Finding a Way In: Youth Workers and Juvenile Justice

Abstract

Youth workers occupy a somewhat marginal position in terms of their formal responsibilities for working with young offenders. However, the reality of their job means that they often develop very close, informal relationships with young people. From this position they will appreciate the widespread nature of unrecorded, as opposed to officially known, offending amongst the young and the need for all workers to co-operate to minimise the penetration of young people into the juvenile justice system. These factors point to the need for all who work with young people in the community to acquire a sound working knowledge of juvenile justice. The attitude of many towards the propriety of youth work with delinquents has been somewhat ambivalent. This extends not only to commentators, academics and politicians but also to youth workers and is as old as youth work itself. Many lay people have not wanted to see their respectable youth facilities cluttered up with young tearaways but at the same time have hoped, even required, youth workers somehow, magically, to curb youthful crime. This conjuring trick has been expected to occur with a minimum of resources.