The Usual Suspects? Street-life, Young People and the Police

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract / Description of output

This article explores children's experience of policing. Drawing on findings from the Edinburgh Study of Youth Transitions and Crime, it argues that the police may be unfairly targeting certain categories of young people. Evidence is presented on the ways in which police working rules serve to construct a population of permanent suspects among children. The article concludes that the police act less as legal subjects and more as class subjects in their interactions with young people and that the policing of children may serve to sustain and reproduce the very problems which the institution ostensibly attempts to contain or eradicate.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)5-36
JournalCriminal Justice
Volume5
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2005

Keywords / Materials (for Non-textual outputs)

  • children
  • ESYTC
  • police
  • social class
  • street-life
  • youth offending

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