Despite the attention forced marriage has received abroad, it remains poorly understood in the United States. This study is one of the first to examine the practice domestically, with a focus on service provision. Using interviews with those who have experienced forced marriage and relevant stakeholders, we describe challenges in recognizing, naming, and disclosing forced marriage. Findings indicate that people are unaware forced marriage services exist, face barriers to disclosing, may not identify with the term, and are reluctant to seek services. They suggest the need for training, consistent organizational definitions, inclusive terminology, programming aimed at root causes, standardized identification methods, and cultural competency.

Probation plays a central role in the juvenile justice system, and probation officers are often involved in numerous decisions made in juvenile courts. This study examines the views of probation staff from 23 jurisdictions, some of which participated in an Annie E. Casey Foundation–funded juvenile justice reform effort intended to safely and significantly reduce the use of out-of-home placements, especially for youth of color. We survey juvenile probation staff members at two waves and describe changes in reported practices and principles relating to individualized case planning, youth engagement, family and community engagement, and racial and ethnic equity and inclusion as well as beliefs about the purposes of out-of-home placement. Reform sites reported slightly more frequent use of practices and principles addressing community engagement and racial and ethnic equity and inclusion in the second wave than in the first wave.

In Western European countries and Canada, an emerging scholarly literature has helped inform awareness and prevention efforts and justice system responses to address forced marriages. But, little is known about this issue in the United States. The present study, the first large scale examination of forced marriage prevalence in the United States, surveys a national sample of Internet users over 18 years of age. Using a Google Consumer Survey platform, this exploratory study seeks to estimate prevalence of and gender disparities in forced marriages for this sample; examine conditions and circumstances associated with forced marriage; develop adequate measurement tools to identify individuals who have faced forced marriage; and better understand how and to what extent those experiencing forced marriage face psychological abuse from intimate partners and access victim services. Contrary to the experiences of legal and social service providers, findings indicate that more men than women reported forced marriage experiences. The discrepancy between this finding and prior research underscores the need to further develop survey measures and reconsider closed-ended, web-based survey screener questions such as the one used to identify respondents experiencing forced marriage in this study. These considerations may help identify victims with better precision and locate the underlying causes of gender disparities in forced marriage. In addition, many respondents reported entering forced marriages while facing concerns over their own or their family’s reputation and threats of harm (to themselves or self-harm of a family member).A majority of respondents also reported experiencing psychological intimate partner violence and seeking help, particularly from law enforcement and for medical assistance. This large overlap between forced marriage and psychological intimate partner violence, as well as between forced marriage and seeking help from law enforcement and medical assistance providers, indicates that service provision needs are notably acute for this population..

Greek life in American colleges and universities is characterized by white hetero-masculine dominance. A large scholarship has documented Greek life’s association with women’s sexual violence, yet much less is known about how men—who are ostensibly privileged in these settings—experience sexual harassment and assault. Using 15 interviews with fraternity members attending an elite, midwestern university, we examine men’s experiences of intra-fraternal sexual violence. We describe fraternity members creating and deploying a white hetero-masculine discourse of “brotherhood” that institutionalizes intra-fraternal sexual violence, makes it illegible, and gives its perpetrators impunity. We also show how the brotherhood discourse differentially deploys resources and power to fraternity brothers based on their intersectional location and relationship to intra-fraternal sexual violence. Future applications of the brotherhood discourse in fraternities and other institutional contexts can help us better understand how such organizations reinscribe intersectional power hierarchies.

The Annie E. Casey Foundation created its national deep-end initiative to support local jurisdictions to develop and implement practices, policies, and programs that prevent youth involved in the juvenile justice system—especially for youth of color—from being sent to out-of-home placements. This article presents findings about the role that partnerships played across 10 communities in the initiative, leveraging data collected through interviews and a web-based stakeholder survey. As part of the deep-end initiative, stakeholders developed partnerships with multiple entities, though they reported partnering with community organizations, youth, and families less than with juvenile justice agencies. Family engagement emerged broadly and consistently as a priority, but stakeholders infrequently mentioned youth engagement. Sites with more collaboration typically had stronger implementation, suggesting that successful collaboration goes hand in hand with implementing broader reform activities. Developing diverse partnerships to engage in juvenile justice reform is an achievable goal that can advance reform efforts.