Researcher ORCID Identifier
https://orcid.org/0009-0003-2733-8597
Graduation Year
2023
Date of Submission
4-2023
Document Type
Campus Only Senior Thesis
Award
Best Senior Thesis in History
Degree Name
Bachelor of Arts
Department
History
Reader 1
Lily Geismer
Terms of Use & License Information
Abstract
This thesis explores how federal and state policies throughout the 20th century criminalized adolescents’ mental health struggles and/or illnesses by locking them in carceral institutions, such as state hospitals, reformatory schools, and juvenile detention facilities. There, officials failed to provide adequate care for their mental and reproductive health needs. Although medical professionals, academics, and families spoke more about the link between trauma and court involvement in the early 2000s, government policies and institutional practices did not change to improve youth experiences in juvenile courts. Instead, government and court officials worked within the criminal legal system to help court-involved adolescents by establishing juvenile mental health courts and girls’ courts/commercial sexual exploitation of children (CSEC) courts. Through a close analysis of these reforms, this thesis examines the systematic failures of the education and healthcare systems, which continue to lead many adolescents to juvenile courts. By using interviews with judges and analyzing archival materials, this thesis highlights how juvenile collaborative courts continue to operate within the punitive framework of the criminal legal system.
Recommended Citation
Farah, Miriam, "The Criminalization of Girls’ Mental Illness: Race, Gender, and Class in Juvenile Collaborative Courts" (2023). CMC Senior Theses. 3350.
https://scholarship.claremont.edu/cmc_theses/3350
This thesis is restricted to the Claremont Colleges current faculty, students, and staff.
