ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an orientation to existing scholarship on juvenile delinquency and youth crime in Hong Kong. It focuses on existing research, from both social work and criminological frameworks, on juvenile delinquency and crime in Hong Kong. General youth crime trends are outlined, alongside the disciplinary welfare mode of response an idiosyncratic blend of welfare-driven rehabilitation combined with a disciplinary edge. The chapter argues that most research remains rooted within positivist social work or sociological paradigms, which remain valuable, but do not seek to advance criminological theory geared to broader comparative questions. It introduces the argument that Hong Kongs form of governance is penal elitist in nature, directly affecting how juvenile delinquency and crime is, or is not, responded to. Criminologists write about liberal elitism, penal populism and penal elitism as a means of thrashing out debates about the relationship between state and citizens.
