The Transcultural Approach to Delinquency

Between their culture of origin and that of the host society, adolescents of immigrant origin can find themselves divided between two worlds and have difficulty constructing their identity. This problem may lead them to commit crimes as a way of expressing their suffering in the face of their incoherent environment and of finding a place in this world. This evaluative research within an educational action center led me to propose the use of transcultural/ethnopsychiatry as an approach that could promote the treatment of delinquent adolescents with an immigrant background. Learning to recognize the other in his or her cultural difference, giving a place to the other's culture in our practice, this opening to the other can allow professionals, as well as young people in difficulty, to find a ground for exchange and mutual understanding.