Detention as Trauma? Trauma-Responsive and Trauma-Inducing Practices in Youth Detention Facilities

• In Event: Advancing Intersectional Feminist Criminology Research and Practice on the Juvenile Legal System

Abstract

The current study seeks to understand girls’ experiences while in detention facilities through a trauma-focused lens. As such, it explores girls’ experiences of trauma prior to and while in detention facilities as well as how detention facilities respond to their trauma. Interviews were conducted with girls in a high security midwestern detention facility. Employing intersectional feminist and social justice perspectives, 24 interviews were analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis. Themes related to girls’ entrance into detention, their experiences seeking help while in detention, and girls’ perceptions of trauma-informed and trauma-inducing practices inside the facility will be presented. Findings from this study highlight the limit of responding to girls’ histories of trauma in an inherently traumatizing environment (e.g., detention). Suggestions for gender-responsive and trauma-informed practices within juvenile detention facilities are provided.

Authors

• Nicole McKenna, University of Cincinnati

• Valerie Anderson, University of Cincinnati

• Ebony Ruhland, Rutgers University, Newark

• Sukhmani Singh, University of Connecticut

• Symone Pate, University of Cincinnati