Kids, Cops and Conflict

Abstract

This article is based on a participant-observation study of an adolescent delinquent group at a Brisbane Housing Commission Estate. The members of the group are mostly male, although there are a few girls who are core members and who appear to have equality with the males. Ages of members ranged from thirteen to twenty, but the majority were in the fifteen to seventeen age range. Of one hundred and fifty relatively regular attenders, approximately thirty could be considered core members. The group was also mixed racially, with about twenty-five Aboriginals, mainly male, belonging. (The area itself has a relatively high proportion of Aboriginals.) There is no formal or institutionalised structure or rules for membership. Whoever turns up at the locale in which the group members spend most time is accepted virtually without question if he or she is from the same suburb. The period of observation was four months during the latter half of 1973, and most of the comments which I have reproduced here are taken verbatim from tape recorded conversations and interviews. Names, where used, are pseudonyms.

Reprinted in part from Greg Smith (1975) “Kids, cops and conflict: a participant-observation study”, Australian and New Zealand Journal of Sociology, 2: 21–7, with the permission of the publishers and the author.