Starting with Young People’s Stories of Violence

Abstract

I wrote this book to challenge the association between youth and violence. This is not a neutral purpose, but it begins with two assumptions. The first assumption is that young people are valuable, and second is that violence is negative and therefore the association between the two is worth challenging. I also stated at the outset that it is not my intention to argue that young people are never violent. Instead, I am interested in how they become violent, and how they resist becoming violent. I argue young people become violent by enacting and resisting the violent performativities available to them during youth. In this final chapter, I revisit my key arguments through a Freirian lens and consider the implications for policy and practice with young people.