Conflict in the Neighborhood

Abstract

The article defines street and working children, emphasizing that the definition of street children always includes a negative moral attribute. These false perceptions of street children, when added to the inaccuracies of the way the children are presented in the press and by reports of international organizations, exaggerate their numbers and problems, and lead toward increasing the hostility children face. A three-concept taxonomy of hostility toward street children is presented. This includes penalinstructive hostility based on punishing children for inappropriate behavior; collective frustrated hostility based on ethnocentric social class attitudes toward the poor; and cultural hostility which is accounted for by differences attributed to sedentary and nomadic peripatetic cultures. Practical suggestions for using the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child to reduce hostility toward street children are presented.