Youth In Trouble Research Articles

Reconnecting Youth: Beyond Individualized Programs and Risks

Presently in the United States, cognitive behavioral approaches are thought to be one of the most effective ways to intervene in the lives of young people in trouble with the law. However, such individualized approaches to youth in trouble with the law, and the risk-based logics that accompany them, say some, often ignore the relationships that young people have with caregivers, as well as the broader social ecological, economic and political contexts within which those relationships develop. Once the individual change work is completed, young people must have productive roles and supportive relationships to return to, especially if we want youth justice practice to translate into justice for youth. Given that meaningful attachments with others serve as the primary context within which individuals learn to regulate emotions and behaviors, youth justice policy and practice ought to seek to repair the capacity to attach and relate –and broader social policy reforms must address the social and economic inequalities that make the adversity and harm that undermine that capacity more likely. In this article, we discuss the limitations of over-relying on skills-based therapies and examine how the neglect of social, material and relational contexts can undermine the meaning and effectiveness of youth justice interventions. Following this, we describe how a youth justice system that attends to relational needs and structural inequalities might better meet the needs of young people.

Robin Karr-Morse and Meredith S. Wiley: Ghosts from the Nursery: Tracing the Roots of Violence

Ghosts from the Nursery takes a unique look at violence among juveniles by examining issues that lie underneath the surface of what we usually see portrayed in the media. What sets it apart from other articles or books that tackle the problem is that it does not just look at the obvious complications that everyone else sees when watching, hearing, or reading about an incident. While the problems usually focused on, such as a child possessing a firearm, not having a lot of friends, not having a stable family life, etc. are important, Karr-Morse and Wiley look at other factors that are not examined as much as they should be. The authors examine the numerous influences in the beginning stages of life, and not just the time surrounding the incident that got youth in trouble. For example, what surrounded the child while he or she was in gestation? Did something happen in their childhood that caused a neurological imbalance that they could not overcome later in life? Were there traumatic experiences caused by people in their lives? Were they exposed to a chemical substance that altered their brain chemistry? These are just some of the myriad issues that, according to the authors’ research, could be the cause or root of the problems that sprout throughout life as children grow up. The authors also use a boy, called ‘‘Jeffrey’’ in the book, to give a real life example of how some of these ‘‘ghosts’’ can manifest themselves through a child’s life, and how society can be so oblivious to the real issues that lie just underneath the surface. The first chapter gives a broad overview of the current crime trends in juvenile delinquency. They give the distinction between ‘‘hot’’ and ‘‘cold-blooded’’ crime, and how gestational aberrancies can be examined in order to see if there were indeed warning signs earlier on in the child’s life that could have predicted their behavior later on. Jeffrey, the boy (who is now a man) who was given the death penalty for his involvement in an incident where an elderly man was beaten to death when Jeffrey was 16 years old, is revealed to the reader to give a real life example of how early life experiences can manifest themselves. It also begins to discuss some of the causal factors often ignored when incidents involve juveniles. As discussed by the authors, key contributors to the lack of knowledge about the roots of violence are the media. If there is a horrific accident, say a shooting, the media will automatically herald the issue as a singular outburst, and one that has a specific, sudden cause. Karr-Morse and Wiley, on the other hand, argue that the issue can often times be traced back to the first 33 months of life. The reason they target this time period is because of how susceptible the child is during prenatal development, and the 2 years that follow. They briefly touch on how exposure to chronic stress, alcohol, drugs, or all of the above can genetically alter the DNA of a child during prenatal development, which could lead be possible explanatory variables for crimes later on in life. The topic of how genetics influences criminal behavior also comes into play. In the second chapter, the authors shed light on the argument for ‘‘critical periods’’ (Karr-Morse and Wiley 2013, p. 25). Critical periods are times in children’s lives where their brains are ready for specific types of stimulation. Some key illustrations would be language, sight, and emotional connections. Traits such as these need to be used and honed early in life in order to ensure that they will function properly when the child reaches maturation. Empirical research has solidified this claim since 1959, when & Robert Crawford robcrawf@indiana.edu

Organizational Change Within Morally Ambiguous Contexts: A Case Study of Conflicting Postmerger Discourses

Based on a case study of a merger between organizations working with youth in trouble, this article analyzes the parallel success and failure discourses representing management and staff’s conflicting views about the organizational change. The symbolic core of these conflicting discourses was the transformation of a group home’s kitchen to food services for the merged organizations. For management, this transformation signified one of the best and most visible outcomes of the merger in terms of efficiency; for staff, it provided the clearest evidence of the harm caused by the merger in terms of providing a caring environment for youth. These discourses are analyzed in relation to two conflicting organizational identities championed by management and staff. It is argued that such contested organizational changes provide opportunities for open discussions of the dilemmas faced by human service organizations within their morally ambiguous contexts. Ethical organizational leadership entails the facilitation of such dialogue rather than ignoring the connectivity between internal and external ambiguities and enforcing the managerial rationale for organizational change.

