Juvenile Justice in the United States

2014 ◽  
pp. 369-394
Author(s):  
Peter Benekos ◽  
Alida Merlo
2015 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 261-269 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kenneth M. Rogers ◽  
Eunice Peterson

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Judith M. Dunkerly ◽  
Julia Morris Poplin

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.


1991 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 262-280 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edmund F. McGarrell

Since the 1960s, juvenile justice systems in the United States have faced divergent calls for reform. Included have been demands to deinstitutionalize as well as demands to “get tough” on juvenile crime. This article examines the wide variation across the states in the use of incarceration in public facilities from the mid-1970s to 1987. The findings suggest that the level of change in juvenile incarceration rates is determined by a range of political, social structural, and bureaucratic factors. These factors appear to have led to varying political choices within the states, either supporting or disfavoring incarceration in public facilities.


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