The transformative potentials and politics of music in juvenile justice settings

Abstract

ABSTRACT Music has been welcomed to juvenile justice institutions as a transformative practice supporting the rehabilitation of youth offenders to citizens. However, acknowledging that such institutions are not neutral instruments of the law but political arenas within which notions of ideal citizenship are imposed and contested, the transformative work of music in these settings is related to profoundly ethical questions of who incarcerated young people are, who we hope they become, and the kind of society we are striving towards. This article reports a qualitative metasynthesis of contemporary research on music in juvenile justice settings, examining how such transformative work might reinforce or disrupt the existing social order and enable young people to enact their own subjectivities through music. Arguing against music as a form of coercive correction, this article suggests that an engagement with the politics of music programmes might better support the realisation of a shared humanity underpinned by ideals of equity and relationality.