ABSTRACT
The discourse of youth crime included gender, age and social class. Childs says that all societies “agonise over the state of their youth” and that at certain times, particularly when there is a crisis within society’s social systems, fears about youth can reach “nightmarish proportions” The discourse of youth crime spread into religious, social welfare and voluntary organisations across Britain and allowed international comparisons. The good working-class youth needed education to see labour as a moral good for the traditional man in a patriarchal role; he would become the future efficient worker for the good of the community, which was an obligation of citizenship. Youth clubs run by the police also allowed them closer access to working-class youth and their families by befriending them, so that they could be seen by the families in a more positive light by offering much needed help to occupy the youth.
