ABSTRACT
Yet little has been written specifically on ethics and youth work. In part this is because little has been written on youth work generally. There are a number of explanations for this. Youth work is a relatively small occupational group; its occupational boundaries are somewhat blurred; the work is delivered through a variety of statutory and voluntary organisations; a large proportion of its workers are volunteers, with college-trained workers forming a tiny minority until recently; a significant feature of the work is a closeness to the young people being worked with; and there is a strong current of ‘antiintellectualism’ and anti-professionalism in the work.
