Risks, Rights and Justice: Understanding and Responding to Youth Risk

Abstract

This article reviews current social policy and penal policy responses to risk, with particular attention to how policies of responsibilization have implications for rights leading to an increased emphasis upon conditional rights. Responsibilization has also framed risk policies as increasingly preventative (and potentially exclusionary) and the limits of this `risk factorology' approach are examined. The article concludes with a brief review of the implications for current youth justice practice and the possibility for practitioner resistance to current policy responses to `problematic' and `risky' youth.