Abstract
Girls in the juvenile justice system routinely have their cell phones and internet access removed as a part of court orders. Building on feminist criminology and ecological systems theory, this paper will demonstrate that phone removal causes a rupture of girls’ digital ecology. This rupture exacerbates strains conducive to crime and victimization. Findings are generated from an ethnographic study that took place in a Northeastern United States city. Forty-two girls took part in focus groups and a series of interviews, and 22 practitioners took part in semi-structured interviews. This research shows that phones act as a positive and protective force supporting girls through feelings of safety, helping them cope with challenging events at home and on the street. Understanding the phone as a part of a broader ecology contextualizes why girls would subsequently commit crimes to restore their digital ecology.
Highlights
Girls in the United States (US) juvenile justice system (JJS) are largely made up of those who commit minor nonviolent “offenses” (Ehrmann, Hyland and Puzzanchera 2019), which, if committed by a male, are likely to receive little, if any, punishment (Chesney-Lind 1989)
The section concludes with girls discussing how digital lockdowns have the unintended consequence of leading them further into crimes and victimization to restore access to their digital ecology
Drawing upon the words of 42 girls involved with the JJS in a Northeastern US city, this study found that court-imposed digital access bans ruptured girls’ digital ecologies, increasing their levels of stress and strain
Summary
Girls in the United States (US) juvenile justice system (JJS) are largely made up of those who commit minor nonviolent “offenses” (Ehrmann, Hyland and Puzzanchera 2019), which, if committed by a male, are likely to receive little, if any, punishment (Chesney-Lind 1989). By combining the social-ecological and general strain theories, this study provides a unique understanding of girls’ digital contexts and causes of delinquency as an unintended consequence of the court’s policy of phone removal.
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