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Foreword When we are young, we are told by adults that when we grow up we will be “pillars of society”. Young people will certainly grow into adults, but it is anybody’s guess whether they will become “pillars of society” or, at the other extreme, criminals. Understanding today’s young people is not easy. Neither is working with them. The world in our century is complex, and young people are influenced by a variety of good and evil forces. We do not know what young people will become, and it is not a common practice among today’s parents or teachers to tell young people what they should do. While young people are encouraged to lead lives of their own choosing, we still want to understand how they make decisions. We want to understand them because as adults we want to convey to them that we care about them. We know that if we do not understand young people, we will have no way to show them our love and concern. While we hope all young people will become responsible adults, we must also accept that, no matter how hard we try to help them, some will go astray and offend the law. Crimes committed by young people have always been an issue of public concern in Hong Kong. And we know that, while we do not want to see our young people offending the law, once they become criminals their path to adulthood will be more difficult. I do not suggest that Hong Kong people discriminate against those who have been labelled as offenders. But evidence shows that those who have broken the law, especially when they are young, place themselves in a disadvantageous position, both socially and economically. Locating jobs becomes more difficult, as does social participation more broadly. How to address youth crime and rehabilitate young people who have offended the law is, hence, a concern that has been publicly debated in Hong viii Foreword Kong for many years. There are, generally, two divergent views: One is to deal with juvenile offenders as lightly as possible, seeing them as children who have made mistakes and should therefore be given ample opportunity to correct their behaviour. The other is to employ every possible means to detect and curb delinquent activity as early as possible. In this view, young offenders are “wild kids” whose delinquency must be corrected with severe punishment, and none should be let go lightly. There is no society that takes either of these positions in its entirety. The endeavor is to find the right balance between the two extremes. This is a challenge for all policy makers concerned with youth crime. My colleague Dr. Francis Lee now offers a new book on how we can understand and work with our young people; in it he also explores the many different ways of dealing with juvenile justice. I am impressed by the thoroughness with which Francis has undertaken this project. It is one thing to assemble the various materials concerned with young people in Hong Kong and the operation of the juvenile justice system here; it is quite another to write with an engaged heart to help the young become “pillars of society”. This is the endeavor Francis has taken up, and it is not an easy one. My personal experiences of working with young people in Hong Kong, from the two years I worked as a probation officer in Hong Kong’s Juvenile Court and from the 10 years I served as a member of the Youth Commission, tell me that our public always wavers between the two extremes of leniency and harshness. When youth crime increases, the general public wants our judges to be harsh, and when young offenders are no longer the focus of our media, the public leans on the side of helping them. We cannot expect this wavering attitude to disappear. However, I believe that when our public has a better understanding of our young people and the true nature of our juvenile justice system, we will be better able to deal with our young offenders—not just by showing our disapproval but also by telling them that we do understand and care. Nelson Chow Chair Professor Department of Social Work and Social Administration The University of Hong Kong ...

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