People, Plans & Problems S.
1 total work
This book is one of the few participant observation classics of young men's deliquent careers ever carried out in Britain. Based on a study of adolescents growing up in Liverpool in the 1970s - The Boys - the author skilfuly penetrates the world of the down-town teenager and provides a fascinatnig study of the urban adolescent an dhis deliquency. This book is an "appreciative" study, aiming to portray the ethos and meaning of the down-town adolescent's world. It documents The Boys' extensive deliquent careers, and the outcome of police intervention is reconstructed through description and dialogue. Delinquent action, it is argued, can only be adequately explained within the social context of the young people concerned. The boredom of school, the helplessness of butt-end jobs, the significance of hanging around the street corners, the potency of nights out in the downtown pubs and clubs, are all part of his context. This study draws together these parts to show that the urban adolescent's deviant and unconventional behaviour when seen within this context is inevitable.