A new study by Georgetown University’s Center on Poverty and Inequality claims that adults view black girls as “less innocent” than white girls, starting at age five and more so through the teen years.

The report, Girlhood Interrupted: The Erasure of Black Girls’ Childhood, is the first study of its kind and was modeled after a 2014 study that claimed black boys, starting at age 10, are viewed as older and more guilty than white boys.

Rebecca Epstein, the executive director of Georgetown’s poverty center stated, “What we found is that adults see black girls as less innocent and less in need of protection as white girls of the same age.”

“This new evidence of what we call the ‘adultification’ of black girls may help explain why black girls in America are disciplined much more often and more severely than white girls – across our schools and in our juvenile justice system,” she added.

Here’s a summary of the results:

• Black girls seem older than white girls of the same age.
• Black girls need less nurturing than white girls.
• Black girls need less protection than white girls.
• Black girls need to be supported less than white girls.
• Black girls need to be comforted less than white girls.
• Black girls are more independent than white girls.
• Black girls know more about adult topics than white girls.
• Black girls know more about sex than white girls.

Biases found by the study include black girls getting suspended five times more than white girls, arrested more, more often sent through the juvenile justice system, and charged with more crimes. The video above explains even more. However, it doesn’t appear that the study checked to see if black girls, in fact, were responsible for their own actions in individual cases, or deserved the punishment given. It just found there were “stereotypes,” as co-author and Texas A&M associate professor Jamila Blake stated:

“These findings show that pervasive stereotypes of black women as hypersexualized and combative are reaching into our schools and playgrounds and helping rob black girls of the protections other children enjoy. We urge legislators, advocates and policymakers to examine the disparities that exist for black girls in the education and juvenile justice systems and to pursue reforms that preserve childhood for all.”