Between youth protection and juvenile justice
This article explores the continuity of sociopenal interventions experienced by “dual-system youth,” i.e. youth in the Quebec juvenile justice system who are currently, or were in the past, also monitored under the Youth Protection Act. Specifically, the article focuses on the experiences of these youth as they move from one intervention system to the other, as well as the impacts of the links shared by the two systems on youth trajectories. Using data collected via qualitative research methods, this study demonstrates that “dual-system youth” are subject to a multitude of displacements between these two porous systems, particularly in regard to supervision and monitoring. Three forms of continuity between the child welfare system and the juvenile justice system emerge from the data as responses to juvenile behaviours : the progression and continuity of supervision from the child welfare system to the juvenile justice system ; the confining implications of supervision in either of the two systems on the other ; and the similar extension, in both systems, of control beyond the walls of enclosed youth placement institutions. Finally, this article demonstrates that dual-system youth trajectories are constructed under a hybrid continuum of intervention between the child welfare and juvenile justice systems.