This book challenges the dominant narrative of young people being a uniquely violent group. Instead, the book critically examines how young people become violent as they enact and resist the available violent performativities in youth. It focuses on the experiences of 28 young people in Australia who are subjected to violence, who use violence and who resist violence. A critical analysis of these young peoples messy stories facilitates a reframing of the physical violence routinely attributed to young people as a product of violating systems and structures. 
The author constructs a converging theoretical landscape to re-examine youth, violence and resistance at the intersection of the sociology of violence and the sociology of youth. Drawing on interviews with young Australians, the book makes a valuable contribution to contemporary international scholarship on youth and violence, while also examining the potential for complicity to violence in youth research and practice. In doing so it offers youth scholars and practitioners a framework for reassessing their theoretical frameworks and methods for studying and working with young people in connection with violence.

Dr Ben Lohmeyer is a youth sociologist and youth worker. He is an Adjunct Researcher at Flinders University and Head of Youth Work at Tabor. Bens research interests include youth, violence and youth work practice. Ben has worked in a range of youth work settings concerning issues of justice, violence and peacebuilding. He has published in international journals including the Journal of Youth Studies, Current Sociology and Qualitative Research. Ben holds a Ph.D. from Flinders University.

1.Introduction.- 2.Youth, violence and democracy.- 3.Governing youth, sanctioning violence.- 4.Seeking alternatives, subverting myths and stories of resistance.- 5.Working in the mess: Enacting hopeful complexity.- 6.Calling bullshit on hollowed-out values: Violating neoliberal youth services.- 7.Conclusion: Guidepost for liberating practice.