Girls and Juvenile Justice

By: Carla P. Davis

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Synopsis: This book offers an ethnographic study of the lives of girls in the juvenile justice system. Based on rich, narrative accounts, the girls at the center of the study are shown to be confronted simultaneously with the power of race, class, and gender hierarchies. While 'delinquent' is seemingly the most salient status for many of the girls, they are shown to actively seek status in the navigation of their complex, everyday lives - in their families, juvenile justice institutions, and neighborhood organizations, including gangs. Girls and Juvenile Justice offers a glimpse of what it means to grow up at the bottom of hierarchies of race, ethnicity, class, and gender, and the potent impact upon the hearts, minds, and souls of adolescent girls. By analyzing how the girls strive for higher social status, this book provokes debate about how policies and programs may be creatively rethought. It will be of great interest for scholars of criminal justice, sociology and women's studies, as well as practitioners and policy-makers.