Robert D. & Leslie-Kay Raven Lecturer on Access to Justice
Thursday, March 10, 2011
4:00 p.m.
UC Berkeley School of Law, Boalt Hall, Room 105
Nikki Jones
and discussant
Meda Chesney-Lind
Professor of Women’s Studies, University of Hawai’i at Manoa
African American Girls and Young Women and the Juvenile Justice System: A Call to Action
Friday, March 11, 2011
8:30 a.m. – 5:30 p.m.
UC Berkeley School of Law, Boalt Hall, Room 100
African American girls and young women have fallen through the cracks. They are disproportionately detained and incarcerated by the juvenile justice system and their risks for non-stranger violence are higher than that of any other group, including their African American male counterparts.
When they are thought of at all, African American girls and young women are viewed in the context of sexual deviancy, delinquency or criminology. Their dignity and humanity are seldom recognized and the importance of their lives is largely ignored.
This symposium aims to (1) celebrate African American girls and young women; (2) move African American girls and young women to the center of discussions about racism, violence, poverty, and gender; (3) illuminate how the intersection of race, gender, age, class and place put African American girls at a high risk for victimization and offending; and (4) expand the conversation about comprehensive and systematic reforms that are necessary to stop the violence against African American girls, reverse the over-incarceration, and offer genuine opportunities for poor, African American girls and young women to thrive.
Raven Lecture
The symposium kicks off on March 10, 2011, at 4:00 p.m., with the Robert D. & Leslie-Kay Raven Lecture on Access to Justice, an endowed lecture that was established by the firm of Morrison & Foerster in honor of Robert D. Raven ‘52, to present topics relating to access to justice.
This year’s lecturer is Nikki Jones, Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Professor Jones earned her Ph.D. in Sociology and Criminology from the University of Pennsylvania. Her areas of expertise include urban ethnography, urban sociology, race and ethnic relations and criminology and criminal justice, with a special emphasis on the intersection of race, gender, and justice. She is the author of Between Good and Ghetto: African American Girls and Inner-City Violence, and a co-editor of Fighting for Girls: New Perspectives on Gender and Violence (with Meda Chesney-Lind). Her next book is based on a multi-year, neighborhood-based ethnographic study of how African American men with street or criminal histories (adults and adolescents) change their lives, and their place in the neighborhood once they do.
The respondent/discussant is Meda Chesney-Lind, Professor, Women’s Studies Program, University of Hawai’i at Manoa. Professor Chesney-Lind is nationally recognized for her work on women and crime. Her books include Girls, Delinquency and Juvenile Justice, The Female Offender: Girls, Women and Crime, Female Gangs in America, Invisible Punishment, Girls, Women and Crime, and Beyond Bad Girls: Gender Violence and Hype. Her research and teaching focuses on gender, with an emphasis on women and systems of social control; the victimization of women and girls; and gender-responsive juvenile justice programs for girls.