FAMILY EXPERIENCES OF JUVENILE CRIME - AN AUSTRALIAN PERSPECTIVE

This paper examines the focus on the connections between family life a nd juvenile crime. Existing literature silences the voices of young of fenders and their families and renders them the passive objects of emp irical empirical inquiry. The resulting one-dimensional representation of offenders and their families vastly over-simplifies the complexiti es of family life and ignores the specific consequences of criminaliza tion Sol all family members. This paper reports on the early stages of research on thr lived experiences of the families of juvenile offende rs in Townsville, Australia and draws out the implications of the rese arch for policy-makers and social work practitioners.