Factors related to justice system involvement and resilience among sexual and gender minority students and street-involved youth

Sexual and gender minority (SGM) youth—such as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and nonbinary youth—experience disproportionate rates of common risk factors for offending including school problems, peer rejection, victimization, family discord, housing instability, and substance use compared to heterosexual, cisgender youth. Some SGM youth (e.g., sexual minority girls, transgender youth) are also overrepresented in the legal system. However, little is known about the relationship between risk factors and justice system involvement among SGM youth. In addition, it is unclear whether common protective factors (e.g., school connectedness, supportive caregivers) are associated with lower rates of justice system involvement in this population. This dissertation combines two studies to test whether empirically supported risk and protective factors are generalizable to SGM youth. Study 1 uses a sample of 36,990 elementary, middle, and high school students aged 12 to 19 years old to assess whether rates of risk and protective factors, rates of justice system involvement, and associations between these variables are similar across sexual orientation and gender. Since housing instability is considered a critical link in SGM youth's pathways into the justice system, Study 2 examines similar questions in a sample of 661 unhoused and street-involved youth. To determine the extent to which differential justice system involvement can be attributed to biased legal responses, it also assesses whether SGM youth report higher rates of punitive legal outcomes than non-SGM youth while holding rates of self-reported illegal behaviour constant. Collectively, these two studies increase our understanding of risk and resilience among SGM youth. Findings are relevant to clinicians, policy makers, and legal professionals who are committed to ensuring that assessment and intervention strategies are fair, effective, and sensitive to the needs of this population.