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<p>This article investigates the lived experiences of 20 “justice involved” adolescents (aged 15–18) from working-class and marginalised communities in Greece, who were recruited through youth centres and outreach programmes. Using phenomenological interviews and reflexive thematic analysis, the study reveals that encounters with law enforcement are almost universally experienced as traumatic events. Participants consistently described verbal abuse, racialised insults, physical intimidation, and humiliating strip searches. Several reported prolonged detention in degrading conditions, while others highlighted the routine targeting of those perceived to be poor, migrant, or engaged in drug use. These findings demonstrate how policing practices do not merely enforce law but actively reproduce stigma, fear, and exclusion. For many participants, encounters with police intensified anxiety, disrupted education and employment trajectories, and contributed to cycles of mistrust in state institutions. The study situates these experiences within broader processes of austerity, welfare retrenchment, and punitive social policy in Southern Europe, showing how youth are disproportionately criminalised in times of economic crisis. While grounded in the Greek context, the study’s implications are international. Similar patterns of over-policing, adultification, and criminalisation of disadvantaged youth are reported in North America, the UK, and across Europe, yet empirical research on the psychosocial impact of policing on young people themselves remains limited. As one of the very few qualitative studies to centre youth voices, this article contributes new evidence to global debates on youth justice and calls for restorative, rights-based alternatives to punitive policing.</p>

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Policing through fear: the traumatic impact of law enforcement on youth from working class and marginalised backgrounds

  • 期刊论文

  • 发表日期：

    2025年12月8日

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  • Georgia Efstathiadou,
  • Vasilios Ioakimidis

摘要

This article investigates the lived experiences of 20 “justice involved” adolescents (aged 15–18) from working-class and marginalised communities in Greece, who were recruited through youth centres and outreach programmes. Using phenomenological interviews and reflexive thematic analysis, the study reveals that encounters with law enforcement are almost universally experienced as traumatic events. Participants consistently described verbal abuse, racialised insults, physical intimidation, and humiliating strip searches. Several reported prolonged detention in degrading conditions, while others highlighted the routine targeting of those perceived to be poor, migrant, or engaged in drug use. These findings demonstrate how policing practices do not merely enforce law but actively reproduce stigma, fear, and exclusion. For many participants, encounters with police intensified anxiety, disrupted education and employment trajectories, and contributed to cycles of mistrust in state institutions. The study situates these experiences within broader processes of austerity, welfare retrenchment, and punitive social policy in Southern Europe, showing how youth are disproportionately criminalised in times of economic crisis. While grounded in the Greek context, the study’s implications are international. Similar patterns of over-policing, adultification, and criminalisation of disadvantaged youth are reported in North America, the UK, and across Europe, yet empirical research on the psychosocial impact of policing on young people themselves remains limited. As one of the very few qualitative studies to centre youth voices, this article contributes new evidence to global debates on youth justice and calls for restorative, rights-based alternatives to punitive policing.