Resistance as ‘Escapist Practice’

Youth facing the juvenile justice system encounter, in Switzerland as in other European countries, a continuum of surveillance and constraints that stretches from the control of their bodies and environment to the regulation of their speech and their landscape of possibilities. Drawing on life history interviews with young people navigating the Swiss juvenile justice system, this article examines acts of resistance to this continuum as ‘escapist practices.’ We first develop a theoretical discussion on escape, resistance, and state power. Then, we propose a typology of resistance – cheating, eluding, negotiating, and contesting – each revealing how youths transgress institutional boundaries. Finally, we situate these practices within penal and social trajectories, highlighting how relationships with institutions are shaped through processes of labelling, knowledge acquisition, and the accumulation (or loss) of different forms of capital both inside and outside the justice system. These resistance practices are not only to minimize the system’s control but also emerge as sense-making gestures, allowing youth to contest the state’s claim over their lives, and to reshape the boundaries imposed by the penal system as well as its normative transformations and rhythm.