| Abstract: | It has become increasingly clear that the emancipatory capacityof social work has been eroded. Several scholars link this tothe influence of neo-liberal and ‘Third Way’ thinking.However, it has recently been argued that social work was notonly a victim of these new influences, but that it is also veryadaptable to the influence of such new ideas (Jordan, 2004)and not very critical about its own role in these changes (Lorenz, 2005).In this article, we will further develop this criticism, byfocusing on the debate surrounding youth delinquency. Accordingto Sharland (2006), youth delinquency has become someone else’sproblem. By analysing the role of social work within the youthjustice system, the article shows that (i) social work has notonly been the victim of recent changes, but that it has alsowithdrawn from the debate on youth justice, and (ii) that thisprocess is related to how social work is defined as a methodicalanswer to the problem of youth delinquency. |
