Socializing Distrust of the Justice System through the Family in Juvenile Delinquency Court

• Published date: 01 January 2017
• Date: 01 January 2017
• Author: Liana Pennington
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/lapo.12065

Socializing Distrust of the Justice System through the

Family in Juvenile Delinquency Court

LIANA PENNINGTON

Juvenile delinquency courts in the United States generally require parents to attend all court

hearings, but little is known about how parents’ experiences in the court process affect their

discussions of the justice system with their court-involved children. Using multiperspectival and

longitudinal data combining observations with interviews of parents and youth in two courts, this

research finds that many parents discuss the legal process in negative terms with their children

when parents are outside the presence of legal authorities. This research adds to the literature on

legal socialization by examining how parents’ perceptions of law and their experiences with the

court become part of the socializing content provided by parents to their court-involved children.

Creating a more meaningful role for parents in the juvenile justice process may potentially lead

to more positive discussions of the court process between parents and juvenile defendants.

INTRODUCTION

Throughout the United States parents attend juvenile delinquency proceedings with their

court-involved children, but little attention has been given to how parents share their per-

ceptions of the legal process within the family. Understanding whether parents’ court

experiences affect their conversations with their children can lead to important insights

about the juvenile justice system. While juvenile delinquency courts aim to direct children

to socially desirable behavior and positive views of the law, the juvenile court may be

unable to achieve these goals effectively without the positive involvement of parents. Prior

work emphasizes the need to know more about the origins of perceptions of legitimacy

and how discussions with family members may affect how children acquire values relating

to law and justice (Trinkner and Cohn 2014; Fagan and Tyler 2005; Piquero et al. 2005).

Increasing the levels of trust that high-risk youth have of legal authorities may be one of

the most effective ways of reducing juvenile delinquency and rule-violating behavior

(Cohn et al. 2010; Sherman et al. 1997). An important step toward this goal is examining

how parents’ perceptions of law and experiences with the court process become part of

the socializing content provided by parents to their children.

This research examines the experiences of thirty families in two juvenile delinquency

courts in the northeastern United States to better understand how parents discuss the

This work was supported by the National Science Foundation (dissertation improvement grant) (SES

1060009), the Gardiner Howland Shaw Foundation, and the Northeastern University Law and Public Policy

Program. I would like to thank Amy Farrell, Patricia Ewick, Donna M. Bishop, and Mary E. O’Connell for

their assistance with this research. I also thank the many parents, juveniles, and other family members who

were willing to share their stories with me as well as the editors and anonymous reviewers of Law & Policy for

their comments.

Address correspondence to: Liana Pennington, Saint Anselm College, Department of Criminal Justice, 100

Saint Anselm Drive, Manchester, NH 03102, USA. E-mail: lpennington@anselm.edu.

LAW & POLICY, Vol. 39, No. 1, January 2017 ISSN 0265–8240

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doi: 10.1111/lapo.12065

justice system with their court-involved children. Combining eighty-six semistructured

interviews of parents and youth at different time periods with 106 observations of court

hearings and attorney meetings with the family, this research extends prior work on how

individuals experience the legal process by examining how parents’ role in the juvenile

court process affects communications within the family. More generally, it adds to the

growing body of work examining legal socialization and the complex processes through

which understandings and expectations of the law are communicated and shared with

others. Prior work on experiences in the legal process generally focuses on one person’s

individual experiences with legal institutions (Tyler 2007; Ewick and Silbey 1998; Merry

1990; Sarat and Felstiner 1989), yet people often experience legal institutions in small

groups such as families. This present research takes up the call of legal socialization

research to focus on the impact of both nonlegal authorities and legal authorities on child-

ren’s legal socialization (Cohn et al. 2012).

PARENTS’ ROLE IN JUVENILE COURT

Parents are embedded in the juvenile delinquency court, experiencing the legal process

along with their court-involved children. Juvenile courts usually require parents to attend

all hearings relating to their child’s case (Pennington 2012; Davies and Davidson 2001).

Prior research on parents in the juvenile justice process largely focuses on the potential

conflicts between parents, defense attorneys, and juvenile clients. Parents in juvenile delin-

quency court have limited decision-making power compared to their power in other con-

texts such as education and health care. Most juvenile justice professionals agree that the

defense attorney represents the expressed interests of his or her juvenile client, regardless

of the child’s best interests or what the parent wants to see happen in the case (Henning

2006; Shephard 1996). Juveniles have the constitutional right to make important decisions

in their delinquency case, including whether to testify in their defense and whether to

demand a trial (Shephard 1996; In re Gault 1967). This emphasis on the child’s rights can

lead to tension between parents and legal authorities such as defense attorneys and judges

(Henning 2006; Farber 2004). Some parents do not fully appreciate the importance of

attorney/client confidentiality or agree that their child should have autonomous constitu-

tional rights (Pennington 2012; Henning 2006; Farber 2004). In addition, some parents

have personal and legal conflicts of interest with their court-involved children. For exam-

ple, parents are the alleged victims in some delinquency cases, appearing in court both as

the child’s supporter and adversary (Henning 2006; Farber 2004).

Although juvenile courts require parents’ presence at most hearings, in many jurisdic-

tions parents’ role in juvenile delinquency cases is limited. A national survey finds that

judges rarely question parents directly in the courtroom and instead rely on information

provided to them by the defense attorney or juvenile probation officer (Davies and David-

son 2001). Davies and Davidson recommend that juvenile court judges more actively

encourage parents’ direct involvement and make parental participation an explicit part of

juvenile codes. Advocating for “a new or renewed institutional commitment to the active

inclusion of parents in the juvenile justice process” (ibid., 7), Davies and Davidson con-

clude that it is crucial that juvenile court judges develop ways to positively and proactively

engage parents in their children’s cases. Instead, many juvenile justice policies view paren-

tal participation negatively, threatening to hold parents in contempt for not appearing in

court or ordering that parents pay the costs of their child’s treatment, fines, restitution, or

attorney’s fees (Henning 2006; Davies and Davidson 2001).

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