Youth in the Twilight of the Supportive State: Mandated Reporting and Third-Party Social Support at Street-Level

• In Event: 1567 - Section on Sociology of Law Refereed Roundtables (1 hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 2: Micro Perspectives

Abstract

Previous research has shown that, over the last several decades, the state has enacted novel extensions of control, bringing policing into everyday life in new ways. However, little research has considered parallel developments in the supportive arm of the state, which I term third-party support, whereby non-state actors implement and shape social support policy at street level. Drawing on ethnographic and interview data from interpersonal violence prevention programs in high schools in Los Angeles, I explore mandated reporting, which tasks third-party actors with reporting when a student discloses harm. This study draws on street level approaches to policy implementation to consider the enactment of mandated reporting on the ground. The findings reveal that third-party mandated reporters are perceived as outside of the state, stories of harm arise in fleeting, ambivalent and often interpersonal ways, and facilitators manage reporting processes in interaction, often deterring youth from engagement in the bureaucratic state. By looking to transformations in the supportive arm of the state at street level, this study reveals that third-party support can act as a choke point, actively funneling or discouraging engagement with the supportive arm of the state.

Author

• Max A. Greenberg, Boston University