NCJ Number
112180
Date Published
1986
Length
120 pages
Annotation
Interviews with 36 Australian juveniles who have left their families and live on the streets focus on factors underlying behaviors likely to bring the youths in contact with the juvenile justice system: alcohol and drug abuse, prostitution, suicide, and serious crime.
Abstract
The juveniles view their lifestyle as the logical behavioral alternative given their inability to achieve economic and social linkages to normative Australian society. Prostitution is a way to survive when normative employment cannot be secured, and drug and alcohol abuse, suicide, and serious crime are means of dealing with the psychological and economic pressures associated with their alienation. Most do not see their situations changing very much unless society revises some of its legal, social, educational, and economic structures to accommodate the needs and coping strategies of abused juveniles. Unemployment and educational systems irrelevant to their abilities are viewed by the juveniles as major obstacles to any change in their lifestyle. The legal system is viewed as society's punitive response to the coping strategies of the youths. They hope for the decriminalization of prostitution and drug use and a fairer approach to unemployment compensation for independent juveniles. 150-item bibliography.