Unhomely spaces and deviant subjectivity: The sociohistorical homelessness of female juvenile offenders

Abstract

The girls inhabiting the deviant subject position of female juvenile offenders have no home in normalized total social institutions. This paper wonders about and wanders through various historical and contemporary studies "about" female juvenile offenders and discusses the intersections of the unhomely spaces (Bhabha, 1994) that exclude and even abandon those in this subject position. The juvenile female offender seems to be "outside" of culture, existing in an impossibly homeless space. This is vital work to interrupt and complicate the assumptions that limit the spaces of being for the girls studied. Using critical discourse analysis (Fairclough, 1995) and deviant historiography (Terry, 1991) in a hybrid methodology, the discursive spaces of im/possible being will be highlighted. A recent report from the American Bar Association and the National Bar Association highlights the gaps and failures of the system when it comes to girls. By analyzing the intersections of historical discourses constructing the female juvenile offender as deviant, this paper highlights the im/possibility of "home", that is the "unhomely spaces" of the social institutions catering to these girls and the homelessness of the deviant girl within and against the hegemonic discourses - thus troubling what it means to research the "homeless".