Achieving Justice for Girls in the Juvenile Justice System

Social Work ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 65 (2) ◽  
pp. 149-158 ◽  
Author(s):  
Danielle E Parrish
Keyword(s):  
Juvenile Justice ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Justice System ◽  
Juvenile Justice System ◽  
National Policy ◽  
The United States ◽  
High Quality Research ◽  
Complex Needs ◽  
Empirically Supported ◽  
Social Work Practitioners

Abstract Female involvement in the juvenile justice system has steadily increased in the United States over the past three decades. During this time, as male arrests have declined, female arrests have increased. Although many social workers have responded to these trends with a national call to identify and address the unique needs of these girls, we lack much high-quality research, including empirically supported interventions or programming to serve the needs of female youths involved in the justice system. This article provides a summary of the extant research that helps document the unique needs of these female youths and national policy efforts and practice considerations for social work practitioners. These needs and policy initiatives offer important opportunities for social workers to conduct research to improve the understanding of this population and also ways in which to provide services that address these youths’ complex needs. The article concludes that these female youths—most of whom are not a danger to society—need services instead of involvement in the justice system.

I'm a slave man for sure: incarcerated teens' restoried narratives of resistance

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Judith M. Dunkerly ◽  
Julia Morris Poplin
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Juvenile Justice ◽  
Justice System ◽  
Juvenile Justice System ◽  
The United States ◽  
Incarcerated Youth ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Analytic Tool ◽  
Identity And Agency

PurposeThe purpose of this study was to challenge the “single story” narrative the authors utilize counterstorytelling as an analytic tool to reveal the paradox of exploring human rights with incarcerated BIPOC teens whose rights within the justice system are frequently ignored. Shared through their writing, drawing and discussions, the authors demonstrate how they wrote themselves into narratives that often sought to exclude them.Design/methodology/approachThis paper centers on the interpretations of Universal Human Rights by Black adolescents involved in the juvenile justice system in the Southeastern region of the United States. Critical ethnography was selected as we see literacy as a socially situated and collaborative practice. Additionally, the authors draw from recent work on the humanization of qualitative methods, especially when engaging with historically oppressed populations. Data were analyzed using a bricolage approach and the framework of counterstorytelling to weave together the teens' narratives and experiences.FindingsIn using the analytic tool of counterstories, the authors look at ways in which the stories of colonially underserved BIPOC youth might act as a form of resistance. Similarly to the ways that those historically enslaved in the United States used narratives, folklore, “black-preacher tales” and fostered storytelling skills to resist the dominant narrative and redirects the storylines from damage to desire-centered. Central then to our findings is the notion of how to engage in the work of dismantling the inequitable system that even well-intentioned educators contribute to due to systemic racism.Research limitations/implicationsThe research presented here is significant as it attempts to add to the growing body of research on creating spaces of resistance and justice for incarcerated youth. The authors seek to disrupt the “single story” often attributed to adolescents in the juvenile justice system by providing spaces for them to provide a counternarrative – one that is informed by and seeks to inform human rights education.Practical implicationsAs researchers, the authors struggle with aspects related to authenticity, identity and agency for these participants. By situating them as “co-researchers” and by inviting them to decide where the research goes next, the authors capitalize on the expertise, ingenuity and experiences' of participants as colleagues in order to locate the pockets of hope that reside in research that attempts to be liberatory and impact the children on the juvenile justice system.Social implicationsThis study emphasizes the importance of engaging in research that privileges the voices of the participants in research that shifts from damage to desire-centered. The authors consider what it may look like to re-situate qualitative research in service to those we study, to read not only their words but the worlds that inform them, to move toward liberatory research practice.Originality/valueThis study provides an example of how the use of counterstorytelling may offer a more complex and nuanced way for incarcerated youth to resist the stereotypes and single-story narratives often assigned to their experiences.

Victim-Offender Mediation: A Survey of Program Characteristics and Perceptions of Effectiveness

1989 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 217-233 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stella P. Hughes ◽  
Anne L. Schneider
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Juvenile Justice ◽  
Justice System ◽  
Juvenile Justice System ◽  
The United States ◽  
Design And Implementation ◽  
The Past ◽  
Recent Addition ◽  
Program Characteristics

Victim-offender mediation as a dispositional alternative is a fairly recent addition to the juvenile justice system. The number of mediation programs has been increasing during the past decade, but little is evident about the design and implementation of these programs. This article reports findings from a survey of 240 juvenile justice organizations in the United States. Program designs, goals, and perceptions of effectiveness are discussed.

scholarly journals A Brief Literature Review of Juvenile Statistics, A Comparative Analysis of Current Racial Differences Within the Criminal Justice System

