ABSTRACT
Unaccompanied children and adolescents can be found seeking their survival on city streets around the world. They beg for spare change, juggle or perform magic tricks, work at streetbased jobs (e.g., selling candy, washing cars, carrying groceries), engage in illicit activities (e.g., dealing drugs, stealing, selling sex), or hang out with peers. These youngsters fall under the umbrella term “street children,” used by the United Nations in the 1980s to describe “[A]ny boy or girl . . . for whom the street (in the widest sense of the word, including unoccupied dwellings, wasteland, etc.) has become his or her habitual abode and/or source of livelihood; and who is inadequately protected, supervised, or directed by responsible adults” (UN Office of the High Commission for Human Rights [UNOHCHR], 2012, p. 9). Because the label “street children” is often considered pejorative, and does not reflect the diversity of connections young people may have with the street (Thomas de Benitez, 2007), we use the term “streetinvolved youth” in this chapter.
