"Empowerment for Young Girls: Mission Possible or Mission Accomplished?".

This paper is part of a larger study which aims to provide an in-depth look at the lives, experiences, feelings, and reintegration efforts of young girls who participated in Mission Possible, one of the few gender-specific interventions offered to female delinquents in a Californian secure custody facility. Analyzing the content of letters sent to their former counselor, this study seeks to obtain a better understanding of these girls' perceptions of self, others, and the justice system, to identify ways in which the intervention has helped them succeed outside the facility and to highlight external and internal obstacles that hinder them from remaining trouble-free with the law, their family, and other social institutions. This paper will focus on the concept of empowerment as an explanatory variable, which may complement the propositions of traditional delinquency theories, as well as a frequently stated goal in the mission statements of several gender-responsive programs for females. Anastasia Tosouni, M.S.PhD Graduate StudentDepartment of Criminology, Law & SocietyUniversity of California, Irvineatosouni@uci.edu ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]