What knowledge and skills do you need to practise effectively as a professional within the youth justice system? What values should inform your work with children and young people subject to criminal justice sanctions? These are the central questions addressed by the editors and contributors in this comprehensive new text.
The Youth Justice Handbook provides an essential resource for practitioners in youth justice as well as those who are studying the subject as part of their training or an academic course. Its aim is to equip practitioners in youth justice and the wider children s workforce with an understanding of key theoretical concepts from a range of disciplines that might inform and enhance their work. It encourages a critical interrogation of the ideas that underpin practice by drawing on social constructionist approaches to issues such as child development, crime and punishment and related concepts. It provides a descriptive account of current practice in
areas such as community corrections and incarceration, examining the evidence base for this and suggesting where appropriate alternative strategies.
The key objective of the Handbook is to provide students with the confidence to critically reflect on the ideas and debates that currently influence the work undertaken with young people as well as those that may shape practice in the future. By equipping them with the basic skills of analysis and an understanding of key themes and developments, it aims to further promote their progression as reflective practitioners and autonomous learners.
The Youth Justice Handbook takes a multidisciplinary approach, and contains chapters from leading experts in the field which draw on original research and practical experience of working in the area. It is divided into five parts:
Contexts of childhood and youth
Research, knowledge and evidence in youth justice
Policy, possibilities and penal realities in youth justice
Reflective practice
Widening contexts

What knowledge and skills do you need to practise effectively as a professional within the youth justice system? What values should inform your work with children and young people subject to criminal justice sanctions? These are the central questions addressed by the editors and contributors in this comprehensive new text.
The Youth Justice Handbook provides an essential resource for practitioners in youth justice as well as those who are studying the subject as part of their training or an academic course. Its aim is to equip practitioners in youth justice and the wider children's workforce with an understanding of key theoretical concepts from a range of disciplines that might inform and enhance their work. It encourages a critical interrogation of the ideas that underpin practice by drawing on social constructionist approaches to issues such as ?child development?, ?crime? and ?punishment? and related concepts. It provides a descriptive account of current practice in
areas such as community corrections and incarceration, examining the evidence base for this and suggesting ? where appropriate ? alternative strategies.
The key objective of the Handbook is to provide students with the confidence to critically reflect on the ideas and debates that currently influence the work undertaken with young people as well as those that may shape practice in the future. By equipping them with the basic skills of analysis and an understanding of key themes and developments, it aims to further promote their progression as reflective practitioners and autonomous learners.
The Youth Justice Handbook takes a multidisciplinary approach, and contains chapters from leading experts in the field which draw on original research and practical experience of working in the area. It is divided into five parts:
? Contexts of childhood and youth
? Research, knowledge and evidence in youth justice
? Policy, possibilities and penal realities in youth justice
? Reflective practice
? Widening contexts

This handbook brings together the knowledge on juvenile imprisonment to develop a global, synthesized view of the impact of imprisonment on children and young people. There are a growing number of scholars around the world who have conducted in-depth, qualitative research inside of youth prisons, and about young people incarcerated in adult prisons, and yet this research has never been synthesized or compiled. This book is organized around several core themes including: conditions of confinement, relationships in confinement, gender/sexuality and identity, perspectives on juvenile facility staff, reentry from youth prisons, young people's experiences in adult prisons, and new models and perspectives on juvenile imprisonment. This handbook seeks to educate students, scholars, and policymakers about the role of incarceration in young people's lives, from an empirically-informed, critical, and global perspective.

The concept of moral panic has received considerable scholarly attention, but as yet little attention has been accorded to panics over children and youth. This is the first book to examine this important and controversial social issue by employing a rigorous intellectual framework to explore the cultural construction of youth, through the dissemination of moral panics. It is accessible in manner and makes use of the latest contemporary research by addressing some of the pressing recent concerns relating to children and youth, including cyber-related panics, child abuse and pornography, education and crime. A truly international collection, this volume features new global research focusing on the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, South Africa, and France as well as the United States. Genuinely multidisciplinary in approach, it will appeal to researchers and students across the social sciences and humanities - from sociology and social theory, to media, education, anthropology, criminology, geography and history.

