As YWCA joins Saturday’s March for Black Women and March for Racial Justice, we are pleased to share with you We Deserve Safety: Ending the Criminalization of Women & Girls of Color—a new policy brief that describes unique ways in which girls and women of color experience racial profiling and criminalization.

Studies, reports, and media accounts paint a disturbing picture at the intersection of race, gender, and violence that is often unexplored in mainstream discussions of criminalization and racial profiling. The current public narrative’s focus on the experiences of Black men and boys overlooks girls and women of color, leaving them at risk of continued violence and targeting.

Our review finds that:

• Racial profiling and criminalization are a harsh daily reality for women and girls of color, especially Black women and girls. Like men and boys of color, they experience profiling and criminalization across a broad range of situations outside of the home—in traffic stops, airport security screening, border checkpoints, schools, and other interactions with government institutions and law enforcement.
• Women and girls of color, including those who are LGBTQ, are at heightened risk of sexual violence and excessive force by police as they are dually targeted for their race as well as their gender.
• Women of color are even at risk of police violence within the home, in front of children, and when in need of help.

We Deserve Safety also highlights systemic reforms and policy solutions that will decrease racial profiling and criminalization of girls and women of color, and better ensure their safety.

Read report