Ecological Ruptures and Strain: Girls, Juvenile Justice, and Phone Removal

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.

“It Started With a Nude”: Gangs & Technology-Facilitated Sexual Violence

“…There are practical approaches that can be taken to better support young people who may be suffering as a result of TFSV and feel unable to report or even put into words what is happening to them. Firstly, as discussed elsewhere, phones that are instruments of abuse need to be attended to 24/7 by young victims who need to monitor personal risk thus taking a child's phone or asking them to turn it off can put them in danger (Storrod & Densley, 2017, Lyttle Storrod, 2022). When working with young people we need to meet them where they are at; this may be online which means rethinking and reframing how intervention and support is conducted.…”

“…My own bias as someone who is an outsider to the gang context in relation to age, socio-economic status, and race is also a limitation of this study. To limit the impact of outsider bias in other studies I have included young people in interpreting their own research contributions (Lyttle Storrod, 2022). I concur, that including participants as “domain experts” be recommended when conducting digital analysis as a way to disrupt inherent power imbalances and increase research validity (Patton et al, 2019).…”