A Penal Panopticon in Kanaleneiland

Abstract

“At-risk boys” from Kanaleneiland, the Netherlands, and local governing policies regarding security and participation are involved in a complex relationship with each other. Several institutions in the neighborhood make efforts to integrate these adolescents with a criminal record and deviant social behavior into the body of normal, civil citizens, without much success. The boys’ habit of causing public disturbance, expressing themselves in uncivil ways, telling lies and sabotaging any interaction with the authorities gives them the reputation of discredited outcasts within the neighborhood. The all-encompassing approach to youth and security in the neighborhood is effective in monitoring the whereabouts of the boys, but it is less effective in its efforts to discipline them. Consequently, the distance between the lived world of young urban troublemakers and the domain of “good citizens” remains large, despite policy efforts at “integration.”