At any one time there are estimated to be between 300 and 500 young people involved in
street life in Vancouver. Although between 40 and 50 per cent, leave the street life each
year, the overall figure remains much the same. Living on the street increases the chances
of the young person being involved in crime, such as prostitution or theft, and of suffering
from drug addiction, violent assault or HIV. However, for many young people the street
is preferable to what they have left behind. And even when living on the street becomes
too difficult, getting off the street often appears impossible.
This thesis considers one way of addressing the problems faced by young people on the
street: the use of legal rights. In particular, it considers the limits on such young people
using rights. First, under the two main theories of rights for children, the content of the
rights is decided by adults on behalf of the child. Second, the liberal form of rights further
restricts their use by street-involved youth due to the anti-statist and atomistic nature of
this version of rights. Third, the dominant discourse of childhood constrains the use of
rights by imposing familial structures on young people on the street and ignoring their
views.
Rather than suggesting new rights for street-involved youth, this thesis concentrates on
strategies that might be of use for street-involved youth in overcoming these constraints.
These are giving an active voice to young people; insisting that the individual
characteristics of street-involved youth are taken fully into account; considering a variety
of actions, some of which might seem contradictory, but which allow for maximum
flexibility; trusting the decisions of young people on the street; and ensuring that street-involved
youth are not seen as an isolated problem, but in the context of a wider picture of
other people with similar problems, such as adult street people, lesbian and gay youth,
welfare recipients and so on.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:BVAU.2429/8316 |
| Date | 11 1900 |
| Creators | Mayer, Elizabeth |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Relation | UBC Retrospective Theses Digitization Project [http://www.library.ubc.ca/archives/retro_theses/] |
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