Young people are being locked up in great numbers for ‘crimes’ committed as a result of being locked out of meaningful social engagement and the wealth of society. Giroux’s powerful book argues that society and educationalists should lock progressive policies for young people securely into the heart of social and economic policy. It argues, from a completely different national experience, for significant social investment in informal radical education, known in Britain as youth work, and an end to the politics and economics of the insane marketplace.

Youth and community workers have long been alert to the hypocrisy of a class-divided society which claims young people are the demonic source of problems, which says crime is the result of warped minds and unemployment the product of laziness. Youth workers have been keen to point out that the periodic demonisation of young people only serves a punitive state, that punishment is always more costly than prevention, and far less effective emotionally and behaviourally. Young people offer no threat to society. Society, on the other hand, poses a great threat to them.

Young demons

The inhumanity of making young people suffer and bear the brunt of the political and economic mistakes of others has long been the concern of youth workers. Youth workers say it is society that is at fault, not young people, while uniquely, they also recognise their role in working with young people to enable them to overcome society’s stereotypes and pressures. The art of youth and community work has been linked to collective, ethical philosophies, whether socialist or social democratic, secular or religious. It has never been linked to the perpetration of interpersonal violence and exploitation, oppression and repression.