Our society's preoccupation with crime and fear of crime appears to have shifted its focus to the juvenile offender. Both electronic and print media continuously warn us that juvenile offenders are increasingly younger and more virulent. The demographics of our population suggest that there will only be more juvenile offenders to fear in the near future. All of these concerns arise in a social climate that is characterized by an ever increasing demand for stronger retributive measures against the offender. The belief that only harsh justice will protect us from the ravages of juveniles has become dominant. Increasingly, perceptions and politics, rather than scientific data, dominate policy making with regard to youthful offenders. In Assessing the Youthful Offender: Issues and Techniques, Robert D. Hoge and D. A. Andrews make a restrained, rational, and ultimately persuasive argu ment for the use of standardized psychological assessments in the effective management of youth within juvenile justice systems. They clarify how what we already know about the cause and management of youthful criminal activity can be incorporated into standardized testing and that the information obtained from testing can improve the administration of criminal justice. Moreover, this informa tion is useful whatever the theoretical biases of those who administer the justice system. The efficiency of policies of either retribution, deterrence, or rehabilitation is only enhanced by reliance on data."

Based on some of the most interesting research of the last ten years, this book discusses effective practice in work with persistent young offenders. It contrasts two major evaluations of projects for juvenile offenders, one of which was successful and the other less so. The projects, Freagarrach and CueTen, were funded by The Scottish Office and the Scottish Executive. Freagarrach was evaluated over five years from 1995 and CueTen over three years (its entire lifespan) from 1996. This book makes the findings of these projects available to a wider readership, setting them in a wider discursive framework than is appropriate in a government report. The authors identify the factors that made Freagarrach a more successful project than CueTen, arguing that an understanding of these factors is important in drawing general conclusions from the experience of the two projects, and that this is particularly the case because some of these factors have received little attention in recent discussions of 'what works' in community-based programmes for offenders. This is a detailed and thorough study of work with juvenile offenders, which will be of particular value to those interested in less punitive approaches. It will be of interest both to practitioners and to academics in criminology, social policy and social work.

The first biography of the prison reformer Alexander Paterson (1884-1947). Sir Alexander Paterson (1884-1947) is best remembered for his role as Commissioner of Prisons and as the individual responsible for some of the greatest British innovations in the field of penal practice. All major prison reforms of his day can be associated with his name. One of the key characteristics of Paterson's reform drive was that he brought a much more 'scientific' approach to penology, encouraging psychiatrists and psychologists to work in prison. He was the prime mover behind the rapid expansion and transformation of the Borstal System and the introduction of open prisons, gaining Britain an international reputation for being at the forefront of penal reform. Harry Potter's account is the first biography of Alexander Paterson and it is based on unpublished material from government and family archives. Besides his achievements as prison reformer, Paterson's life encapsulated many trends in English society in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries: from the influence of Liberalism and Unitarianism in the industrial heartland of his youth, the Idealist philosophy of Thomas Hill Green at Oxford, to the impact of school and university 'missions' in the dark reaches of London. At Oxford he became friends with Clement Atlee. He also knew the radical Winston Churchill and it was Churchill who in 1910 first appointed him to a leading role in the aftercare of prisoners. Paterson's most formative years were undoubtedly spent living in a slum dwelling in South London when he devoted his time and energy to the Oxford and Bermondsey Medical Mission, one of the university settlements so common at the time - Attlee famously spent years in Hailesbury boys' club and Toynbee Hall in the East End. Paterson went on to publish a best-selling book - Across the Bridges - on his experiences in the South London slums. After a distinguished service in the Great War, Paterson devoted the rest of his life to the prison service at home and to penal reform abroad. Given current debates about prison reform and the general challenges the penal system is facing, revisiting Paterson's life and work will be a timely endeavour. Harry Potter - criminal barrister, historian and former prison chaplain - is ideally suited to write this biography.

This book examines the use of violence by children and young people in family settings and proposes specialised and age-appropriate responses to these children and young people It interrogates the adequacy and effectiveness of current service and justice system responses, including analysis of police, court and specialist service responses. It proposes new approaches to children and young people who use violence that are evidence based, non-punitive, and informed by an understanding of the complexity of needs and the importance of age appropriate service responses. Bringing together a range of Australian and International experts, it sheds new light on questions such as: How can we best understand and respond to the use of family violence by young people? To what extent do traditional family violence responses address the experiences of adolescents who use violence in family settings? What barriers to help seeking exist for parental and sibling victims of adolescent family violence? To what degree do existing support and justice services provide adequate responses to those using adolescent family violence and their families? In what circumstances do children kill their biological and adopted parents? The explicit focus on child and adolescent family violence produces new knowledge in the area of family violence, which will be of relevance to academics, policy makers and family violence practitioners in Australia and internationally.

