Shaping the at-risk youth

The category of the at-risk' youth currently underpins a good deal of youth policy. Primarily, it centres around a range of programs associated with the need for state intervention. Theat-risk' youth tenuously appears at the intersection of a variety of knowledges/problematisations, such as vocational guidance, youth welfare, family management, and so on. Whilst it is argued that in some ways, the at-risk' youth simply replaces older characterisations used in the policing of the young, it will also be argued that the preventative policies associated withrisk' are constituted in terms of factors rather than individuals, that prevention is no longer primarily based upon personal expertise, but rather upon the gathering and collation of statistical knowledge which identifies risks' within given populations, and thatrisk' legitimates unlimited governmental intervention. Importantly, the category of the at-risk' youth underpins crucial sections of policy documents such as the Finn Report (into credentialling/education and vocational competency). In this case, youth is deemed to beat-risk' of not making the transition to adulthood successfully. It will be argued that not only is the Finn Report significant in the administrative and cultural shaping of the category of youth', but also by employing the notion ofrisk', the Report puts in place yet another element of an effective network of governmental intelligibility covering the young. Finally, it will be argued that young women, as a specific an example of a `risk' group (vis-a-vis obtaining certain types of employment), require particular forms of intervention, primarily through changing the vocational aspirations of their parents.