Young People and Social Control: Problems and Prospects from the Margins PDF
Preview Young People and Social Control: Problems and Prospects from the Margins
Young People and Social Control Ross Deuchar (cid:129) Kalwant Bhopal Young People and Social Control Problems and Prospects from the Margins RossDeuchar KalwantBhopal SchoolofEducation SchoolofEducation UniversityoftheWestofScotland UniversityofBirmingham KA80SX,UnitedKingdom Birmingham,UnitedKingdom ISBN978-3-319-52907-3 ISBN978-3-319-52908-0(eBook) DOI10.1007/978-3-319-52908-0 LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2017936671 ©TheEditor(s)(ifapplicable)andTheAuthor(s)2017 Thisworkissubjecttocopyright.AllrightsaresolelyandexclusivelylicensedbythePublisher,whether thewholeorpartofthematerialisconcerned,specificallytherightsoftranslation,reprinting,reuseof illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similarordissimilarmethodologynowknownorhereafterdeveloped. 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CoverImage:©piola666,gettyimages Printedonacid-freepaper ThisPalgraveMacmillanimprintispublishedbySpringerNature TheregisteredcompanyisSpringerInternationalPublishingAG Theregisteredcompanyaddressis:Gewerbestrasse11,6330Cham,Switzerland – In loving memory of Ian Deuchar, 1935 2016 Foreword I have always been shocked at the tendency among those of us so-called mature adults to give up on the young. Colleagues and I have written extensivelyaboutthenormativepressurestowardwhatpsychologistscall ‘ ’ generativity in adulthood (Maruna et al. 2004). As we age, adults are largely expected to become less self-centered and more focussed on caring for and supporting the next generation(s), and this trend is typically supported in studies of adult development (see e.g. McAdams ff etal.1998).Assuch,thewidespreadtendencyforadultstowriteo the younger generation as beyond hope strikes me as a bizarrely pessimistic social pathology, casting doubt on the very future of society. Not that this is anything new of course. One commentator, for ‘ instance, wrote: What is happening to our young people? They dis- respect their elders, they disobey their parents. They ignore the law. fl They riot in the streets, in amed with wild notions. Their morals are ’ ’ decaying. What is to become of them? That was Platos writing in fourth century BC (cited in Merchant 2013). Indeed, no one has chronicledthepersistenceandubiquityofthesegenerationalfearsbetter thanthelatePearson(1983),whoseremarkablebookHooligantracesthe ‘ ’ term hooligan toan1898moralpanicaboutunrulyyouthanddemon- strates that similar fears can be found in nearly every subsequent era in British society and beyond: vii viii Foreword Whatisremarkableisthateachtimethatthissocialanxietycrystallisesaround theyouthquestion,itisaccompaniedbythesamevocabularyofcomplaints: thelackofrespectshowntoallformsofauthority...thatissaidtobearadical departurefromthesubordinationshowninthepast.Youngcriminalsarealso saidtobebecomingyounger.Thenthereistherepeatedaccusationoffamily decline and the break-up of parental discipline....Finally, the corrupting influenceofpopularamusements(PearsonandSinclair2011). These troubling fears for the young become even more pernicious when theyareselectivelyappliedtoyoungpeoplefromworking-classorminority fl backgrounds and remarkably dangerous when they proceed to in uence social and criminal justice policy as they so often do. Internationally, the ‘ mostnotoriouscaseofthisissurelytheinfamousinventionofthe juvenile ’ super-predator createdtoscareagenerationofAmericansimmunetotalk ‘ ’ of delinquents intotakingradicalactionincriminaljusticeinthe1990s. Conservative commentators Bennett et al. (1996) coined the term when predictinganunprecedentedcomingcrimewaveledbywhattheycalleda ‘ ’ ‘ ’ generationalwolfpack of fatherless,Godlessandjobless teens.Notonly ‘ ’ were these super-predators said to be younger and more dangerous than ff ’ any other generation of young o enders before them (just as Pearsons research predicted), they were also said to be growing in size, leading to ‘ ’ predictions of a bloodbath ofyouth violence (Fox1996).Of course, the tidal