Crazy versus Epoxy Glueing

ABSTRACT Based on a case study of a merger between four agencies working with youth in trouble, this paper argues that the building of trust can be hindered by managers' attempt to tighten organizational control. It describes the cultivation of distrust by workers, and the trust-control dynamics played out with the introduction of a new treatment philosophy through the integration of professional counselors into residential care teams. The metaphor of crazy and epoxy glueing is used to analyze these organizational dynamics. Trust and control can be viewed as the resin and the hardener of the epoxy glue: They must be effectively balanced when bringing together two organizations. The joint development of this balanced approach, taking into consideration the needs of managers and workers, is an essential step toward building trust within merging organizations.

Delinquents’ self concepts about being parents

There is national concern about teenage pregnancy and children parenting children in the U.S. There is also an established link between delinquent parents and future delinquent offspring. Parenting skills training for youth in trouble has been considered as one way of addressing this complex problem. Yet there have been few studies of the way troubled and troublesome adolescents see themselves as parents. In this study, juveniles being held in a detention center were observed in a small group setting on a weekly basis for more than nine months. Delinquents also responded in writing to open‐ended questions about their views on parenting. In addition, detainees who had not attended parenting classes were interviewed about families. Six significant social psychological concepts from Symbolic Interaction were identified under the general heading of socialization: self‐concept, self‐image, self‐control, self‐esteem, identity and roles. This preliminary study points out the need for a better understanding of delinquents’ personal concepts about parenting in order to provide meaningful parenting skills training.

Crime is a Social Problem

This article seeks to place the study of crime and criminals in the social policy context. Criminal careers research is critically evaluated and modern social trends are outlined as a background to an exploration of the interaction between criminological research findings and social policies for youth in trouble. A contrast is drawn between individualised explanations of criminal behaviour and approaches which seek to place crime in its situational and social context.

Counting Youth in Trouble in Institutions: Bringing the United States Up to Date

Youth who violate local and state laws are dealt with in institutions associated with mental health, child welfare, and alcohol and drug abuse systems, as well as the juvenile correctional system. Understanding trends in the use of institutions requires information from four control/treatment systems that have developed unique strategies for counting youth. America's systems for counting youth are 3 to 5 years behind current usage and yield deficient resident and admissions data. A modest investment of political leadership and fiscal resources could yield more timely reporting, fuller coverage of facilities, improved demographic enumerations, and could provide unduplicated counts of intersystem trends.

Children and Youth in Trouble

Children and Youth in Trouble

Children and youth in trouble

Children and youth in trouble

First Offender: A Volunteer Program for Youth in Trouble with the Law

First Offender: A Volunteer Program for Youth in Trouble with the Law

Teaching Youth in Trouble

Teaching Youth in Trouble

Youth in Trouble: Studies in Delinquency and Despair

Youth in Trouble: Studies in Delinquency and Despair

Youth in Trouble (Studies in Delinquency and Despair)

Youth in Trouble (Studies in Delinquency and Despair)

Review of Youth in trouble: Studies in delinquency and despair with plans for prevention.

Review of Youth in trouble: Studies in delinquency and despair with plans for prevention.

Youth in Trouble, Studies in Delinquency and Despair.

Youth in Trouble, Studies in Delinquency and Despair.

Youth in Trouble

Youth in Trouble

Youth in Trouble, Studies in Delinquency and Despair.

Youth in Trouble, Studies in Delinquency and Despair.

Review of Youth in trouble.

Review of Youth in trouble.

Youth in Trouble: Studies in Delinquency and Despair.

Youth in Trouble: Studies in Delinquency and Despair.

PORTERFIELD, AUSTIN L. Youth in Trou ble. Pp. 132. Fort Worth, Texas: The Leo Potishman Foundation Publications in the Social Sciences, 1946. $1.50

PORTERFIELD, AUSTIN L. Youth in Trou ble. Pp. 132. Fort Worth, Texas: The Leo Potishman Foundation Publications in the Social Sciences, 1946. $1.50