Juvenile justice & youth
criminology
,1
,Introduction
Les 11/02/2025 14u
Practical information
Examen
Evaluation of Juvenile Justice and Youth Criminology is based on a oral
exam
o Classic oral exam: 2 questions, 4 students/hour, time to prepare
answer, short oral explanation, with perhaps minor additional
questions (15 min.)
o Questions based on presentations and readings with *
o More information (examples of questions) will be provided later
Youth, crime & community reactions
Literature
Cohen, S. (1967). Mods, rockers and the rest: Community reactions to
juvenile delinquency, Howard Journal of Criminal Justice, 12, 121–130
Historical perspective
We always had young people between 12 – 25 years but we didn’t always
saw it as an own concept or category. It was evented at one moment and all
this relates to historical revelations likes:
Industrialization
democratisation
…
The study of youth, the starting point often referred to as the change
from 19th to 20th century because of the book from Ellen Key. From that
point we see in disciplines that we already had (medicine, psychology,..) they
started to develop specific parts focussed on youth that wasn’t the case
before.
Youth & childhood is a specific category. We have disciplines that study it is
more in the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century.
= as a scientific discipline.
In the 20th century as a subculture; children and youth not only separate phase
in life but they develop in subcultures around that time. We see develop of
youth subculture; they listen to different music, have different interests,..
compared to other ages.
-> will lead us to the study of Cohen.
There was always kind of tension because of the different way they
looked, dressed,.. compared to other categories in life.
Youth, crime and community reactions
Different youth subcultures -> related to the way they dress, their interest,..
Rock and roll
1
, o They thought it was even satanic how they behaved, moved,
danced,.. This continued in youth subcultures.
Mods & Rockers
o Cohen
Flower power, hippies
Skinheads
Gothic
Apart from the youth subculture: the reaction towards it.
-> in all of them you will find elements of the ambiguity = in the way the
subculture is defined,.. is ambiguity: they need to make their own choices but is
also the subject of critique.
‘Youth’ is always seen as:
As our hope and future
As our fear
Traditional distinction, duality:
‘youth at risk’ vs. ‘youth as risk’
o As risk = part of the concern or the outside world
‘welfare and protectionist’ vs. ‘punitive and controlling approach’
o How we try to react to young people who commit crimes,
youth crime models:
Welfare = young people as impossible to commit crimes, if
they do it it’s not their fault, it’s the fault of their environment
or the world.
Punitive = not very differences between the approach of
adults and youth
This distinction, ambiguity will quit often will reappear
Youth/childhood as sperate concept or category
Examples in which you see the tension, ambiguity:
Even in Roman times there was a similar ambiguity.
Picture from the Roman metrology = head of Janus: One side of the head
looks at the future. The other side is looking at the past and is evil. So we
are inherent able to do bad but we can also do good things.
‘Dangerously young’ and ‘child in danger, child as danger’ = seeing
children as young people at risk but also confronts us with children as risk
because most crimes are committed by young people -> age crime curve
= for each type of crimes most committed between the ages of 14-21
years.
Serie of pictures from Central Park, you see ambiguity: the boy has an
(fake) handgranate in his hand.
Young girl with a cigarette.
Part of a lyric: points to the same tension, ambiguity.
Movie: Kids
Children/adolescents:
As old ‘new malaise’
= the tension is not new, we already have that idea for some time.
2
criminology
,1
,Introduction
Les 11/02/2025 14u
Practical information
Examen
Evaluation of Juvenile Justice and Youth Criminology is based on a oral
exam
o Classic oral exam: 2 questions, 4 students/hour, time to prepare
answer, short oral explanation, with perhaps minor additional
questions (15 min.)
o Questions based on presentations and readings with *
o More information (examples of questions) will be provided later
Youth, crime & community reactions
Literature
Cohen, S. (1967). Mods, rockers and the rest: Community reactions to
juvenile delinquency, Howard Journal of Criminal Justice, 12, 121–130
Historical perspective
We always had young people between 12 – 25 years but we didn’t always
saw it as an own concept or category. It was evented at one moment and all
this relates to historical revelations likes:
Industrialization
democratisation
…
The study of youth, the starting point often referred to as the change
from 19th to 20th century because of the book from Ellen Key. From that
point we see in disciplines that we already had (medicine, psychology,..) they
started to develop specific parts focussed on youth that wasn’t the case
before.
Youth & childhood is a specific category. We have disciplines that study it is
more in the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century.
= as a scientific discipline.
In the 20th century as a subculture; children and youth not only separate phase
in life but they develop in subcultures around that time. We see develop of
youth subculture; they listen to different music, have different interests,..
compared to other ages.
-> will lead us to the study of Cohen.
There was always kind of tension because of the different way they
looked, dressed,.. compared to other categories in life.
Youth, crime and community reactions
Different youth subcultures -> related to the way they dress, their interest,..
Rock and roll
1
, o They thought it was even satanic how they behaved, moved,
danced,.. This continued in youth subcultures.
Mods & Rockers
o Cohen
Flower power, hippies
Skinheads
Gothic
Apart from the youth subculture: the reaction towards it.
-> in all of them you will find elements of the ambiguity = in the way the
subculture is defined,.. is ambiguity: they need to make their own choices but is
also the subject of critique.
‘Youth’ is always seen as:
As our hope and future
As our fear
Traditional distinction, duality:
‘youth at risk’ vs. ‘youth as risk’
o As risk = part of the concern or the outside world
‘welfare and protectionist’ vs. ‘punitive and controlling approach’
o How we try to react to young people who commit crimes,
youth crime models:
Welfare = young people as impossible to commit crimes, if
they do it it’s not their fault, it’s the fault of their environment
or the world.
Punitive = not very differences between the approach of
adults and youth
This distinction, ambiguity will quit often will reappear
Youth/childhood as sperate concept or category
Examples in which you see the tension, ambiguity:
Even in Roman times there was a similar ambiguity.
Picture from the Roman metrology = head of Janus: One side of the head
looks at the future. The other side is looking at the past and is evil. So we
are inherent able to do bad but we can also do good things.
‘Dangerously young’ and ‘child in danger, child as danger’ = seeing
children as young people at risk but also confronts us with children as risk
because most crimes are committed by young people -> age crime curve
= for each type of crimes most committed between the ages of 14-21
years.
Serie of pictures from Central Park, you see ambiguity: the boy has an
(fake) handgranate in his hand.
Young girl with a cigarette.
Part of a lyric: points to the same tension, ambiguity.
Movie: Kids
Children/adolescents:
As old ‘new malaise’
= the tension is not new, we already have that idea for some time.
2
