NCJ Number
201367
Journal
Howard Journal of Criminal Justice Volume: 42 Issue: 3 Dated: July 2003 Pages: 282-297
Date Published
July 2003
Length
16 pages
Annotation
This article examines the concept of community safety in regard to youth.
Abstract
This study identifies the paradox that crime itself is perceived as primarily a problem of youth, yet argues that the processes of developing community safety operate to exclude youth. The rhetoric of community safety has been developed to promote inclusion and active citizenship. Yet inclusion in the community is predicated upon being perceived as an adult law-abiding citizen. The young people that are perceived to be the problem are in reality not part of the participative solution. Current Home Office policy explicitly seeks to be inclusive of young people as members of the community, but there is a lack of guidance on the issue of forging links with youth people. An ethnographic study of two housing estates in two English cities was conducted. Data were derived from in-depth interviews and observations of public meetings and residents’ group meetings. The findings indicate that for the concept of community safety to be meaningful, strategies of implementation have to be developed to match the rhetoric of inclusion. In order to challenge the official discourse, it has been necessary to identify the relationship between individual problems and wider social organization. As a result of this study, the gaps between policy and practice with regard to the inclusion of youth have been identified. In the future, there must been an acknowledgement that the problem of crime is not synonymous with youth. The planning and subsequent implementation of community safety strategies needs to specifically include young people. 34 references