wave ofsuper-predators never arrived. Instead, juvenile crime plum- fi meted in the twenty- rst century in almost every major US city, making the prediction one of the worst in the history of criminology. What did come was a bloodbath of irredeemable criminal justice policy. After all, only a belief in irredeemable super-predators could justify the American experimentinmassincarcerationofthepastthreedecades. In this important, new work, Deuchar and Bhopal seek to reverse this cycle of moral panic and reactionary policymaking. They give authentic ’ voicetomarginalisedyoungpeoplesconcernsandfearsregardingstigmati- sationacrossaseriesofkeylifedomainsincludingschoolsandemployment, but primarily the systems of criminal justice and crime control that are so closelyassociatedwiththem.Importantly,thebookdoesmorethanrecord and decry these clear societal failings in regard to the next generation. Instead, in appropriately generative fashion, Deuchar and Bhopal end the Foreword ix book with a note of genuine optimism, illustrating promising new ‘ ’ approachestoworkingwithyoungpeoplewhoare assetsbased bothinside andoutsidethecriminaljusticecontext. – Oneleavesthebookthinkingtheremayjustbehopeyet notjustfor the current generation of young people but even more importantly for ’ theirparentsandgrandparents generationsaswell.DeucharandBhopal demonstrate that we have little to fear but fear itself. University of Manchester Shadd Maruna References Bennett, W., DiIulio, J., Jr., & Walters, W. (1996). Body count. New York: Simon & Shuster. Fox,J.A.(1996).Trendsinjuvenileviolence:AreporttotheUnitedStates ff Attorney General on current and future rates of juvenile o ending. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics. Maruna,S.,LeBel,T.,&Lanier,C.(2004).Generativitybehindbars:Some ‘ ’ redemptive truth about prison society. In de St. Aubin, E., McAdams, – D., & Kim, T. (Eds), The generative society (pp.131 152). Washington, D.C.:AmericanPsychologicalAssociation. McAdams, D. P., Hart, H., & Maruna, S. (1998). The anatomy of generativity. In D. P. McAdams & E. de St. Aubin (Eds.), – Generativity and adult development (pp. 7 43). Washington, D. C.: American Psychological Association Press. Merchant, J. (2013). Troubled youth: Risk, individualisation and social structure. In J. Kearney & C. Donovan (Eds.), Constructing risky – identities in policy and practice (pp. 91 105). Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. Pearson, G. (1983). Hooligan: A history of respectable fears. London: Macmillan. Pearson,G.,&Sinclair,I.(2011).Respectablefearsresurface:Reactionto – the riots. New Left Project, September, pp. 1 4. Available online. http://www.newleftproject.org.Accessed1January2017. Acknowledgements First and foremost, we would like to thank all of the young people who agreed to participate in the research that is outlined in this book and who provided us with such insight into the challenges and personal journeys that characterise their lives. We are also most grateful to the ffi groups of police o cers, teachers, social workers, prison chaplains and local community residents who provided us with insight into the trans- formative practice they are engaged in. Our thanks also go to the Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland, the British Academy and the Scottish Institute for Policing Research (SIPR) for providing the funding that supported some of the research outlined in this book. Finally, as always our special thanks go to our families for supporting – us throughout this project to Karen, Alan, Martin, Dylan, Yasmin, ... ’ Deva and Sachin we couldnt have done it without you. xi Contents 1 Introduction 1 Part I Problems from the Margins: Young People, Social Control and Injustice – 2 Young People, Marginality and Social Control What Do We Know so Far? 11 ff 3 Schools, Discipline, Racism and Disa ection 29 4 Employment, Discrimination and Stigmatising Discourses 51 ffi 5 Young People, Police O cers and the Barriers to Enacting Procedural Justice 73 6 The Judiciary, System Processing and Youth (In)Justice 99 xiii
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