“I’m Adult! Aren’t I!” is a book with a mission: to create adults out of children. Other societies manage this well, there’s no reason why ours should not. In the matter of socializing unruly youth, we find success in societies – some poor, some not so poor – that are highly ritualised. In “I’m Adult! Aren’t I!”, Geoffrey Ben-Nathan applies lessons to be learned from these societies to the difficulties of young people in our own communities.

The book asserts that juvenile delinquency and anti-social behaviour are children’s own impromptu substitutes for rites of passage. All too often we have ‘crimes of passage’ that might have been pre-empted by a rite of passage. Only by the process of rite and ritual, Ben-Nathan argues, can people, children included, be translated quickly and successfully from one social status to another. Having analysed the role of ritual and myth in such transitions, “I’m Adult! Aren’t I!” concludes with an imaginative but viable rite of passage suited to the conditions of our own society.

A break-through in understanding anti-social youth behaviour and identifying the real cause of youth crime, this book offers us the heady prospect of a practical means of transforming our youth into young citizens of whom we can be justly proud.

Geoffrey Ben-Nathan was born and bred in London. He studied at London University’s prestigious School of Oriental and African Studies and has conducted research amongst youth in schools and young offender institutions.

Published by Rubin Mass