Ethical Issues in Youth Work

This fully updated new edition of Ethical Issues in Youth Work presents a comprehensive overview and discussion of a range of ethical challenges facing youth workers in their everyday practice.

The first part offers a clear outline of the nature of professional ethics, relevant ethical theories and an overview of the policy and organisational context of youth work. The second part is grounded firmly in practice, with experts in the field exploring specific issues that raise ethical difficulties for youth workers, such as:

• when to breach confidentiality

• information sharing in inter-professional contexts

• the ethics of youth participation and active citizenship

• how to balance the roles of control, empowerment and education

• negotiating personal and professional values, interests and commitments in youth work

• dilemmas for faith-based and black and minority ethnic workers

• issues for practitioner researchers.

Ethical Issues in Youth Work offers a timely and unique insight into both the dilemmas of youth work practice and some of the more recent challenges faced by youth workers and all those working with young people in the light of current public attitudes and government policies towards young people.

Sarah Banks is Professor in the School of Applied Social Sciences at Durham University, UK.