Doctoral Dissertations (FSSH)

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/10155/1166

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Browsing Doctoral Dissertations (FSSH) by Author "Cesaroni, Carla"

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    Finding success in life: the voices of at-risk youth
    (2020-04-01) Fredericks, Kaitlin; Cesaroni, Carla
    The aim of this dissertation is to rethink and broaden the understanding of success from the perspectives of at-risk youth. Current conceptualizations of success commonly found in criminological literature are based on life course, middle-class standards of success, are problematic and marginalizing in nature, and lack youth voice. This study investigates the need for a more diverse theoretical framework for explaining the complex concept of success with the inclusion of youth perspectives. I attempt to answer how at-risk youth construct and characterize their own success and how SNAP Boys – Youth Leadership Services (a community-based program) helps youth achieve their ideas of success. Using in-depth, qualitative interviews and a visual mapping exercise, I show that youth express subjective, non-traditional ideas and experiences of success that move beyond only traditional, well-accepted ideas and markers of success. Youth in this study expressed a combination of traditional and non-traditional ideas and experiences of success and attributed some of their success to participation in SNAP Boys – Youth Leadership Services. This study contributes to criminological literature by offering a theoretical framework for understanding non-traditional, subjective ideas of success as valuable and important, especially for at-risk youth. Importantly, the significance and further contributions of this research are that it enables youth to express their unbounded ideas and experiences of success, highlights the complexity of the concept of success, and challenges criminologists and other stakeholders to push the conversation of success forward through consideration of alternative, individualized ideas of success that represent complex social identities and contexts.
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    Youth correctional officer orientation and opinions on relationships with youth
    (2021-08-01) Bickle, Korri; Cesaroni, Carla
    This study explored the personal perspectives of current and past youth correctional officers within secure and open custody facilities in Ontario. A multi-methods design was used to examine officers’ orientation to their work, how they view their interactions with youth and their opinions on relationships with youth in custody. Quantitative data was collected to assess demographics, correctional orientation, and officer typology. Qualitative open-ended survey responses probed exploratory areas of interest such as participants’ descriptions of their day, their thoughts on relationships with youth, and their general approach to their work. Although there was a small sample size (N=26), the results indicated that there may be some important relationships between correctional orientation and beliefs around relationships in youth correctional officers. As suggested in previous literature, youth correctional workers report their job as including various tasks ranging from supervision and security to cleaning and preparing meals. There are also indications of differences in correctional orientation and endorsements for relationship development with youth for those who see treatment as part of their role in rehabilitation and those who do not. Additionally, there does not appear to be the groupings of officer types in this youth correctional worker sample as is seen in adult correctional workers. This exploratory study provides a starting point for understanding the unique experiences and duties of youth correctional workers, their correctional orientation, and their views on relationship development with youth. Future research will focus on replicating these findings with a larger sample size.
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    Youth justice policy implementation – community organizations’ perspective
    (2023-10-01) Woods, Sarah; Cesaroni, Carla; Aquanno, Scott
    This dissertation is situated at the intersection of two gaps in Canadian youth justice literature – limited scholarship focused on youth justice community-based organizations (CBOs) and few studies investigating the impact of neoliberal restructuring in Canadian youth justice. This study provides a Canadian perspective to the growing body of scholarship concerned with the influence of neoliberalism in youth justice and is an example of what a multidisciplinary approach to studying youth justice reveals. Critical institutionalism (CI), a theoretical framework from political economy, is used to address current applications of neoliberalism within criminology. There are two major problems within the criminology scholarship on neoliberalism: (1) a failure to understand the contradictory implementation and reproduction of neoliberal policy logics on relatively autonomous state actors/institutions; and (2) a failure to take seriously the origins of the neoliberal project and its relationship to economic competition. CI addresses these shortcomings by acknowledging the interconnectedness of different levels of influence and thus the role of institutions, structures, and institutionally embedded human agents, to shape, navigate, and implement policy. Drawing from in-depth qualitative interviews with front-line and management staff working in Ontario youth justice CBOs, I illustrate the purpose of these agencies within Ontario’s youth justice system and how their different roles are connected to their efforts to navigate the impacts of neoliberal restructuring and pressures of neoliberal rationalities. Findings shed light on why CBOs do the work they do, not just what work they do, as their experiences revealed the reality of how organizations and individuals struggle, resist, and negotiate constantly in their day-to-day work. The findings here suggest neoliberal logic penetrates deeply throughout youth justice CBOs; however, it is not totalizing such that youth justice CBOs are merely passive receives of the pressures of neoliberal logics. Rather, CBOs and individual staff are resilient and creative in managing these constant pressures with a shared goal of prioritizing youth over all else. Their decisions and operations are grounded in the spirit of non-profit work, yet ongoing broad pressure to fully succumb to neoliberal logics and rationalities remain.