Anti-social behaviour has become a major political preoccupation of government and combating it is now a major plank of criminal justice policy. Yet anti-social behaviour as a concept has been little studied, and the notion has often been accepted uncritically. This book aims to meet this need, providing a critique of the government's use of the concept of anti-social behaviour and of youth justice strategy more generally. Rougher Justice foregrounds the perspectives and experiences of young people themselves. It draws upon recent developments within the field of cultural criminology to provide an alternative interpretation of the construction of 'youthful criminal careers'. It is underpinned by research in three separate areas which focus on the new youth justice, youthful criminal careers, and anti-social behaviour and acceptable behaviour enforcement. Central to the book is an ambition to understand youthful delinquency from the inside and to recover what is lost in much of New Labour's youth justice strategy --and the methods adopted by the Youth Justice Board to evaluate this strategy, that is to say a situated and interpretive understanding of youthful delinquency drawn from the perspective of and in the voices of young people themselves.

Both probation and youth justice have undergone massive changes in recent years, and continue to face important new challenges. A key emphasis of new developments has been on developing effective evidence-based practice and disseminating this throughout the Probation and Youth Justice services. The main aim of this book is to review developments in evidence-based practice in a number of different areas, bringing together the findings of research projects commissioned by the British Home Office, the National Probation Directorate and the Youth Justice Board. This book will be essential reading for anyone involved in probation and youth justice practice, or for those taking courses in these fields.

Why is crime persistent over generations, within families and within certain individuals? Is crime the manifestation of an inherited latent trait or the result of a failure of socialization and norm-setting processes? Why do youths commit crimes? Delinquency and Crime contains essays by nine leading criminologists that seek to answer these and other questions by describing current theories of crime and the research evidence that supports them. The authors' views on crime causation go beyond traditional criminological theories of strain, cultural deviance, social control, differential association and social learning to present emerging and integrated models of the origins of crime, including antisocial peer socialization, social development, interactional theory, behavior genetics, and community determinants. Each essay explores the practical implication of the authors' theoretical work for crime prevention and control.

Examine the factors that contribute to increasingly violent youth crimes in the United States! Kids Who Commit Adult Crimes: Serious Criminality by Juvenile Offenders is an examination of today's serious, chronic, and violent youthful offender. This vital book explores the relationship between youth and serious, violent antisocial behavior in America, examining its antecedents, its onset, and its situational and motivating factors. From the Editor's introduction: "The increasingly serious nature of juvenile criminal behavior has been felt across the country as youth violence, violent youth gangs, drug-related offenses, and other delinquent and criminal conduct has changed the way we regard minors and delinquent behavior. Recent times have seen an explosion in school tragedies, juvenile homicides, teen battering, date rape, youth family violence, teenage alcohol and drug abuse, and related youthful offenses." Kids Who Commit Adult Crimes, divided into four parts, takes an incisive look at these issues and more: Part I explores serious juvenile crime, including its magnitude; youth violence; kids, drugs, and crime; school crime and violence; youth gangs and criminality; dating violence; and family violence. Part II examines explanations of juvenile delinquency and criminal behavior from biological, psychological, and sociological perspectives. Part III addresses juvenile crime and the justice system, including the police and juvenile offenders, youths and the juvenile and adult courts, and juvenile offenders in custody and confinement. Part IV examines responses to the problem of serious and violent juvenile offending and its precursors, including federal laws and prevention, intervention, and control strategies. Kids Who Commit Adult Crimes goes farther in its examination of youth who commit adult-like violence than other books in the field, with chapters on dating violence and family violence, in addition to school and gang violence, substance abuse issues, and more. Visit the author's website at http://www.rbarriflowers.com

The profile of prisoners across many Western countries is strikingly similar - 95% male, predominantly undereducated and underemployed, from the most deprived neighbourhoods. This book reflects on how similarly positioned men configure masculinities against global economic shifts that have seen the decimation of traditional, manual-heavy industry and with it the disruption of long-established relations of labour. Drawing on life history interviews and classical ethnography, the book charts a group of men's experiences pre, during and post prison. Tracking the development of masculinities from childhood to adulthood, across impoverished streets, 'failing' schools and inadequate state 'care', the book questions whether this proved better preparation for serving prison time than working in their local, service-dominated, labour markets. It integrates theories of crime, geography, economics and masculinity to take into account structural and global economic shifts as well as individual long-term perspectives in order to provide a broad examination on pathways to prison and post prison.

