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Frontmatter -- Contents -- Foreword -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- Chapter 1. History and Current Tensions in Juvenile Corrections -- Chapter 2. The Setting -- Chapter 3. Mixed Messages: "Therapy Speak" in a Correctional Milieu -- Chapter 4. "Take It Like a Man": Masculinities, Treatment, and Crime -- Chapter 5. "Jumping through Hoops": Identity, Self-Preservation, and Change -- Chapter 6. On the Outs -- Chapter 7. Rehabilitating Rehabilitation: What We Learned from Unit C -- Appendix: Behind the Scenes: Reflections on Field Research in Action -- References -- Index -- About the Author

Arguably, from the invention of adolescence at the beginning of the 20th century, developmental theory has served as the foundation of disciplinary study and professional practice with children and youth across the global West. Despite their founders' assertions that development is culturally constructed, in educational and youth work practice contexts stage-based trajectories of normative human growth are largely erroneously accepted as ahistorical, apolitical, naturally occurring, and universally applicable. This paper presents critiques of developmentalism from historical, reconceptualist, and queer perspectives, calling into question the underlying principles of normalcy and abnormality that run through the developmental project. We pay particular attention to the potential of queer theory as an analytic to deconstruct developmentalism in the context of child and youth care, opening new possibilities for critical engagement with children and youth outside the context of development.

Social work as a profession and academic discipline has long centered women and issues of concern to women, such as reproductive rights, labor rights, equal rights, violence and poverty. In fact, the social work profession was started by and maintained in large part by women and has been home to several generations of feminists starting with recognized first wave feminists. This wide-ranging volume both maps the contemporary landscape of feminist social work research, and offers a deep engagement with critical and third wave feminisms in social work research. Showcasing the breadth and depth o

Using a critical feminist and social work lens, this article argues that the mainstream gay rights movement and its singular focus on marriage has consistently neglected the most marginal among lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) communities and has instead focused on advancing the interests of elite and advantaged lesbian and gay people. We link professional obligations and values outlined in the National Association of Social Workers Code of Ethics to feminist and queer (both activist and scholarly) critiques of the gay marriage movement in three main ways. First, we explore the priorities of LGBT communities and draw on data that suggest there are more pressing needs than marriage equality for LGBT communities of color, who are poor, transgender, hold precarious citizenship, or are without citizenship. We then trouble that issue of marriage being upheld as the LGBT priority, as this diverts resources from these more pressing needs. Second, we look at marriage in Capitalist America and how marriage is used as a form of privatization and a tool of neoliberalism. Finally, we discuss the diversity of queer families and how they really live, while highlighting that the marriage movement stigmatizes and dismantles protections for nonhegemonic family structures. In moving forward, we argue that social workers must engage more critically with the many intersectional issues related to the gay marriage movement than it has in the past and employ feminist social work values and principles when working with LGBT communities.

Social work as an academic discipline has long included women and gender as central categories of analysis; the social work profession, started and maintained largely by women, has been home to several generations of feminists. Yet, social work is curiously and strikingly absent from broader multidisciplinary discussions of feminist research. This article explores contemporary feminist social work research by examining 50 randomly selected research-based articles that claimed feminism within their work. The analysis focused on the authors' treatment of the gender binary, their grounding in theory, their treatment of methodology, and their feminist claims. Feminist social work researchers are invited to reconceptualize feminisms to include third-wave feminist thought and more explicitly engage theory and reflexivity in their work.

Juvenile reoffending is a costly and perplexing social problem. However, research and theory concerning juvenile reoffending have neglected to examine how young men's gender identities are constructed in the context of a juvenile justice system in which behavior reform through various therapies is a primary goal. This study draws on observational fieldwork in two residential correctional facilities and interviews with incarcerated juvenile male offenders to understand how masculinities are shaped within these institutional settings. They find that in the two settings, hegemonic forms of masculinities involving competition, hierarchy, stoicism, sexism, and homo-phobia were reinforced through institutional and interpersonal mechanisms. While alternative gender identity expressions were offered through various therapies, they were largely suppressed. This illustration of how masculinities are constructed in juvenile corrections provides a new way to examine the inner workings of institutions that are geared to change the attitudes and behaviors of the young men whom they serve.

Moral Reconation Therapy (MRT) is a manualized treatment commonly used in correctional settings to address perceived moral failing and associated problematic behaviors (e.g., substance use and criminal conduct). Many social work students are introduced to MRT as a treatment modality during field placements in correctional contexts. As a group modality that draws from cognitive-behavioral interventions and 12-step recovery programs, MRT has been touted as a cost-effective and evidence-based intervention. However, there are substantial reasons to question MRT's appropriateness as an intervention taught to social work practicum students. Using several of the CSWE EPAS standards as guideposts, this paper addresses several key areas of concern with regard to the role of MRT in the training of social work students. Through our analysis of MRT's curriculum, we identify areas of concern with regard to MRT's ability to teach social work students how to ethically practice, engage diversity and difference in practice, or utilize research to inform practice. Despite the widespread use of MRT in correctional counseling contexts, we conclude that MRT is unsuitable for use in accredited social work field placements. Educators and accreditation agencies should critically evaluate the treatment models social work students learn and practice in field placements.