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (6) ◽  
Author(s):  
Phillip D. Clingan
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Juvenile Justice ◽  
Racial Disparities ◽  
Criminal Justice System ◽  
Racial Differences ◽  
Racial Disparity ◽  
Justice System ◽  
Juvenile Justice System ◽  
The United States

Youths under 18 years get trapped into the Juvenile Justice System after being suspected of committing a delinquent or criminal act. The United States tops in Juvenile arrests in the world. States like West Virginia, Alaska, Oregon, South Dakota, and Wyoming have the highest number of juveniles. However, an estimated 2.1 million youths under 18 years were arrested in the United States during a single year. This paper aims to address the current racial differences that exist within the criminal justice system. By addressing challenges like youths of color are more likely to be committed than white youths into the juvenile system will assist in curbing racial disparity. Statistics reveal that 42% of youths in the placement holdings are black youths, even though black youths make up for 16% of youths all over the United States. In California alone, African American juveniles take 27.5% while whites take up 15%. Even though the system’s laws contain no racial bias, research shows that discrimination can occur where the system allows criminal justice officials discretion in handling offenders. Black youths take up for 15% of the total number of youths in the USA get they have the highest juvenile detentions of 42%, but it is difficult to deny these records since there is evidence like arrest and imprisonment records to back up this claim. The racial disparities exist from targeting the blacks, arrest, sentencing, imprisonment, and release. These actions promote discrimination among the black youths, and black youths are likely to get significant sentencing compared to whites for the same crimes committed. Different states in the United States have different racial disparities, California and Texas, blacks serve long sentences, unlike the whites. There are various causes of racial disparities like; some black residences are known for crime, and they have huge offence rates, unequal access to resources, judicial decisions, and racial prejudice. After the research, it was evident that racial disparity exists, and it can only be corrected by looking at the root cause of the problem widely, which is discrimination. Race plays a significant role when it comes to juvenile detentions. Youths of color are four times more probable to be detained, unlike white youths. The research designed a method of tracking racial disparities via a hypothetical juvenile jurisdiction criminal justice system. The paper will extensively dive into juvenile population characteristics, juvenile justice system structure, law enforcement, juvenile crime, juveniles in court, juveniles on probation by the state, juveniles in the correction by the state and foreign nations, and an analysis of all the findings. The extensive research will be able to answer all the questions to the problem of racial disparity.

scholarly journals Applying a Socio-Ecological Framework to Thematic Analysis Using a Statewide Assessment of Disproportionate Minority Contact in the United States

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dawn Henderson ◽  
Tiffany Baffour
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Social Justice ◽  
Juvenile Justice ◽  
Systems Theory ◽  
Thematic Analysis ◽  
Justice System ◽  
Juvenile Justice System ◽  
The United States ◽  
Ecological Systems ◽  
Ecological Systems Theory

Disproportionate minority contact (DMC) in the United States represents a critical social challenge to promoting the ideals and values of social justice. The ecological nature of DMC, a phenomenon emerging from the intersection of micro- and macro-level factors, necessitates the application of systems theories in understanding the issue and designing solutions to address it. This article illustrates the application of socio-ecological systems theory in thematic analysis, drawing associations across multiple systems between contributing factors to DMC in the juvenile justice system in North Carolina, USA. Analysis examined data from 6 focus groups comprised of 55 statewide stakeholders involved in the juvenile justice continuum. Application of socio-ecological systems theory in thematic analysis revealed structural and individual conditions associated with DMC, to include institutional racism demonstrated by biases present in stakeholders across schools and the juvenile justice system. The article presents ways in which micro to macro factors influence social challenges. Findings present an analytic strategy for constructing a practical model in qualitative research of contributing mechanisms to DMC and addressing issues of social justice in the United States.

Mandatory Mental Health Screening for Justice-Involved Youth: A National Priority

Youth Justice ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 147322542110523
Author(s):  
Deneil D. Christian
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Juvenile Justice ◽  
Justice System ◽  
Screening Tool ◽  
Juvenile Justice System ◽  
The United States ◽  
Health Screening ◽  
Mental Health Screening ◽  
Contemporary Issue ◽  
National Priority

The prevalence of mental health disorders is higher among justice-involved youth than youth in the general population. Despite mental health being a pressing contemporary issue in the juvenile justice system, fewer than half of the states in the United States mandate the use of a mental health screening for youth in the juvenile justice system. The need to utilize a mental health screening tool in all 50 states should be a national priority. The Massachusetts Youth Screening Instrument-Version 2 (MAYSI-2) is the recommended screening tool that should be adopted nationally. Currently, 21 of the 24 states that mandate the use of a screening tool utilize MAYSI-2. Furthermore, it is recognized as having the most empirical evidence as an instrument at the juvenile justice system’s entry and transitional points.

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