This book presents a study of street children's involvement as workers in Bangladeshi organised crime groups based on a three-year ethnographic study in Dhaka. The book argues that 'mastaans' are Bangladeshi mafia groups that operate in a market for crime, violence and social protection. It considers the crimes mastaans commit, the ways they divide labour, and how and why street children become involved in these groups. The book explores how street children are hired by 'mastaans', to carry weapons, sell drugs, collect extortion money, commit political violence and conduct contract killings. The book argues that these young people are neither victims nor offenders; they are instead 'illicit child labourers', doing what they can to survive on the streets. This book adds to the emerging fields of the sociology of crime and deviance in South Asia and 'Southern criminology'.

Drawing on extensive life-history interviews with serious violent offenders, this book offers a unique socio-historical analysis of gang membership and gang evolution in Glasgow, Scotland's largest city. The book chronicles the lives of young men in and around Glasgow from early childhood to present day and examines the lived experience of family, friendship, community, and crime. It demonstrates how street reputations are won and lost and how gang membership is not a single event but an experiential process of offending, victimisation, consensus, and conflict. The book follows the young men's descent into knife crime and street violence and the impact of imprisonment on their life chances. Detailed narratives capture how they individually and collectively transitioned from street violence to profit-driven organised crime, before eventually disengaging from gangs and desisting from offending. The book concludes with an in-depth discussion of the evolution of gangs and organised crime in the 21st century and in the inner-workings of Scotland's marketplace for illegal goods and services, with implications for police, practitioners, and policymakers. A page-turner from start to finish, Scotlands' Gang Members is a truly unique contribution to knowledge about gangs and crime, written to high academic standards but readable and accessible to all.

This report presents the findings from the first national, representative survey of public attitudes to youth crime and youth justice in England and Wales. Significantly, it highlights that most people are demonstrably ill-informed about youth crime and youth justice issues. It also carries clear policy implications in relation to both public education and reform of the youth justice system. Youth crime and youth justice is essential reading for academics, researchers, policy makers and practitioners in the fields of criminal justice, criminology, social policy, social work and probation. Researching Criminal Justice series Crime and justice are issues of central political and public concern in contemporary Britain. This exciting new series presents top quality research findings in the field. It will contribute significantly to policy and practice debates and aims to improve the knowledge base considerably. The series will be essential reading for politicians and policy makers, academics, researchers and practitioners. For other titles in this series, please follow the series link from the main catalogue page.

This book offers a sociological exploration of street children in India and what pulls and pushes them into delinquency, at a time when the government of India is contemplating strengthening its juvenile justice system. It draws on in-depth, qualitative research carried out by an NGO which included unstructured and structured interviews with over 600 children as well as stakeholders. Through the stories of Indian children, this book examines the major factors which together play a crucial role in their engagement in deviant behaviour as they grow up. However, the authors argue that they should not be viewed not as a dangerous threat but as the country's most valuable resource. The authors conclude that a punitive strategy may not be the best option, advocating instead for a focus on restorative justice which has been found to be effective and beneficial alongside other strategies which help strengthen families and enhance parenting skills.

That black young people have been subject to unequal treatment in the youth justice system has been the belief of some individuals and groups, reinforced, at best, by anecdotal evidence. Negative Images: A Simple Matter of Black and White? provides not only evidential weight to uphold this view but also provides some insights into the processes by which it comes about. Findings of a case study detailed in the book demonstrate how in one youth court black youths were over-represented amongst those receiving high-tariff sentencing and that this over-representation could not be explained by seriousness or persistence of offending. Whilst responsibility for differential sentencing has often been laid at the door of Magistrates, this study reveals how social work court report practice may be contributing to the situation.

This book critically analyses how men in prison act out their masculine identities. It considers how men negotiate their time in prison, which can involve being placed into a feminine position relative to other men, and particularly looks at the subversion of heteronormative gender positionings through bodies, spaces, time, and relationships. Vulnerability is also taken as a key consideration, and men are shown to act out their masculinities for the benefit of an audience that matters to them. However, that audience is shown to be subject to change at any point in time. Using extensive ethnographic data drawn from adult male prisoners, the book adopts the viewpoint of the individual prisoner as a frame to consider masculinity. It also advances ethnographic research in criminology by reflecting upon the identity of researchers in prisons, particularly the female researcher's gendered identity in such environments. It will be of great interest to scholars of penology, gender and ethnography.

This book considers the global discourses and debates about 'intoxication', engaging in critical academic discussion around this concept. The problems in defining intoxication are considered, alongside the meanings of intoxication and how these meanings often differ across diverse drug using populations. The way that intoxication has been engaged with over the centuries has affected how particular groups are perceived and responded to, resulting in punitive responses such as drug prohibition, alongside harsh treatment of those who are seen to transgress societal norms and values. Therefore, this collection seeks to unsettle dominant discourses about intoxication and to consider this concept in new, critical ways. Ways of being intoxicated are also defined in this book in their broadest sense; from 'energy drinks' and other legal drugs, to recreational use of illicit drugs such as ecstasy, to 'problematic' drug use.

