'They're still children and entitled to be children': problematising the institutionalised mistrust of marginalised youth in Britain

Authors: Dawn Stephen; Peter Squires

Source: Journal of Youth Studies, Volume 7, Number 3, September 2004 , pp. 351-369(19)

Publisher: Routledge, part of the Taylor & Francis Group

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Abstract:

Developing Kelly's perspicacious deliberations on mistrust, surveillance and regulation in this journal (Journal of Youth Studies vol. 6, no. 2 (2003), pp. 165-180), this paper illustrates the pernicious consequences of the British Government's 'Community Safety' discourses, as effected through the imposition of Acceptable Behaviour Contracts, upon marginalised young people and their families. By drawing upon and presenting extracts from our recent qualitative research with a sample of young people and their families subject to these contracts, the vacuous nature of contemporary constructs of marginalised youth as 'dangerous Other' is laid bare as unintelligible and deleterious to fostering any sense of inclusion and social justice in their lives.

Document Type: Research article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1367626042000268962

Publication date: 2004-09-01

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