A Jeanne Site
A Jeanne Site
California State University, Dominguez Hills
University of Wisconsin, Parkside
Latest update: January 15, 2000
Faculty on the Site.
Annotation onNotice the importance Leslie Acoca gives to the move beyond quantitative data. Over four counties, 200 girls were interviewed, so their voices could be heard. Do you see any methodological problems with this? What about trust, and the girls' ability to tell their stories in ways the interviewers could hear? Women's Ways of Knowing stressed the "silence" of such girls. How could we get past that silence? Could we supplement the interviewers' information with stories collected by informed respondents who work with the girls? This might counter some of the structural violence of the system, but how much would it add to the cost of the study, and the researchers' ability to fund the study?
Notice that such methodological issues are raised in the first paragraph of the introduction to the study. What does that say about their importance? What is the likelihood that readers, having been introduced to these concerns, will keep them in mind as the read the study that was done in spite of the limitations? Does this help you understand the responsibility of the researcher to bear these limitations in mind as conclusions are drawn? Can we afford to wait until all limitations are overcome to do these studies?
California Juvenile Justice System site of study. What factors do you suppose might have influenced the selection of California for the study? Consider the sprawling nature of a metropolitan environment, with the attraction for immigrants to agricultural labor and later to manufacture.
Victimization is at the start of the pathway, and also follows the girls into the juvenile justice system itself. By age 13, a sexual component has entered this equation, but abuse does not begin there. It begins with what Paolo Freire calls "the culture of silence." Feminist literature led us to explore more closely the "silence" of women, and the cost of elaborated and restricted language codes to identity formation. As you read through the materials in this study, ask yourself also about how this "culture of silence" affects boys, for Freire makes clear that it does. Should we look also to the costs of silence with the boys as well as the girls?
How important is the fact that this "pervasive atmosphere of disrespect" follows all of our children to school, well before the age of 13? Given these pathways to the juvenile justice system, might we not want to emphasize "respect" for the child as well as for the adult, "respect" for boys and girls?
This is in the Family Fragmentation section of the introduction. Do we not want to pay attention to the effects of arrest and incarceration on the family? Is the child of a detainee harmed by the arrest and incarceration? Is that a result we anticipated? Is that a result we want? Note the number of young mothers (83 % of those interviewed) who were separated from their infants during the first three months of the children's lives, "a pivotal developmental stage."
The study suggests that academic failure is almost as prevalent as victimization in these girls' lives. I would suggest another reading to these data: the schools have failed the children, when a problem is only recognized suddenly and represented as irremedial upon its presentation. As you read the study, think of alternative ways to deal with the girls' sense of failure in school? How has the school failed them?
One of the case studies reported a girl being arrested for throwing cookies at her mother. Much of this introduction describes adults and professionals over-reacting and failing to take the time to listen in good faith to the girls. Again, I urge you to recognize that feminist concern for girls has led us to listen to their stories, and to recognize patterns of victimization and society's failure to provide for their needs. But one of the advantages of new theoretical perspectives is that they should reach well beyond gender concerns. By translating new knowledge on girls to the juvenile justice system, we should find ourselves better able to serve the needs of both boys and girls.
It will tell me a great deal more for dialog purposes if you tell me why you find one or the other side of an issue compelling. For example, maybe you have known such a child, and so you tend to see the child's perspective. Or maybe you have known the pain of a loved one being hurt by some criminal activity, and so you tend to see the victim's perspective. Try to link the antecedent context to the perspective that makes most sense to you. That will help me to bear that context in mind as I lecture.
Consider the programs descibed here: Why the Arts? Would two years of such programming have helped the girls in Acoca's study? did the arts programs limit their outreach to girls? What might that tell us?
Consider that war changes relative statuses. Winning the war may become more important a goal than the humanity with which we do so. The November Organization tells the stories of families destroyed by incarceration. These are not voices often heard. What place do these voices have in our study of juvenile justice?