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 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. Cover illustration: Cristina Lucero / Alamy Stock Photo Printed on acid-free paper This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by Springer Nature The registered company is Springer International Publishing AG The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland 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