‘It’s what you have to do!’

By focusing on one young man’s self-presentations in a secure care unit for young offenders in Denmark, this article explores how his contradicting and incoherent self-presentations can be analysed as meaningful. Drawing on Stephen Lyng’s theory of high-risk edgework and Loïc Wacquant’s theory of advanced marginalisation, it is argued that this young man’s engagement in youth crime cannot be fully understood by only focusing on the criminal experience itself. Also, specific social and symbolic relations must be integrated into the analysis to understand his engagement in crime. The article argues that although the edgework theory is compelling, it needs further development if it is to capture the full complexity of young people’s motivation for crime.