Abstract

COUTANT, Isabelle. “It is you who must take charge of your destiny”. Cuad. antropol. soc. [online]. 2021, n.53, pp.39-54.  Epub May 06, 2021. ISSN 1850-275X.  http://dx.doi.org/10.34096/cas.i53.10142.

In France, the 1990s were a turning point in the apprehension of juvenile delinquency, whose moral economy reconnected with representations inherited from the 19th century. In this sense, young people are perceived above all as dangerous rather than in danger. Observation of teenage hearings at the Maisons de Justice allows us to study this moral economy in action. Less formal than courts, these hearings constitute a scene of confrontation between the magistrates’ discourse, young people’s value system, that of their victims, and parents’ educational principles. I look into how the prosecutor’s delegates proceed to destabilize teenagers, ultimately relying less on the law itself than on the victims’ and parents’ ethos and, what seems even more effective, on their emotions. I will show that these audiences can also be the scene of destabilization for the professionals themselves, who during conversations with young people and their families, are sometimes confronted with questioning about what they do.

Keywords : Juvenile delinquency; Proximity justice; Moral economy; Popular classes; Ethnography.

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