The Ecology of Being ‘in care’

Abstract

In this chapter we will illuminate and examine in detail the social ecology of being ‘in care’. In mainstream policy discourses and developmental criminology ‘being in care’ is seen as a risk factor that almost inevitably will mean that young people offend and have a criminal pathway. In the discussion that follows we draw upon a small cohort of our sample (N = 10) who were ‘in and out’ of the care system, to explore the ecological relationships that emerged in such an institutional setting. Offending, as we will see is only part of the picture for these young people; what is significant for them is how they are constructed as ‘a problem’, how they are responded to as ‘troublesome’ in a wide range of areas of their life and how they are managed by professionals and adults within the ‘care’ system.