ABSTRACT
The Introduction outlines the background and rationale for the book. It summarises criminological perspectives on the correlations between parenting and young people’s offending behaviour. It stresses that contemporary discourses on crime and the family often still concentrate predominantly on the individual offender and their parents, while underestimating the structural factors that influence their everyday lives. Based on this, the Introduction emphasises that criminologists should use alternative theoretical and methodological approaches to explore the functioning of institutions that help young offenders and their parents, as well as the professional discourses and interactions within them. It establishes this as the main purpose of the book. The Introduction then summarises the book’s key themes and arguments, and gives a brief overview of each chapter.
