Frenzied attacks. A micro‐sociological analysis of the emotional dynamics of extreme youth violence

Inspired by phenomenological and interactionist studies of youth violence, this article offers an empirical evaluation of Collins's micro‐sociological theory of violence. The main question is whether situations of extreme violence have distinct situational dynamics. Based on analyses of 159 interactions taken from judicial case files, situations of extreme youth violence, here called frenzied attacks, were identified on the basis of the state of encapsulation of the attackers (absorbed in the violence, their sole focus is the destruction of the victim) and the disproportionateness of the violence (the attackers continue to hurt the victims even though they do not pose a threat or a challenge to them). Qualitative and statistical analyses revealed that this emotional state results from a social figuration in which the emotional balance shifts toward complete dominance of the attackers. Thus, the occurrence of frenzied attacks is associated with the moment victims hit the ground, paralyse and start to apologize, with the numerical dominance of the attackers' supportive group and with feelings of group membership, in the form of solidarity excitement and family ties in the attackers' group. Alcohol intoxication is of influence as well, but contrary to the expectation, this effect was independent from solidarity excitement. The article concludes that Collins's theory on the emotional dynamics of violence adds a new dimension to the phenomenological and interactionist traditions of research.     

The participation of social services in youth justice systems in Europe

This article considers the participation of social services in youth justice systems in 11 European countries. In international children's rights instruments, the importance of the assessment of the background situation of juvenile defendants is acknowledged. In this article, three models for social work participation are proposed, on the basis of the distinction between adversarial and inquisitorial legal traditions and welfare and justice approaches towards youth justice. In the welfare model, social workers play the most active role in the youth justice process, whereas in the justice model, social workers have the least active role. In between, a mixed model can be found in which social workers play an active role in the youth justice system only to some extent.     

Race,rage and emotional suspects: Ideologies of social mobility confront the racial contours of mass incarceration

Guilt, shame, pride and rage ripple through conversations about racism within the juvenile justice system where the racial contours of mass incarceration challenge the legitimacy of the American ideology of being a colourblind meritocracy. This paper argues that projects of emotional regulation, especially the regulation of young people's emotional response to the hypervisibility of race, are central to the governance of youth in carceral spaces. Drawing on ethnographic research in a southern California juvenile hall, I explore how young people engage with an evolving biopolitics of emotion and the ways carceral spaces shape young people's constructions of racial boundaries and solidarities.     

Living with an accent: a sociological analysis of linguistic strategies of immigrant youth in Canada

This research explores the cultural and linguistic strategies of immigrant youth to negotiate inclusion/exclusion, including language discrimination in Vancouver, Canada. My theoretical framework draws upon the Arendtian notions of ‘public space’, and ‘action and speech’ as well as Bourdieu’s concepts of ‘symbolic violence’ and ‘habitus’. My methodology is a critical qualitative approach. Fourteen immigrant youth, aged 15–25, were involved in this research. The findings of this study indicate that unlike second-generation immigrants, first-generation immigrant youth face cultural and linguistic challenges. Non-recognition of youths’ distinct linguistic and social capitals, the imposition of official languages and the regulation of the education and language market according to the dominant linguistic norms include forms of discrimination against Turkish minority youth in Canada. Taken together, the findings suggest that immigrant youths’ cultural and linguistic experiences of inclusion and exclusion cannot be dissociated from the wider politics of the nation-state, popular hegemony and social inequalities in the host society.     

Independent living services,adjudication status,and the social exclusion of foster youth aging out of care in the United States

Recent policy changes have increased the availability of independent living services (ILS) to foster youth aging out of care in the United States. Yet, it is possible that youth who are also involved in the juvenile justice system may have trouble accessing these services. This study uses a social exclusion framework to examine associations between independent living service receipt, adjudication status, and early adult outcomes for youth aging out of the U.S. foster care system. Outcomes and ILS receipt data for 7412 older youth from the National Youth in Transition Database (NYTD) were used for this study. Chi-square tests and logistic regression models were used to explore the relationships among adjudication status, ILS, social exclusion, and social connectedness at age 19. Findings indicated that postsecondary education support and education financial services at baseline were related to a higher likelihood of being socially connected and lower likelihood of being socially excluded at age 19. Being an adjudicated delinquent and receiving special education and career services were related to a lower likelihood of being socially connected. This suggests that ILS are well-suited for youth already doing well, but may not do enough for those who struggle the most during this period.     

