ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the way in which child protection and safeguarding policy and practice engages with the choices made by young people who abuse, or are abused by, their peers — when these choices are viewed within the contextual lens. It highlights the dependency that young people and their families have on professionals to create safe extra-familial contexts that both set the stage upon which young people form healthy and non-abusive relationships and impact the nature of their familial environments. The chapter explores the opportunities to engage with, and maximise the potential of, young people's agency when safeguarding them from peer-on-peer abuse. It demonstrates a relationship between the agency that is challenged by intervention and a dependency on contexts, and professionals who manage them, to offer or constrain available choices. The chapter identifies opportunities for professionals to impact the contextual dynamics of peer-on-peer abuse.
