Resistance to Juvenile Justice Reform: The Role of Frontline Workers

• In Event: 3581 - Section on Sociology of Children and Youth Refereed Roundtable Session
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 02. Organizations, Children and Youth

Abstract

This paper explores resistance to reform by juvenile facility staff working in rural juvenile facilities. It situates their acts of resistance both within the facility landscape, but also within a broader political-economic culture which is marked by economic deprivation, uncertainty and anxiety, neo-conservative discourses, and declining custodial populations. The paper examines the logics of resistance, and links them to a broader theoretical discussion about so-called ‘agonistic’ perspectives in penal change, highlighting the role of frontline actors in shaping and re-shaping penal fields. The paper contributes to our knowledge about the role that frontline workers may play in producing and reproducing approaches to the punishment of young people, particularly the few that remain inside of juvenile facilities in an era of substantial downsizing.

Author

• Alexandra Cox, University of Essex