Black Girls and the Pipeline from Sexual Abuse to Sexual Exploitation to Prison

From the introduction:

“In this chapter, I consider the reciprocal effect of Black girls living within spaces and environments influenced by structural racism who are subjected to abuse at higher rates. I argue that there is a uniquely gendered and raced pipeline for these girls that warrants closer inspection. Here, I describe the pipeline that leads from sexual abuse to sexual exploitation to prison as an extension of the school-to-prison pipeline framework. Critical race theory utilizes the term pipeline to describe how structural racism in institutions, especially schools, pushes Black youth toward imprisonment (Dutil 2020). Feminist theories add an additional layer in describing how the limited social welfare infrastructure and society fail to protect vulnerable youth, especially survivors of family violence and sexual abuse, and/or queer/transgender youth (Rennison 2014).”