ABSTRACT
For a number of years now, the issue of young people has been at the centre of controversy, particularly in respect of the troubled debate over law and order. More specifically, the growth of crime, and nearly all references to the perceived increase in the use of violence within social relationships, are attributed to young people. In several European countries, all kinds of penal and social policies that had previously been implemented with respect to young people have been subject to questioning and modification, as we will see in this discussion of the situation in France.
