Of course it is important to start, philosophically, with a positive view of young people and with a commitment to extend opportunity and constructive experience to them. But it is equally important to acknowledge the realities on the street.
Young people are not always just a resource to be managed, but a problem to be solved. We do need to recognise that young people who cause problems are also those who invariably experience problems too: through the poverty of their circumstances and experience. But we have to accept that some do cause problems and hostility in the areas where they live.
I got into terrible hot water once in a discussion of ethnic minority disadvantage. The officials who presented the "evidence" conveyed themes such as lower participation and attainment in education and training, and disproportionate representation in the looked-after system and in the criminal justice system. What was needed, they argued, was more positive action. Personally, I agreed, but I also knew that those in poor neighbourhoods signed up to different "evidence".
According to them, it was the black kids who were dealing the drugs, robbing people and roaming around with a sense of untouchability. They wanted more police and more control, not more positive action. I articulated these views, much to the chagrin of many of my colleagues. One told me that it was inappropriate for a white man to express such perspectives. But over the subsequent weeks, colleagues checked out the position I had taken and discovered considerable support for it.
Not that it really is a black issue. It is a poverty issue, but one compounded by ethnicity, given instititutionalised discriminatory practices.
We have to simultaneously acknowledge the cultural choices made by some young people which produce such neighbours from hell, and recognise that there must be more assured destinations for the disadvantaged if they are to be persuaded that it is worth engaging with the mainstream. The pushes we provide in terms of support or discipline must be complemented with corresponding pulls in terms of jobs and opportunity.
Otherwise, some of the young people we are most preoccupied with will see no point to anything we suggest they do.
