Understanding Youth and Crime: Listening to Youth?
By Shelia Brown
Maidenhead, Berkshire: Open University Press, 2005
Despite the salient focus on ‘youth and crime’ as a topic of study in criminology, the voices of youth are often marginalized. Ensuant of positivist orientations pertaining to the ‘youth crime’ question, young people’s perspectives have been excluded as focal points in study. Brown illuminates such concerns, addressing the exclusion of youth’s voices in social policy and criminological literature. Through a constructionist orientation, Brown outlines how the ‘youth crime’ problem, has established youth as ‘other’, often justifying their exclusion.
In Chapter One, Brown provides a detailed overview of the social construction of ‘youth’. Providing a historical (British) overview, she focuses on the tensions between idealized conceptions of childhood and deviant ‘others’. Chapter Two outlines the role of criminology in constructing youth as ‘other’, in accordance with wider social fears. Brown argues that ‘listening to youth’ can challenge the historically dominant positivistic orientation of criminology.
In Chapter Three Brown outlines the intricate relationship between media and society, via empirical work on moral panics and youth. In chapter Four Brown examines the relevance of social policy in the ‘youth crime’ question, as in accordance with perceived social ills, outlining tensions between care and control. Important questions are raised regarding the rights of youth as citizens.
In Chapter Five, Brown discusses the dualism of youth as victims or villains, acknowledging the lack of literature on youth victimization. Establishing links to citizenship rights and exclusion, Brown claims that youth victimization is rarely taken seriously. In Chapter Six, Brown provides a brief overview of gender, outlining the preeminence of male oriented theories and the prevalence of hegemonic masculinities in criminological literature. Providing an alternative approach to this topic, Brown questions if the inclusion of gender in the ‘youth crime’ question is always valuable.
Chapters Seven and Eight are the most innovative, examining cyber crime and global youth and crime. In chapter seven, Brown discusses the construction of youth in virtual space, relating new found fears in the context of adult based concerns. Standing in contradiction to dominant notions of ‘youth as victim’, the ascendant notion prevails that youth are endangered rather than empowered in virtual space. In Chapter Eight Brown outlines central issues in terms of globalization, questioning the potential and problems ensuing from a more global perspective. Brown notes that children’s rights need to be considered and advocated for, as rights are a means by which youth may be heard. In concluding remarks, Brown delineates an alternative focus of study, once the conventional standards of investigation are challenged. Brown notes that youth are marginalized and therefore external of claims of citizenship. As such, we need to acknowledge and include the voices of youth. Each chapter includes suggestions for further readings, and Brown provides a glossary of key terms at the end of the book.
Brown presents a worthy balance between theoretical approaches and empirical studies focusing on the ‘youth crime’ question. Brown articulately supports her arguments that the boundaries of criminology should be expanded and made more fluid to include the voices of youth. While she does not overtly make such inclusions within this book, she does provide an intelligible framework by which to rethink the current boundaries of criminology and the ‘youth crime’ question.
Brown raises important queries regarding the social construction of youth and how this has influenced relevant policies, noting that youth are marginalized, as they are not seen as full citizens. While Brown advocates for the rights of youth, she is rightfully critical of this state ideology. She acknowledges the Westernized, masculine ideals often supporting current ‘human rights’ discourses. Brown offers a critical lens by which to examine both traditional and more contemporary understandings of the ‘youth crime’ question, circuitously advocating for more inclusionary scholarship. Overall, this book provides a significant contribution and would be valuable for students of criminology.
JENNIFER L. ROBINSON
University of Waterloo |
