'If you don't let us in, we'll get arrested': Class-cultural dynamics in the provision of, and resistance to, youth justice work

Based on an ethnographic account of a youth justice project and its attendees, this article explores the tensions between culturally mediated constructions of appropriateness, both in terms of youth behaviour and state responses thereto. It argues that, through youth justice work, the state attempts to inculcate idealized behavioural expectations 'downwards' on those constructed as normatively imperilled. By contrast, client youth construct their conduct in light of their classed and gendered experiences of marginality, which prompt them towards resistance. Differential understandings amongst stakeholders complicate youth justice work; contested meanings between its agents and clients may, however, be fatal to its objectives. © The Author(s) 2010.