The role of family interactions in HIV risk for gay and bisexual male youth: A pilot study

Despite ongoing prevention efforts, young gay and bisexual males continue to engage in sexual behaviors that place them at disproportionately high risk for HIV infection. Parental monitoring and parent–child communication have been found to be associated with low-risk sexual behavior among heterosexual youth, but the role of family interactions for gay and bisexual male youth remains largely unexplored. To help address this gap, an exploratory study of recorded and coded interactions among 35 gay and bisexual youth and their parents was done to begin to identify which types of family interactions were associated with youth high-risk sexual behavior. Parent–son communication that was mutual and low in conflict was found to be most prevalent among youth with the fewest reported high-risk sexual behaviors. These preliminary findings, along with a case example, demonstrate how social workers can coach families to engage in productive and potentially influential interactions that reduce HIV-related sexual behaviors among young gay and bisexual males.     

Counting the dead and regulating the living: early modern statistics and the formation of the sociological imagination (1662–1897)

This paper examines the contributions made by early modern statistical literature to the formation of the sociological imagination. Starting in the mid-seventeenth century, the fields of 'political arithmetic' and vital and moral statistics provided a discursive framework within which it became possible to identify and study aggregate dynamics and structures underlying seemingly random and episodic aspects of life (birth, death, divorce, health). Focusing primarily on developments in England, the paper identifies three significant watershed moments in the emergence of the sociological imagination: the discovery of the political and economic dimensions of life; the articulation of socio-statistical patterns underlying various life events and episodes; and the establishment of causal connections between social variables and individual choices. These developments did not amount to or directly result in the creation of the discipline of sociology, yet, they made it possible to make conceptual connections between the personal and the social.     

Three notes on a political economy of youth

The paper seeks to makes a contribution to a recent debate in the Journal about what a political economy of youth might look like. The paper will take up aspects of Sukarieh and Tannock’s [2016. ‘On the political economy of youth: a comment.’ Journal of Youth Studies 19 (9): 1281–1289] response to the initial contributions by Côté [2014. ‘Towards a New Political Economy of Youth.’ Journal of Youth Studies 17 (4): 527–543, 2016. ‘A New Political Economy of Youth Reprised: Rejoinder to France and Threadgold.’ Journal of Youth Studies.] And France and Threadgold [2015. ‘Youth and Political Economy: Towards a Bourdieusian Approach.’ Journal of Youth Studies], and will take the form of three ‘notes’: Capitalism: From the first industrial revolution to the third industrial revolution; Youth as an artefact of governmentalised expertise; The agency/structure problem in youth studies: Foucault’s dispositif and post-human exceptionalism.

These notes will suggest that twenty-first century capitalism is globalising, is largely neo-Liberal, and is being reconfigured in profound ways by the Anthropocene, bio-genetics, Artificial Intelligence (AI), and the Internet of Things (IoT). A political economy of twenty-first century capitalism, let alone a political economy of young people, must be able to account for a capitalism that in many ways looks like the capitalism of the First and Second Industrial Revolutions, but which is at the same time profoundly different as it enters what has often been described as the Third Industrial Revolution. It is these profound emergences that pose the greatest challenges for engaging with a political economy of youth.     

Juvenile Offender Recidivism: An Examination of Risk Factors

One hundred and seventy three male juvenile offenders were followed two years postrelease from a residential treatment facility to assess recidivism and factors related to recidivism. The overall recidivism rate was 23.9%. Logistic regression with stepwise and backward variable selection methods was used to examine the relationship between recidivism and nine specific variables: offense type, age at initial involvement in juvenile justice, child welfare system involvement, termination of parental rights, parental criminal history, family support, program completion status, length of treatment stay, and discharge placement. Offender type was the only factor found to have a significant impact on recidivism with general and substance-involved offenders more likely to recidivate than sex offenders. Implications for future research are discussed.     

