After describing in Chapter Three Sen's general project of developing a theory of justice on the basis of a certain understanding of capabilities rather than of a fair distribution of primary goods alone, we now look in Chapter Four at more details of Sen's project in connection with the situations of destitute and homeless Paris street children.

Capabilities and Destitute Children

Return for another moment then to the concrete situations of many of these destitute Paris street children today.

Destitute Children

The possibility of simply extending the capability approach developed on the basis of adult poverty to child poverty generally and specifically to the poverty of destitute street children is not evident. For such salient features of destitute street children's poverty as we have noted constitute qualitatively different kinds of poverty than the poverty of adults. Is the case then of destitute street children different enough from that of poor adults to make the capability approach less applicable? Probably.

Moreover, most children including destitute ones are not mature enough to judge for themselves what is good or bad for them. Nor can most children say what sort of life they value most; that is, they lack certain crucial capabilities. Still, a child's capability potential will remain latent unless it is deliberately actualized through physical and mental development in a healthy environment.