1 Victimisation vulnerability of street (community) children Robert Peacock Fernanda Fonseca Rosenblatt Core issues in this chapter - A global and African occurrence - The phenomenon of street children as symptomatic of structural victimisation - Victimisation vulnerability of street children with specific reference to the macro and micro environments - Legal framework and Restorative interventions - Key terms discrimination negative labelling marginalisation survival sex street situation Introduction The onset of the third millennium marked a worldwide antithesis to the very meaning of childhood and social responsibility. Despite international instruments such as the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989), children remain symptom-bearers of prejudice, discrimination and conflict. Violent acts towards children reflect violent environments, and pervasive cultural values sanction a climate that is permissive to their victimisation. In a landscape of hegemonic cultural practices, inferior social status is assigned to physique in particular, rendering children vulnerable victims of state, structural, institutional and interpersonal violence. With domination and supremacy as culturally energised constructs, the following discussion will focus on the victimisation 1 This chapter appears in Peacock, R (2013). Victimology in South Africa. Pretoria: Van Schaik.