Youth- and Crime-Related Political Claims in Comparative Perspective
This article analyzes youth collective activism in relation to crime and violence in the context of long-term dominance of “moral panics” discourse, where young people are often framed as a “threat” and “problem.” While many prior studies focus on media presentation of youth in single countries, we...
Saved in:
| Published in: | The American behavioral scientist (Beverly Hills) Vol. 64; no. 5; pp. 652 - 668 |
|---|---|
| Main Authors: | , |
| Format: | Journal Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Los Angeles, CA
SAGE Publications
01-05-2020
SAGE PUBLICATIONS, INC |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | Get full text |
| Tags: |
Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
| Summary: | This article analyzes youth collective activism in relation to crime and violence in the context of long-term dominance of “moral panics” discourse, where young people are often framed as a “threat” and “problem.” While many prior studies focus on media presentation of youth in single countries, we investigate how youth actors themselves make political claims related to crime and violence, and take a comparative perspective on this question. Based on a unique data on youth-related political claims from the newspapers of nine European countries—France, Greece, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain, Switzerland, Sweden, and the United Kingdom, we demonstrate that youth are rarely present in the public discussions about crime and violence, especially in the countries where youth actors face restricted discursive opportunities in the print media. The dominant “adult view” in claims about crime and violence often connect youth to diverse social problems and attribute blame to youth more often than to adults; the claims made by youth do not make such a difference in blame attribution. |
|---|---|
| ISSN: | 0002-7642 1552-3381 1552-3381 |
| DOI: | 10.1177/0002764219885422 |