Widening the lens : a biographical analysis of young people's offending careers

Abstract

This thesis is about the offending careers and biographies of young people in contact with criminal justice agencies in the city of Dublin. Initiated in 2006, the research was set against a backdrop of a changing discourse on youth justice in Ireland as the priorities of preventing offending and diverting young people away from crime became enshrined in Irish youth justice policy. Legislation and policies informed by this discourse, however, were introduced against a dearth of empirical research on youth crime. Despite the rhetoric of a holistic approach to tackling youth offending, the language of individualisation and 'risk assessment' remains within recent youth justice strategies. In stark contrast, the study allowed for indeterminacy in young people's offending experiences. Thus, drawing on interactionist conceptualisations and on a long history of qualitative research in criminology, the study permitted the subjective responses of young people to their social position to emerge.