This edited volume focuses on the role that school climate and disciplinary practices have on the educational and social experiences of students of color. Drawing from quantitative, qualitative, and theoretical studies, it brings to bear a number of topics such as racialized school experiences; criminology, discursive deviance and punishment and carceral studies; urban studies; school administration and leadership; and, a number of critical theorist frameworks. Practical insights are offered to assist administrators, teachers, school counsellors, and other school and non-school based professionals on how to address not only disparities in school discipline, but also create and promote an inclusive, affirming positive school culture and climate. With applications in disciplinary studies and criminology, leadership studies, critical race theory and other critical frameworks, this volume is a valuable resource advancing new theoretical concepts.

This book examines the psychosocial, legal, and familial factors at play in the persistence in crime and social marginalization in adults with a history of juvenile delinquency, setting out the political and social implications, and delineating new lines of research. Presenting, for the first time, a summary of the main findings and conclusions of The Portuguese Study on Delinquency and Social Marginalization (PSDSM), this study addresses the following topics: the role of youth psychosocial factors on desistance from crime during adulthood in individuals with a history of juvenile delinquency; the relationship between serious adverse childhood experiences (e.g., having lived with a person with mental illness, physical abuse, emotional neglect) and juvenile justice involvement, persistence in crime, and psychosocial problems; the mechanisms involved in the link between serious childhood adversity and delinquency; the role of the juvenile justice system on psychosocial problems and persistence in crime during young adulthood; and finally the relation between adult psychosocial problems and criminal indicators in individuals with official record of juvenile criminal offenses. Findings from PSDSM have resulted in an extensive list of political and social recommendations for child protection services, justice system, mental health services, schools and universities. This timely title explores these findings and recommendations.

The ubiquity of the internet and social media has influenced the lives of people across the globe, including young people involved in street gangs and troublesome youth groups. This development raises important questions about the causes, features, and consequences of online gang behavior, as well as the consequences of this new phenomenon for gang prevention and intervention. In this edited volume, members of an international network of gang researchers, the Eurogang Program of Research, present findings and insights from recent academic gang studies focused on the use of internet and social media. It focuses on online features of gangs and the consequences of social media for the study of these groups. The second section of the book focuses on the meaning of online media for the prevention, monitoring and intervention of gangs, and for gang disengagement processes. This is the first volume focused on the role of internet and social media in the study of gangs. Providing much needed insights into online gang processes, it will appeal to students and researchers interested in gangs and juvenile delinquency, and to professionals, practitioners, and policy-makers working on preventing or reducing gang involvement and delinquent behavior.

This classic text sets the foundation for working with juveniles who have sexually offended The new edition of Juvenile Sexual Offending provides a research-based, goal-oriented approach to the assessment, treatment, supervision, and care of this difficult population. Written by leading specialists in the field, the Third Edition represents the tremendous strides in research on brain growth and development. A thorough overview of the process of risk evaluation is included, as well as detailed and practical guidelines on gauging the possibility of repeated offense. Also included: * New chapters on legislative and policy developments; risk assessment; adult responsibilities; and outcomes pairing risk management with health promotion * Greatly expanded coverage of treatment, including new chapters on abuse-specific and offense-specific treatment interventions, and the effects of trauma * Practitioner-friendly guidance to help mental health professionals with decision making; program development; case management skills; and working within multidisciplinary teams Juvenile Sexual Offending, Third Edition helps mental health professionals, child welfare, law enforcement, and juvenile justice professionals move toward successful assessment and treatment of juveniles who sexually abuse, reducing the risk of sexual abuse in future generations.

This book explores two major social problems facing Chinese society today: increased strain in the lives of young people and heightened rates of crime and delinquency, ultimately examining the links between them. More broadly, it draws on Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems theory and Agnew's general strain theory to examine the factors and processes affecting young people, leading to life strain and delinquency. It represents the first study of this kind and involves the most systematic and comprehensive literature review of studies on major social, economic, political and cultural changes, as well as youth crime in contemporary China. Bao's arguments are supported by empirical evidence including data findings and over a decade's worth of observational research. Shedding new light on the nature of youth crime in a rapidly changing society, this methodical study will benefit policy makers and researchers, helping them to develop tactics and methods to reduce strain in the lives of young people, and thus effectively prevent delinquency in China.