Juvenile offenders

Fayard, Paris, September 1995, 308 pages - ISBN 978-2213595146

Moving away from his usual themes, Einaudi delivers here an in-depth social investigation into juvenile delinquency in France.

With more than ten years of experience as an educator in the Youth Judicial Protection Service, the author has traveled the country to meet minors, families, neighbors, police officers, magistrates, social workers and educators.

He paints an uncompromising picture of adolescents left to their own devices, without reference points or limits, whose first act of delinquency resonates like a cry for help.

Einaudi identifies the roots of the problem: family breakdown, diminishing paternal status, and a lack of symbolic reference points. The book analyzes the functioning of the judicial system, the importance of punishment, support procedures, and the application of custodial sentences.

The author denounces the oscillation of political leaders between good intentions and repression, between urban renewal programs and sending in riot police, creating a security discourse that radicalizes antagonisms and jeopardizes any reintegration project.

This humanist investigation reveals the complexity of educating young people in distress and suggests ways to escape the current impasse.