The Familial Union between Caregivers and the Juvenile Justice System

This research describes an initial exploration of the phenomenon of caregivers’ learning of their child’s detention, an area of exploration that has little previous attention in the literature. This initial exploration was rooted in a desire to gain an understanding of the caregiver’s experience with both their family member (adjudicated juvenile) and the criminal justice system. A qualitative, phenomenological approach was used in this study to gain rich understanding into the lived experiences shared by twelve caregivers of youth being adjudicated in the juvenile justice system. Two overarching themes emerged from the data: 1) the system, with communication, fairness, and substitute parental provider as notable subthemes, and 2) the family, with family strength and relationship to support needs as a notable subtheme. Gaining insight into this critical point of family crisis has implications for intervention frameworks addressing family stability and support for long-term outcomes