'Out of Control': Private 'troubled teen industry' facilities in the USA and the enabling of institutional child abuse - Children and Young People's Centre for Justice

Summary:

Every year in the USA thousands of young people are placed in private reform institutions known as the ‘troubled teen industry’. These include therapeutic boarding schools, residential treatment centres, and wilderness therapy programmes. Young people can be labelled ‘troubled teens’ and place in for a variety of reasons, ranging from general non-compliance to serious behavioural and emotional issues. While these programmes have often presented themselves as life-saving treatment facilities that offer an alternative to incarceration and psychiatric institutionalisation, recent media coverage and research has revealed decades of abuse and human rights violations. Having conducted research with survivors, Sarah will discuss the experiences of former ‘troubled teens’ and the ways violence was embedded into the institutional culture. Reflecting on the perpetration of harm under the auspices of caring institutions, there will be discussion on identifying abusive structures and listening to those who have been ‘in care’, with Sarah foregrounding issues that are as pertinent here in Scotland as they are elsewhere.

[Trigger warning: This presentation will include discussion of emotional, physical and sexual abuse and torture of children in institutional settings]

Bio:

Sarah is a social work lecturer and ‘troubled teen industry’ (TTI) survivor-researcher. Her doctorate was on the pathologisation of youth and institutional child abuse in therapeutic boarding schools. Sarah’s work analysed how violent institutional cultures enable and embed forms of emotional, physical, and sexual abuse and neglect. Sarah has presented her work at international conferences and has been published in peer-review journals Global Studies of Childhood and the British Journal of Social Work.

Dr Sarah Golightley, Lecturer in Social Work at the University of Strathclyde

Who is this most relevant for:

Anyone who works in residential child care, child protection, youth justice and reform, youth advocacy, or children’s rights