuts on her face, neck, and arms that she attributed to a fight with another girl. “She cut me, she wanted to kill me,” she said. “Sometimes that happens.” In the United States, Human Rights Watch found that girls detained in New York State were at risk of a range of sexually abusive behaviors, including sexual intercourse with male guards. Girls also reported that male staff used verbal innuendo, made humiliating comments about their past, observed them in states of undress, and subjected them to unwanted touching. Disciplinary Measures, Restraints and Excessive Use of Force When they restrain kids, they purposely hurt them, seriously. . . .They’d have rug burns all over their bodies. You can see that they’re doing it on purpose. . . They hold your arms back and they purposefully push your face in the rug. They have their knee in your back and your arms all the way back. I’ve been restrained before so I know. - Stephanie Q., incarcerated at age 16 In the United States, approximately 18 percent of children taken into custody in the state of New York are girls. A 2006 Human Rights Watch investigation of conditions in the facilities where most are detained found that girls experience abusive physical restraints and other forms of abuse and neglect, and are denied the mental health, educational, and other rehabilitative services they need. One of the most troubling abuses is the use of inappropriate and excessive force by facilities staff against girls. Human Rights Watch documented the excessive use of a forcible face-down “restraint” procedure intended for emergencies but in fact used far more often. In a restraint, staff seize a girl from behind and push her head and entire body to the floor, face down. They then pull her arms up behind her and hold or handcuff them. The procedure is used against girls as young as 12 and that it frequently results in facial abrasions and other injuries, and even broken limbs. All girls detained in these New York facilities are bound in some combination of handcuffs, leg-shackles, and leather restraint belts any time they leave the facility. Girls are also subject to frequent strip-searches in which they must undress in front of a staff person and submit to a thorough visual inspection including their genitals. In many countries, girls may be subjected to cell confinement as a disciplinary measure. Cell confinement can have a serious adverse effect on a child’s emotional well-being, particularly when she is confined for lengthy periods of time. Patrícia D., detained in northern Brazil, said, “For me, the worst thing was being in isolation. I was very sad. I stayed there a long time, more than a month inside there without leaving or anything. . . For me, that was the worst.” In some cases, particularly when children are isolated or confined in close quarters for extended periods of time, cell confinement may constitute cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. Recommendations for Governments Further information:
In many countries, girls leave their families because of abuse or neglect in order to live or work on the street. Although many of these girls commit no crimes, and are simply in need of protection, police often target them for routine harassment and abuse. In many countries, police coerce girls into providing sexual services in exchange for release, or detain them on pretextual grounds and rape them. Many are released without ever being arrested. Because girls are rarely charged, tried, or sentenced, their contact with the police often goes formally unrecognized.