Childhood studies,children's politics and participation: perspectives for processes of democratisation

ABSTRACT

From the early Frankfurt School through to the work of Manuel Castells, there has been a rich body of work on the cleavage between technological and social developments of the twentieth century in respect of the consequences for the constitution of subjectivity. However, little attention is paid to the role of children during their childhoods in attempts to bridge this gap beyond discussions about the democratic actors children will become when they are adults. This paper argues that only the full integration of children, during their childhoods, into democratic development of societies will prevent the deepening of the rift between technological and social progress. The paper traces the correspondence between the new childhood studies and those concepts of politics and politicisation which can support social progress towards an emancipatory social perspective undergirded by particular and democratisation of all areas of everyday life. Drawing on Bourdieu and ideas of participation as action, the paper critically examines the various mechanisms by which children are conventionally excluded from democratic participation and then explores how a deeper consideration of agency in childhood and social actorship opens up alternative mechanisms of inclusion and the concomitant expansion of the concept of democracy.     

The system-of-care for homeless youth: perceptions of service providers

Service providers' perceptions of the system of care for homeless youth are described. Face-to-face structured interviews were conducted with staff at homeless youth agencies in Los Angeles County (L.A. County) regarding organizational and staff characteristics, issues affecting youth, types of available services, gaps in services, and barriers to service delivery.Overall, agencies were large, well established, and provided multiple services. Most agencies (62%) were concentrated in Hollywood, a cruise area of L.A. County. Clear distinctions emerged between large and small agencies; large agencies had more resources, more professional staff, were established longer, and were policy advocates. Typical of other US metropolitan areas, services for homeless youth in L.A. County are located in cruise areas, and are not as readily available in other geographic areas. Such geographic barriers to providing a comprehensive and coordinated system of care can affect youth's pathways out of homelessness.     

Household adversity and food security: The case of youth in public housing neighborhoods

This paper sets out to explore factors that may be associated with food hardship among young people who reside in public housing (N?=?124). The study is guided by Family Stress Theory and uses data from a cross-sectional study of African–American adolescents living in a public housing neighborhood located in West Baltimore. Results suggest that food security (defined as availability, accessibility, and adequacy) was negatively related to mother’s incarceration, large households, household experiencing material hardships, and interpersonal conflict as well as violence. It was also linked to community disorganization. Program and policy implications are suggested.     

The journey of dually-involved youth: The description and prediction of rereporting and recidivism

Dually-involved youth refers to youth that are simultaneously receiving services from both the child welfare and juvenile justice systems. The current study focused on a sample of dually-involved youth (N = 1148). The study examined the characteristics of dually-involved youth and reported and predicted the incidence of subsequent maltreatment and re-offending. We found that 8% of dually-involved youth had at least one arrest before entering child welfare system, 32% experienced new reports of maltreatment referrals subsequent to arrest, and 56% were charged with a second offense (i.e., recidivated). The court outcomes received in delinquency court were associated with both rereporting and recidivism. These findings support the development of a shared services model for child welfare and juvenile justice systems.     

韩国培养青少年马术的初步研究

马术,是世界比较前卫的竞技活动,它可以锻炼人的身体,也可以帮助人陶冶情操。在青少年活动中,马术会对青少年的人格形成、身体锻炼和性格培养发挥重要的作用。本文主要介绍了马术先进国家——韩国,将马术应用到青少年活动中的具体操作方法,为我国青少年马术培养提供一些参考。     

The response of youth to racial discrimination: implications for resilience theory

This paper presents a qualitative participatory study of Canadian young people who identified themselves as visible minorities and who have experienced discrimination based on their skin colour or ethnicity. Eighteen participants aged 15–24 (12 girls and 6 boys), representing four ethnic minority groups, participated in focus groups and in-depth interviews and shared their responses to racial discrimination against them. Analysis of the data from the four discussion groups reveals that racism occurs in everyday situations and places, a lot of times manifesting itself as subtle forms of discrimination. Our findings also suggest that most of the participants tend to employ non-confrontational approaches when dealing with racial violence against them, and provide us with the rationale behind their intentions. Further, youth are not uniformly impacted by racialized events, and therefore the coping strategies they use vary based on individual and contextual factors. Three common strategies for healing can be derived from the participants’ narratives: expressive-emotional, spiritual-forgiving and communicative-relational. We discuss our findings in the light of theoretical frameworks of resilience and coping approaches and argue that young people’s subjective appraisals of racialized events as well as contextual factors need to be addressed in any discussion on coping and resilience within minority youth populations.     

