 | Changing Narratives of Youth Crime: From Social Causes to Threats to the Social Subjects: Health and Social Care; Law; Social Sciences; Criminology - Law; Criminology and Criminal Justice; Social Work and Social Policy; Socio-Legal Studies; Sociology & Social Policy; Youth Work; Punishment and Penalty; Theoretical Criminology; Socio-Legal Studies - Public Policy; Social Policy; Criminal Justice; Theories of Crime; Youth Offending and Youth Justice; Sentencing and Punishment; Criminal Justice - Criminology; In recent years, western societies have experienced a fundamental transformation in the way crime is understood and dealt with. Against the backdrop of a current great interest in narratives in criminology, this book draws on a narrative perspective to explore this transformation. Drawing on data from Germany, the book focuses on changing narratives of youth crime in recent decades and the exact narratives that have been used, abandoned, invented or criticized in order to instil particular understandings of crime and measures to act against it. The author draws upon a wide range of sources, including debates on youth crime in six parliaments from 1970 to 2012; articles on youth crime in four police and six social work journals from 1970 to 2009; and case studies with 15 young defendants who were interviewed before and after their trial and whose trial was observed. In doing so, the author reconstructs narratives over several decades and, overall, reveals a fascinating and multifaceted scope of narratives of youth crime. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of youth crime and justice, as well as criminology, sociology, politics and social work more broadly. Bernd Dollinger is a professor of pedagogy and social work at the University of Siegen, Germany. Youth crime is his long-standing focus of research. Bernd's special research interests relate to drug use, criminal policy, professionalism in dealing with juvenile delinquency and processes of identity negotiation of youths. He has published extensively on juvenile delinquency. His publications include handbooks, textbooks and numerous research papers. Most recently, he has been particularly interested in reconstructing measures against crime 'from below', as it were, from the often neglected perspective of the defendants and convicts. They in particular have a lot to tell, and their stories are individually linked to cultural crime discourses. |
