On the one hand, institutions for adolescents accept all sorts of demands; on the other hand, the extension of delinquency has the effect of socializing crime. Consequently, the therapist may accept situations at the crossroads where the penal, the clinical and the social meet, as in the case of a young criminal we received. There is a jarring of usual clinical practice, as the practitioner must be able to cope with the possibility of recidivism. We give an account of the clinical perspective adopted in this case, one which emphasized fantasy rather than drives, and which seemed to us a more honest way of accepting our social responsibility.
Adolescence, 2013, 30, 4, 945-956.