The pains of immigrant imprisonment

The immigrant detention system in the United States is civil, rather than criminal, and therefore nonpunitive. However, in practice, detained immigrants lacking many basic constitutional protections find themselves in facilities that are often indistinguishable from prisons and jails. In this paper, we explore the crisis of immigrant imprisonment at the affective level, focusing on the painful experiences of immigrant detainees, while also emphasizing its systemic and racialized nature. Specifically, we place a review of a growing body of research that draws connections between immigrant detention and mass imprisonment alongside the findings from numerous reports issued by human rights organizations on the conditions of confinement within immigrant detention facilities. Using a “pains of imprisonment” framework, we highlight four particularly prominent “pains”: containment, exploitation, coercion, and legal violence. We suggest the infliction of such pain, especially when contextualized within a broader history of Latina/o oppression, demonstrates that immigration prisons are in fact punitive, “lawless spaces” where penal oppression is exercised. We conclude with a call for sociologists to become more attentive to this crisis, and to appreciate the similarities between immigration detention and other forms of racialized social control—namely, mass incarceration.     

A new coat of paint: The bluewashing of justice reinvestment and realignment to community reinvestment

Justice reinvestment has been hailed as a solution to mass incarceration across the United States for nearly 20 years. It suggests that inefficiencies in the criminal justice system can be eliminated to reinvest money in high-incarceration communities to reduce the correlates of crime. However, the implementations have focused on reinvesting criminal justice funds back into public safety, which has led to the “bluewashing” of justice reinvestment. Introduced here, bluewashing occurs when a justice agency that has historically poor social justice performance communicates positive justice performance after implementing a theoretically supported reform in name only. In actuality, the reform has been modified to suit their own continuance. A realignment of the logic and theoretical support of justice reinvestment is critical to produce reforms that can provide relief for states, agencies, and citizens that are promised by justice reinvestment. This work directly connects the justice reinvestment thesis with the spatial interconnectedness of poverty, education, employment, and housing with crime and recidivism. It argues that justice reinvestment is a crime prevention policy that can simultaneously reduce mass incarceration and empower millions of American citizens living in the United States' most brutal conditions.     

The prevention of gambling problems in youth: a conceptual framework

Despite increased awareness of the need to begin educating young children about the potential dangers of gambling, empirical knowledge of the prevention of adolescent problem gambling and its translation into science-based prevention initiatives is scarce. This paper poses the question of whether or not the common elements of tobacco, alcohol, and illicit drug abuse prevention programs can be applied to gambling prevention. Common risk and protective factors across addictions, including gambling, appear to point to the need to develop a general model of primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention. The authors present the need for science-based prevention initiatives and describe a general adolescent risk-taking model as a basis for science-based prevention of adolescent problem gambling and other risk behaviors.     

The price of youth: commodification of young people through malleable risk practices

Risk has become a dominant part of theory and practice in young people's services over the past 30 years [Kemshall, H. 2008. “Risk, Rights and Justice: Understanding and Responding to Youth Risk.” Youth Justice 8 (1): 21–37; Goldson, G. 2000. “Children in Need’ or ‘Young Offenders’? Hardening ideology, organizational change and new challenges for social work with children in trouble.” Child and Family Social Work 5 (3): 255–265]. Young people are simultaneously described as ‘at-risk’ and risky, ‘permanent suspects’ [Mcara, L., and S. Mcvie. 2005. “The usual suspects? Street-life, young people and the police.” Criminal Justice 5 (1): 5–36] with the potential for committing crime, using drugs, being sexually promiscuous or under-performing in the socio-economic climate [Turnbull, G., and J. Spence. 2011. “What's at risk? The proliferation of risk across child and youth policy in England.” Journal of Youth Studies 14 (8): 939–959]. This paper reports on a UK study of youth practitioners’ perceptions of young people in relation to ‘risk’ and how this affects practice. Findings identify a context where practitioners engage with notions of young people as at-risk or risky, managing tensions between external constructions and the ‘real’ individual on an on-going basis. ‘Risk’ becomes malleable, with young people's risk biographies being amplified or attenuated on the basis of the practitioner's view of needs, resource allocations, contracts, targets, practitioner or organisational fears, risk management processes, and the desire to get the best for the young person. Whilst of short-term benefit, this commodification of young people is counter-productive, magnifying the construction of youth as risky others. The paper calls for new approaches to challenge the continued dominance of the youth risk paradigm in practice, policy and the academic youth studies field.