First, using Foucault's insights into the nature of power, the author discusses how disciplinary welfare discourses construct the "delinquent" as an object of social science and cultural knowledge and a target for the exercise of disciplinary power. Second, the article contends that the "delinquent" is a "classed" subject position that is fabricated through disciplinary welfare discourses. It then deconstructs the delinquent as a subject of class power by examining how hegemonic class interests are articulated through such discourses. Finally, the author considers the unique role of cultural sensibilities in the Hong Kong context and argues that they too can be used to sustain and cement wider hegemonic principles. In its conclusion, the article notes that perhaps what is most striking about the operation of the disciplinary welfare tariff in Hong Kong is the way in which it wraps itself in a discourse of scientific rationality and cultural authenticity, untainted by accusations of class bias and so concealing any suspicion that the juvenile justice system is being used for the articulation of hegemonic class discipline. 127 notes and references