Award Date
5-15-2026
Degree Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Department
Sociology
First Committee Member
Lillian Taylor Jungleib
Second Committee Member
Emily Troshynski
Third Committee Member
Michael Borer
Fourth Committee Member
Rebecca Rice
Number of Pages
206
Abstract
This dissertation examines how dependency court, a legal forum that decides whether families can reunify following allegations of abuse or neglect, constructs, interprets, and evaluates parental rehabilitation. While therapeutic jurisprudence emphasizes courts’ potential to encourage behavioral change, little research examines how rehabilitation is enacted and assessed in practice.
I address this gap through an ethnographic study of an urban dependency court, including over 200 hours of observation and eight semi-structured interviews with attorneys and other legal professionals. My observations focus on hearings where parents’ progress and permanency outcomes are assessed, revealing the interactional performances through which parents demonstrate change and legal actors assert authority. Interviews provide insight into how institutional actors interpret parental engagement, anticipate judicial responses, and evaluate credibility.
I find that parental behavior is shaped by judicial labeling and stigma. Parents are evaluated against normative expectations of middle-class parenting. Institutional actors interpret parental actions, creating heightened surveillance and requiring parents to navigate both social and institutional stigma as they seek reunification.
I examine how parents navigate these expectations through Goffman’s concept of impression management. I show that parents perform rehabilitation, signaling compliance and remorse, while legal actors interpret these performances to signal approval, skepticism, or consequences. Courtroom evaluations are not purely procedural but shaped by performances, interpretations, and institutional power. Through this ethnography, I illustrate how the practices, performances, and expectations of dependency court collectively produce, assess, and regulate parental change.
Drawing on symbolic interactionism, therapeutic jurisprudence, and Foucauldian theories of power and normalization, I develop a theoretical model that describes how dependency courts simultaneously promote rehabilitation and enforce control. I conceptualize therapeutic veneer as the use of supportive and rehabilitative language and practices that obscure and legitimize underlying systems of surveillance, coercion, and moral regulation.
This dissertation advances scholarship on therapeutic jurisprudence by presenting my therapeutic veneer model that differs from prior models, showing how courts simultaneously promote rehabilitation while exercising institutional control. The dynamics of therapeutic veneer shape both the meaning of parental change and the lived experiences of families navigating reunification.
Controlled Subject
Family reunification--Law and legislation; Abusive parents--Rehabilitation; Stigma (Social psychology)
Disciplines
Law | Social Psychology | Sociology
File Format
File Size
1378 KB
Degree Grantor
University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Language
English
Repository Citation
Underwood Hood, Mary Elizabeth, "The Therapeutic Courtroom: Power, Compliance, and the Performance of Change in Dependency Court" (2026). UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones. 5644.
https://oasis.library.unlv.edu/thesesdissertations/5644
Rights
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