Girls and Juvenile Justice: Power, Status, and the Social Construction of Delinquency

195 Pages·2017·3.943 MB·English

by  Carla P. Davis (auth.)

GIRLS &
JUVENILE
JUSTICE
Power, Status, and the Social
Construction of Delinquency
CARLA P. DAVIS
Girls and Juvenile Justice
“Girls and Juvenile Justice offers an original and insightful analysis of the dis-
tinctive character of female delinquency. Davis show how family responses to
adolescent troubles and resistance to control, rather than crime-like delinquent
behavior per se, may move girls from ghetto and barrio families and neighbor-
hoods into the juvenile justice system. Drawing on rich qualitative interview
and observational data, she identifies the perspectives and concerns of incarcer-
ated delinquent girls, tracing their familial and institutional careers as they are
brought to juvenile court, adapt to a therapeutically oriented reform school, and
are released back to their families and communities. A sensitive and moving
study of critical processes in contemporary responses to troubled adolescents!”
—Robert M. Emerson, Professor Emeritus and Research Professor,
University of California, Los Angeles, USA
“The much-needed conversation this book provides has great value in the
field of criminology, where a focus on girls and their lives is often absent,
excluded, and trivialized. Davis offers her readers insight into and under-
standing of girls who are in trouble with the law, both before and after incar-
ceration. In this way, she “connects the dots” in female delinquents’ pathways
to justice involvement and offers a rare glimpse of the complex processes and
relationships that encompass their lives.”
—Lisa Pasko, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Department of
Sociology and Criminology, University of Denver, USA
“Rich with the voices of adolescent urban girls involved in the justice system and
the professionals who work with them, Girls and Juvenile Justice explores both
the causes of the behavior that led to this involvement and society’s reaction to
that behavior. In creating this vivid portrait, Davis increases our understanding
of the ideas and values that ground both the girls’ choices and the institutional
ways of addressing those choices. Davis argues that the girls actually fully accept
mainstream values; that current therapeutic approaches ignore the role of the
hierarchical structures of class, race/ethnicity and gender in creating their “unde-
sirable” behaviors; and that such approaches, in fact, reinforce those hierarchies.
Because her original analysis includes specific recommendations, this book will
not only advance the theoretical discussions of scholars, but should also inform
the practices of those in various professional roles within the juvenile justice
system.”
—Judith Rollins, Professor emerita, Wellesley College, USA,
Author of Between Women
Carla P. Davis
Girls and Juvenile
Justice
Power, Status, and the Social Construction of
Delinquency
Carla P. Davis
Beloit College
Beloit, Wisconsin, USA
ISBN 978-3-319-42844-4 ISBN 978-3-319-42845-1 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-42845-1
Library of Congress Control Number: 2016956448
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2017
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Acknowledgments
There are a number of people whom I would like to thank. First, I would
like to thank Yunuen Rodriguez. I am grateful for her encouragement
and enthusiasm for the book. I am grateful to her for spending so many
hours/months in conversations, listening to me flesh out the meanings in
the data. I am also grateful to Liz Young for our discussions fleshing out
the meanings in the data. I would like to thank Christina Czuhajewski
and Margaret Cress for their comments and assistance locating literature
for Chap. 4. I am grateful for the enthusiasm of Gabrielle Gonzales. I
would like to thank Katy Pinto for her comments on Chap. 4—and for
being such a supportive friend. Thank you to Judith Rollins for com-
ments on Chap. 6. I am grateful to Robert Emerson for his comments on
earlier versions of Chaps. 3 and 5 and for giving me a solid foundation in
ethnographic field research methods. I am also grateful to Tom McBride
for his comments on Chap. 4, editing initial drafts of Chaps. 6 and 7 and
for his encouragement and praise for the manuscript. Finally, I would like
to thank all of the girls who participated in this study for letting me into
their lives and simultaneously deepening my life. I am eternally grateful.
v
Contents
1 Introduction 1
2 Getting into Place/Gaining Acceptance and Trust 15
3 Getting Into the System: Negotiating Power and Status
in the Family 29
4 Horizontal Surveillance and Therapeutic Governance
of Institutionalized Girls 59
5 Family Power Struggles After Release 107
6 Navigating Neighborhood Institutions: Gang Involvement 137
7 Conclusion 169
References 177
Index 189
vii
1
Introduction
MIRANDA: I done took pills like—um—fi ve—six diff erent times. I was
just depressed—I was tired—what the fuck is up with living—if god—
what the hell—god supposedly— wants us to be happy and take care of
us—then what the hell—he can work miracles—he can do anything—
where the hell he at?—why the hell he ain’t helping me?—so it’s like obvi-
ously—I guess he’s not there. Like now—I know he’s there, but I have no
faith in him at all. I have no faith in God. And it’s just like whatever. Fuck
life and—um—what’s the reason of livin’?
Th is narrative refl ects a pattern of the overwhelming sense of hopelessness
