FAMILIES ON PROBATION - COURT-ORDERED PARENTING SKILLS CLASSES FOR PARENTS OF JUVENILE-OFFENDERS

What are sociolegal, cultural, and emotional premises beneath conceptu alizations of parenting skills for parents of juvenile offenders? This study examined court-ordered parenting skills classes taught by juven ile probation department personnel ata Northern California juvenile de tention facility. Three conflicting perspectives arose in the classes: the juvenile court's perspective, where delinquency was framed as a r esult of poor parenting that state intervention could rectify; the par ents' perspective, where parenting was seen as part of the feeling wor ld of family life; and an adult solidarity perspective, where probatio n officials and parents agreed that youths were bad, out of control, d isrespectful-a type of demonization of the youths by all the adults.