The Equity Project is a national initiative to examine how lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) youth are treated in delinquency and status offense cases. One of the Equity Project’s core activities is the collection of information from juvenile court practitioners (i.e., defenders, prosecutors, judges, probation officers, and detention staff) about the experiences of LGBT youth in juvenile delinquency courts. The information we obtain will be used to produce a report with recommendations about the treatment and court processing of LGBT youth.

If you are a juvenile court practitioner, we would greatly appreciate hearing about your experiences and observations. Please take a few minutes to fill out the appropriate survey below. Your responses will be kept confidential. For your convenience, key terms used in the survey are defined below.

Click here to take the Juvenile Defender Survey.

Click here to take the Juvenile Prosecutor Survey.

Click here to take the Juvenile Judge Survey.

Click here to take the Juvenile Probation Officer Survey.

Click here to take the Juvenile Detention Staff Survey.

Click here to take the Juvenile Justice Professionals Survey.

Key Terms

Lesbian: A woman whose emotional, romantic, and sexual attractions are primarily for other women.

Gay: A person whose emotional, romantic, and sexual attractions are primarily for individuals of the same sex. More often used in reference to males.

Bisexual: A person who is emotionally, romantically, and sexually attracted to both men and women.

Transgender: An umbrella term that can be used to describe people whose gender expression is non-conforming and/or whose gender identity is different from their assigned sex at birth.  This term can include transsexuals, cross-dressers, and others whose gender expression varies from traditional or societal expectation.

Gender Identity: A person’s internal identification or self-image as male or female.

Sexual Orientation: An enduring emotional, romantic, sexual, and affectional attraction to others that is shaped at an early age. It varies from exclusively homosexual to bisexual to exclusively heterosexual.