felt by girls in the juvenile justice system. Over the last few decades, the
presence of girls in the criminal justice system has prompted a plethora
of research. However, previous studies struggle to theorize the relation-
ship between the girls’ marginalized status in society and their presence
in the juvenile justice system. Th e struggle to theorize the relationship
between marginalization and girls’ presence in the system is connected
to two common practices: positing gender as the primary factor of social
relations in the girls’ lives, with race and class as mere additive dimen-
sions; and c onceptualizing gender as a dichotomously constructed vari-
able expressing universal, essential diff erences between men and women.
© Th e Author(s) 2017 1
C.P. Davis, Girls and Juvenile Justice,
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-42845-1_1
2 Girls and Juvenile Justice: Power, Status and the Social...
Th ese interconnected practices contribute to the continued conception
of gender as an individual attribute rather than a structure of resources,
status, and power intertwined with structures of race/ethnicity, and class.
Conceptualizing gender, race/ethnicity, and class as systems of resources,
power, and status is critical to delineating the dialectic between structure
and agency.
Th is book examines the lives of girls in the juvenile justice system in
the context of gender, race/ethnicity, and class as simultaneous, inter-
secting structures of resources, status, and power. It examines the link
between subjective inner consciousness (ideas, thoughts, emotions ,
attitudes) and the objective material world. Examining the girls’ lives
within this context illuminates how the girls’ actions may be seen as
attempts to gain a sense of power and status from their marginalized
positions. In essence, this study asks, ‘how does social marginalization
shape how the girls make sense of and navigate their daily lives?’
A signifi cant part of navigating daily life is about how people make
sense of the myriad circumstances they encounter that potentially rob
them of a sense of dignity. People manage these devaluing experiences
by rationalizing them in a way that accords them at least a modicum
of dignity. How one crafts and manages this sense of dignity is largely
dependent upon the resources available. Th is is particularly critical
for those at the bottom of the race, class, gender hierarchy who are
keenly aware of their discredited status as they navigate their daily
lives. Finding ways to maintain even a modicum of a sense of dignity
is crucial to fi nding reason to continue existing in a world that denies
them humanity and fails to acknowledge the realities of their existence.
Th is book illuminates how in a world that accords them diminished
power and status, Black and Brown girls draw upon dominant ideals to
navigate and make sense of their worlds in a way that accords them at
least a s ense of status. In essence, these chapters are about institutional
processes of negotiating status and power, and the social construction
of identity within these processes.
1 Introduction 3
Production of Knowledge and the Challenges
of Conceptualizing Gender
F eminist theorists criticized the earliest studies attempting to explain
girls’ delinquency for drawing upon existing studies of boys’ delinquency.
However, the trouble was not that these early studies drew upon theories
used to explain boys’ delinquency; rather, it was that they drew upon the
underlying problematic conceptions of gender embedded in those theo-
ries. Some of the most prevalent early studies attempted to apply Strain
Th eory, Social Learning Th eory, and Masculinity Th eory.
Ruth Morris (1 964 ) was one of the fi rst to apply Strain Th eory to girls.
She theorized that ‘obstacles to economic power status are more likely to
lead to delinquency in boys while obstacles to maintaining positive aff ec-
tive relationships are more likely to lead to delinquency in girls.’ (83). In
theorizing such, Morris adapted the underlying conception of gender as
a dichotomously constructed individual attribute expressing universal,
essential diff erences between men and women. She neglected to recog-
nize gender as a structure comprised of resources, status, and power inter-
secting with structures of race and class. Morris failed to consider that
perhaps economic power status might also lead to a greater likelihood
of delinquency in girls as well. She also seemed not to consider that if
girls seemed to be more interested in aff ective relationships, perhaps this
might be connected in some way to attaining status or power.
Ruth Morris also applied Social Learning/Diff erential Association
Th eory to girls in attempting to explain girls’ seemingly greater confor-
mity refl ected in lower rates of delinquency for girls. She theorized that
‘there is a relative absence of a deviant subculture for female delinquents,
and absence of subcultural as well as cultural support for female delin-
quency’ (Morris 1 965: 251). In applying social learning theory, Morris
again posits gender as a primary dichotomous organizing factor without
considering how gender intersects with race and class. Conceptualizing
gender as the product of sex-role socialization inevitably leads to focusing
on girls’ actions in the context of conformity or deviance to gender roles
refl ected in stereotypical notions of masculinity or femininity. Th is con-
ceptualization of gender leads to the conclusion that gender plays such an
enormous role simply because men are diff erent from women. Masculinity