Keeping Quiet or Going Nuts: Some Emerging Strategies Used by Young Black People in Custody at a Time of Childhood Being Re-constructed

• NCJ Number: 203462
• Journal: The Howard Journal of Criminal Justice Volume: 42 Issue: 5 Dated: December 2003 Pages: 411-425
• Author(s): David Wilson
• Date Published: December 2003
• Length: 15 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United Kingdom

Annotation

This article presents an ethnographic study, from a social constructionist perspective, of how young Black men in prison deal with life in confinement.

Abstract

Recent academic discussions of the construction of childhood argue that children are not simply passive subjects of social forces, but can actively engage in the social construction of their lives. Through an ethnographic study of 15 young Black men in a young offender institution, this article explores how these young people actively construct their lives under conditions of confinement. The author explores the blurring of the boundaries between children and adults that is currently occurring within society. Within this blurring of the boundaries falls society’s current response to youth who commit crimes. The article describes the societal perception of youthful offenders as “dangerous dogs” that should be strictly controlled. The current criminal justice stance of confining youthful offenders to institutions is born out of this desire to control these offenders and is not based on evidence led practice. Next, the article turns to the results of the ethnographic study of the 15 confined youth, which demonstrated that these youth do actively construct their lives in prison by employing one of two strategies: “keeping quiet” or “going nuts.” The participants referred to prison life as “the game” and described “keeping quiet” and using each other as sources of support as how they successfully play “the Game.” The other strategy of “going nuts” is used sparingly and only after other options had been exhausted. The author points out how children can actively participant in the construction of their social lives even while in prison. Finally, it is argued that the line between “child” and “adult” is being blurred at the same time that society is striving to construct childhood as a precious time worth protecting. Notes, references