Introduction

In the early 21st century, an edited collection was published with the title Beyond Criminology: Taking Harm Seriously (Hillyard et al, 2004). The book played a central role in drawing people’s attention towards the concept of social harm. In the years that followed, an increasing number of academics – many of whom might traditionally have called themselves ‘criminologists’ (and many who would not) – have been turning to social harm as a means of moving beyond some of the limitations and shortcomings associated with the concept of crime. In this chapter, we develop an approach to social harm that we believe holds value in the context of making sense of children and young people’s lives.

This and the following chapter outline the conceptual and theoretical lenses that are applied throughout the remainder of the book (Chapter 3 explores the concept of ‘mattering’). Its structure is as follows:

• • First, we consider the critiques and limitations associated with the concept of crime.

• • Second, we provide an overview of some of what we perceive to be the key debates and points of contention in the social harm literature.

• • Third, we develop and outline our own approach to the concept of social harm.

• • Fourth, we attempt to pre-empt and respond to some of the potential limitations and drawbacks associated with our approach to social harm.

Before we begin, a couple of caveats. For readers unfamiliar with the concept of social harm, there are better places to start than this chapter. For an in-depth account of social harm and its associated field of zemiology, we would recommend reading Canning and Tombs’ (2021) From Social Harm to Zemiology. While this chapter attempts to provide a gentle introduction to the topic and help readers get to grips with a number of key and ongoing debates, it is far from comprehensive in its scope.

Our primary goal is to provide readers with a basic grasp of a conception of social harm that we believe will make good sense to people working with children and young people, as well as to children and young people themselves.