Book Review: Control and protect: Collaboration, carceral protection, and domestic sex trafficking in the United States

• DOI: 10.1177/0734016818788919
• Date: 01 June 2020
• Published date: 01 June 2020
• Subject Matter: Book Reviews

The addition of constant and multidimensional scrutiny adds a complicated layer for the youth

who are trying to navigate dynamic barriers that are represented in the school-to-prison pipeline.

In addition to outlining the risks that students face in school, Dr. Flores explores the risks girls

face out in the community and the hazards they face even traveling to school. He discusses the

interpersonal violence, sexual harassment, and the drug use girls are exposed to on the bus—so even

the attempt to go to school and work toward freedom is marred by challenges, victimization, and the

need to navigate through constant danger.

Caught Up examines the lives of girls within the juvenile detention facility, their need for (or

avoidance of) physical altercations, and their experiences within the community school. However,

one aspect that is lacking from the book is a proposal for a better or alternative model. For example,

in one interview, a girl explains how worried she is that she will return to secure detention for a

parole violation because she engaged in drug use over the weekend and will fail her next drug test.

Drug offenses are often the reason for girls’ first contact with the criminal justice system. Flores

explains that the wraparound services put too much attention on youth and when held under the

microscope, they are sure to get “caught up.” However, if the purpose of the services is to prevent

youth from engaging in drug use, what strategies can be employed to help the girls stay clean rather

than punish them for failing to do so? Flores identifies three ways that the girls can maneuver away

from the criminal justice system, but these escape routes do not include a change to the services

provided by the institution. Without suggestions for improvement, the reader is left a little disheart-

ened with the understanding of a broken system but not pointed in the direction of how to fix it.

Additionally, at the end of the book, the author claims that the experiences detailed in the book

can apply to male youth inside the school and detention as well. This is akin to the “add girls and

stir” critique most feminist scholars reject but in the opposite direction. The major strength of this

book is its focus on girls and their experiences. It is nothing less for not including boys.

All in all, Caught Up offers an interesting and provocative discussion of primarily Latina youth

who are justice involved and caught in the school-to-prison pipeline. While it reads like a disserta-

tion, it is extremely well researched, organized, and thorough. The added sections on methodology

are helpful for anyone who is interested in ethnographic research and offer an exceptionally well-

designed study. It truly contribute s to the literature on the intersecti on of race, socioeconomic

standing, gender, and crime and could be a valuable addition to a juvenile justice and/or gender

studies class.

Musto, J. (2016).

Control and protect: Collaboration, carceral protection, and domestic sex trafficking in the United States. Oakland,

CA: University of California Press. 229 pp. $34.95, ISBN 978-0-52028-196-7.

Reviewed by: Brooke Miller Gialopsos, Mount St. Joseph University, Cincinnati, OH, USA

DOI: 10.1177/0734016818788919

In her book, Control and Protect, Jennifer Musto offers an innovative glimpse into sex trafficking in

America. However, rather than narrowly focusing on the causes of sex trafficking, the mechanisms

of exploitation employed by offenders or the unrelenting emotional effects of this form of sexual

violence, Musto explores the parado x behind our country’s response to an d treatment of these

victims. As she repeatedly points out, despite calling them “victims” and designing legislation and

interventions to help them, we treat these victims more as offenders and subject them to a widening

net of carceral protections. This net, though speckled with virtuous intentions, is causing additional

harms and lingering punitive hoops for victims to jump through.

268 Criminal Justice Review 45(2)