Adultification Bias Trainings

The Center’s Adultification Bias trainings help transform how authorities see Black girls.

The Center on Gender Justice & Opportunity at Georgetown Law is proud to offer unique trainings informed by its groundbreaking research on adultification bias against Black girls. The adultification bias trainings were developed with input from practitioners in the field, resulting in content that is tailored to each sector. Through statistics, information, and interactive exercises led by experts, the Center provides industry leaders and practitioners the knowledge not only to recognize adultification bias, but practical solutions that can be implemented to overcome its harmful effects. 

We asked legal professionals in our Adultification Bias trainings

What words come to mind when you think of girls in the juvenile justice system?

Find Out More

Click below for information on the training that’s right for your sector.

Criminal Justice

Black girls face disproportionately harsh treatment in the juvenile justice system. The inequities they experience are driven in part by adultification bias—that is, authorities’ perception that they are older, less innocent, and more culpable than other girls of the same age. This bias can operate unconsciously to shape court decisions, undermining fairness and contradicting established science on child and adolescent development.

This training equips Judges, Prosecutors, and Victim Advocates with tools to ensure more equitable outcomes for Black girls.

For Prosecutors and Advocates

For Judges

Education

Black girls are experiencing a crisis in our schools: studies show that they face the highest rates of discipline and arrests on campus and are more disconnected from school. They are disproportionately charged with truancy, overrepresented in both the school-to-prison and abuse-to-prison pipelines, and take on caregiving responsibilities at higher rates than most of their peers that can affect their academic performance and experience.

This training equips Educators and School Counselors, Administrators, and Staff with strategies to recognize and interrupt adultification bias.

For Educators

Healthcare

Research shows that Black girls receive less supportive care from healthcare providers. One cause of these inequities is adultification bias: authorities’ perception that Black girls need less nurturing, protection, and comforting than their white counterparts—a distortion that can begin when Black girls are as young as five years old. In healthcare settings, stereotypes about Black girls can affect clinical judgment, undermine trust, and inhibit communication, driving inequities in treatment and outcomes.

This training equips Healthcare Providers with with tools to recognize and interrupt bias in their practice, fostering communication, compassion, and age-appropriate care.

For Healthcare Professionals