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The social construction of juvenile delinquency:
Sailing in cold or hot water
LARS-CHRISTER HYDÉN
In the late 1980s five boys aged 15 to 19 years, all with criminal backgrounds (the boys had commited burglaries and in one case physical assault), were sent on a sailing trip to the Mediterranean by the the social welfare department in Stockholm. ... In other words, the public debate over the five boys could be conceived as a debate about the social definition of juvenile delinquency. ...
A second problem in the debate was the degree to which social background factors like poverty, poor eduction and the like, could be used as an argument to excuse the behavior of the boys and in particular as a way to reduce the social sanctions imposed against them. ... The particular aspect to be discussed here is whether these teenagers should be conceived of as a social or a juridical problem (or, in other cases, a psychiatric or moral one) and to what degree it is possible for social background factors to serve as mitigating elements when dealing with teenagers.
Approximate Word count = 802
Approximate Pages = 3.2
(250 words per page double spaced)
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