Young People ‘At Risk’ of What? Challenging Risk-focused Early Intervention as Crime Prevention
| Author | Stephen Case |
| DOI | 10.1177/1473225406069491 |
| Published date | 01 December 2006 |
| Date | 01 December 2006 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
ARTICLE
Copyright 2006 The National Association for Youth Justice
Published by SAGE Publications (London, Thousand Oaks and New Delhi)
www.sagepublications.com
ISSN 1473-2254, Vol 6(3): 171–179
DOI: 10.1177/1473225406069491
Young People ‘At Risk’ of What? Challenging
Risk-focused Early Intervention as Crime Prevention
Stephen Case
Correspondence: Dr Stephen Case, Centre for Criminal Justice and Criminology, Vivian
Tower, University of Wales Swansea, Singleton Park, Swansea SA2 8PP, UK. Email:
s.p.caseVswan.ac.uk
Abstract
This article attempts to broker a compromise between critical criminological challenges to
the populist (punitivist) and negative conceptions of young people ‘at risk’ of offending –
which are used to justify (potentially deleterious) risk-based interventions (Goldson, 2005)
– and the positivist risk-based models upon which these interventions are predicated. It is
argued that all young people are, by definition, ‘at risk’ of problem outcomes due to their
relative powerlessness in society; exemplified by the adult presumption/prescription of
salient risks and the subsequent imposition of responses underpinned by these factors.
However, the article concludes that, far from being rejected, the risk factor approach
should be retained and utilized through a re-orientation towards risks identified through
qualitative research with young people and a simultaneous emphasis upon factors which
enable young people to thrive and develop. The pursuit of ‘causes’ and ‘predictors’ of youth
offending is eschewed in favour of a re-conception of salient factors as ‘correlates’ and
‘indicators’ of potential behaviours – both ‘good’ and ‘bad’, which can then be utilized to
supplement further qualitative research and, crucially, the explicit involvement of young
people through consultation and participation processes shaping their futures.
Keywords: correlates, early intervention, risk, young people
Young People: Feckless Predators
New Labour’s ‘youth policy’ may . . . ostensibly lay claim to safeguarding tomorrow’s future, but
the reality is that it is much more likely to continue to misspend our youth.
(Mizen, 2003: 473)
The hegemonic perception of young people in the UK, as perpetuated by media
representations of public opinion and government policy formation, is alleged by some
social commentators to be that of a dangerous, anti-social, irrational, and irresponsible
underclass, permanently ‘at risk’ of offending and other problem behaviours (Hough
and Roberts, 2004; Muncie and Hughes, 2002). The perceived threat posed by young
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