Analysis Of Laurie Schaffner's Girls In Trouble With The Law

Many of us don’t think twice about the social economic level we are born into and let’s be honest, most of us take it for granted. Social economic level has a clear impact on adolescent girls and may ultimately determine their futures. In the book, “Girls in Trouble with the Law” written by Laurie Schaffner (2006), a qualitative study was conducted and took us inside multiple juvenile detention centers to explore the world of girls who are incarcerated. Schaffner makes her case by describing how girls with low social economic levels are at a disadvantage and are more likely to commit crime. She takes a closer look at how poverty, family, and education play a role in these young girls’ lives. The purpose of this paper is to theorize about girls

Having a good education means having a good future ahead. However, for girls in this book, their parents do not even want them to go to school. They live in such a bad neighborhood that there are shootings and they are afraid their child will get shot. Unfortunately, school wasn’t a safe place for girls either. Being verbally abused by boys, being grabbed and fondled sexually, and even being shot at by boys were topics that girls brought up when talking about school (Schaffner 65). Girls were often sexually harassed in school and would get in trouble if they fought back. This kind of environment makes learning more difficult for the girls and making them not want to come. “Dropping out of school and running away can be first responses to sexual abuse” (Schaffner 62). Many girls didn’t feel safe at school and brought weapons such as pepper spray and knives to protect themselves. Mylen Cruz was in detention at the age of 16 for stabbing a boy at her school who was messing around with her and touched her butt. She was the one getting abused and the boy wasn’t getting in trouble. She took it upon herself to take care of it the way she knew how, which was a turn to violence. Schools started enforcing a zero tolerance law for violence in school. This only harmed the girls because while the boys were getting away with sexual harassment, the girls would start fights to protect themselves. Schools started coming up with a way to get girls into the system using the term bootstrapping. Schools wanted to get rid of the girls who were causing problems for example, fighting. This was a way to get girls locked up simply for violating a condition of probation. Girls would be on probation for the violence in school and have to go see a judge. The juvenile judges would order them to attend school, which they would get into a fight and get incarcerated. It was not unusual to meet