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Youth and Social Policy: Youth Citizenship and Young Careers

NCJ Number
164474
Author(s)
B Coles
Date Published
1995
Length
256 pages
Annotation
This volume provides a theoretical framework for youth policy.
Abstract
This book outlines some of the major problems faced by young people in contemporary Britain and highlights what policy makers could and should do to help. It attempts both to develop a theoretical framework for a social policy of youth and to describe the ways in which the condition of youth has been substantially transformed in the last quarter of the 20th century. Five chapters examine the concepts of career and citizenship and how application of these concepts to the lives of young people can aid in understanding their needs, rights and interests, and better focus attention on the impact of social policy on young people's welfare. Two chapters address the needs of young people in, and leaving, public care; and young people with special needs and disabilities. One chapter is devoted to career developments which involve crime, what is known about the correlates and causes of crime and what might reasonably be concluded as to how young people might be diverted from careers involving crime. The concluding chapter discusses the theory of a developing underclass of young people and suggests ways to move beyond the underclass debate and towards a framework for youth policy into the 21st century. References, indexes, appendix