They Call Us Problem Child: Delinquency, Medicalization, and Social Class in Primary Education

ABSTRACT

This article recounts my seven-year struggle with my son in his high-performing school district, and his immediate shift in identity from delinquent to honor student when we changed districts. I argue that social class is encoded in setting and family form. Factors like context, class and family form discrimination, diagnosis in schools, and access to resources, all shaped Coby’s social experiences.

Acknowledgments

I want to thank Katie Acosta, Jon P. Bloch, Emily Brissette, Graham Cassano, Omar Dphrepaulezz, Rachel Leventhal-Weiner, and Christine Zozula for their feedback at different stages of this article. I also thank all who are featured in this article, especially Coby.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Melissa F. Lavin

MELISSA F. LAVIN is an Assistant Professor at State University of New York, Oneonta. She received her B.A. in 2003 from University of Colorado at Boulder, and her Ph.D. in 2011 from University of Connecticut. Her areas include crime and deviance, medicalization, symbolic interaction, qualitative methods, and gender. She serves as an associate editor for Deviant Behavior and Humanity and Society.