Flipping the Narrative: A Unifying Framework for Juvenile Court-based Forensic Social Work Practice

Abstract

Professional social workers are trained in multiple competencies and occupy various positions within the forensic landscape. Unified by a code of ethics that emphasizes social justice and the protection and empowerment of marginalized populations and a philosophical approach that recognizes the interplay of individual and environmental factors, social work leadership in youth justice policy and practice is vital. This article proposes a unifying framework for macro, mezzo, and micro court-based forensic social work practice in the 21st century that draws from post-modern critical social work theory. The lifelong negative impacts of court involvement for young people are well documented and contribute to persistent societal inequities. Pre-disposition court practices can mitigate or further harm court-involved youth. “Flipping the Narrative” is a culturally relevant practice framework for evaluating and designing youth court practices that recognize the intersectionality of the identities and experiences of court-involved youth. The proposed framework incorporates the practical implications of Critical Theory, specifically Critical Race Theory, the Theory of African American Offending, and Queer Theory,  and relevant practice approaches, such as Social Justice Youth Development and Narrative Therapy, to analyze current youth court practices, propose areas for further evaluation and innovation, and recommend practice enhancements for defense-based forensic social workers. The urgency for innovation in one New England state is illustrated through a case study.