it was launched by judge david gooding and children's advocates like lawanda ravoira. she runs the delores barr weaver policy center, an advocacy and counseling group for girls in jacksonville. >> what we see often times when the girls have had a traumatic experience she doesn't always have a vocabulary to explain what's going on. and so, she will act out. >> reporter: although the total number of both girls and boys entering the juvenile justice system has dropped in jacksonville and across the nation, rates have dropped more slowly for girls. research suggests zero-tolerance policies and more aggressive policing of things like fights at home have impacted girls more than boys. >> often, the system's response is to push girls away, by punishing them, and not getting to the root cause of what's driving the behavior. >> reporter: to be clear, though, i mean, a lot of these girls have committed serious crimes and they do need to be held accountable for their behavior. right? >> absolutely. we would be the first to say that girls must be held accountable for their behavio