This Brief fills a gap in criminological literature, as there are few empirically-based studies on delinquency of adolescent girls. It provides results of a longitudinal study, The Pittsburgh Girls Study (PGS), which includes 2,451 girls, followed annually from age 10-19, the ages when criminal behavior tends to emerge. This study provides the most extensive and comprehensive investigation into the criminal offending and self-reported trajectories of offending of PGS participants, along with an in-depth examination of other criminal career dimensions. In five chapters, this short volume reviews the limited extent of girls' delinquency literature, presents data on girls' offending patterns (onset, persistence, specialization, and desistence), provides insights on gender differences by comparison with the Pittsburgh Youth Study, which focused on male offenders, and explores the theoretical and practical implications of the results. By understanding the origins and onset of criminal behavior in girls, researchers can begin to understand effective interventions and crime prevention. This Brief will be of interest to researchers in criminology and criminal justice, as well as related fields such as sociology, public policy, and psychology.

This Brief focuses on youth who engage in sexually harmful behavior and how they transition back into public schools after serving time in a juvenile detention center or treatment facility. The Brief examines the difference between normal sexual behaviors and sexually harmful behaviors and provides an overview of the theories of sexual offending. It also compares youth who sexually harm to other deviant groups; assesses intragroup similarities and differences; and reviews child and family risk factors. In addition, it provides a summary of prevention programs for all students and for those who are at risk to sexually re-offend. Finally, the Brief illustrates how a youth who has engaged in sexually harmful behavior could potentially transition back into school and discusses the school's role in treatment. Sexually Harmful Youth: Successful Reintegration to School is an essential resource for researchers, professionals, and graduate students in child and school psychology, social work, and public health.

This volume poses a series of key questions about the practice of probation as an integral part of the European criminal justice system. The contributors are established experts in their respective fields of study and together their questions address the legitimacy, and perhaps continued existence, of probation. The book offers analyses of why people offend and stop offending, and the wide ranging impacts of probation. This includes the impact on offenders' social reintegration, as a form of reparation for victims and communities, on public desire for justice and punishment, and on probationers themselves. The contributors further assess the state of probation and its adaptation to the current state of penality and society, the role of probation officers in pre-sentencing decision-making and the promotion of community sanctions and measures. By providing important recommendations and suggestions for application to practice, the book will be of great interest to academics, students, policy makers and practitioners alike.

Very little is known about young British male Muslims who offend. Qasim gained unique first-hand insight into the multifaceted lives of a group after spending 4 years studying them. He unwraps their lives, explores their identities and explains what role religion and Pakistani culture play in their criminal behaviour.

Focusing on male-on-male rape, this book looks at the common myths surrounding this taboo issue, including the idea that 'men who rape other men must be homosexual' and that 'real men can't be raped'. It also reveals that men are not only raped in prison, as is commonly believed, and that they suffer similar trauma to female survivors of rape.

Community safety is a narrowly defined concept that allows states to ignore arguably more serious threats caused by pro-market policies and the actions of major corporations. This book redresses the idea of what constitutes a social harm and outlines a new policy agenda.

Juvenile Offenders and Guns explores how and why twenty-five incarcerated young men of color acquired and used guns, and how guns made them feel. Guns have multiple meanings and serve many purposes for these youth as they attempt to construct a capable masculinity in their worlds, growing up in homes where money is often scarce and fathers absent.

Youth crime and youth violence blights our communities and shapes the lives of many, whether they are victims, perpetrators or family members. This book examines the application of psychological thinking and practice when working with young people who display high risk behaviours across a broad range of forensic mental health settings in the UK. It provides an up-to-date account of current thinking and practice in the field and the challenges of applying effective psychological approaches within forensic settings for young people. The contributors to Young People in Forensic Mental Health Settings are drawn from a range of environments including universities, youth offending services, secure in-patient settings, young offender institutions, Community Forensic Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (F-CAMHS), and secure children's homes. This volume serves as an important platform for debate and as a forum for discussing the future delivery of psychologically informed services, intervention and mental health provision with young people who display high-risk behaviours.

International students and crime is an issue that impacts on lucrative international student markets, international relations, host countries' reputations, and the security of the broader population. This book presents vital new analyses on international students as victims and perpetrators of crime in Australia, the US and the UK.

Young Offenders provides one of the most in-depth studies of young males seeking, if often failing, to find a life beyond crime and punishment. Through rich interview data of young offenders over a ten year period, this book explores the complex personal and situational factors that promote and derail the desistance process.

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.

Drawing on Foucault's later work on governmentality, this book traces the effects of 'the rise of risk' on contemporary social work practice. Focusing on two 'domains' of practice - mental health social work and probation work - it analyses the ways in which risk thinking has affected social work's aims and objectives, methods and approaches.

Examining multi-agency working in response to anti-social behaviour, this book investigates the way in which the police, social work teams and the youth justice service work together on early intervention initiatives to help young people, and explores the complexities and practical struggles of these partnerships.

This comprehensive collection contributes to, advances and consolidates discussions of the range of research methods in criminology through the presentation of diverse international case studies in which contributors reflect upon their experiences with powerless and powerful individuals or groups.

This book explores the perceptions and role of juvenile justice educators. Through researching the support structures of educational facilities and analysing the positive features of these learning environments, Tannis evaluates how best to educate incarcerated young people and prepare them for their transition back into society.

Will 'what works' in one country work in another? This unique collection examines the cross-cultural transfer of skills and expertise, drawing out the opportunities and challenges involved in taking penal practices from one country to another.

This book explores the factors at the individual, institutional and systemic levels which contribute to children's home residents coming to the attention of the youth justice system, and the consequent implications for policy and practice. Perspectives are drawn from both young people and professionals in the care and youth justice systems.

This is the first book dedicated to Australian youth gangs, exploring the subtleties and nuances of street life for young men and their quest for social respect. The key focus is on group violence and the ways in which the 'gang' provides a forum for the expression of this violence.

In this collection of 48 reprinted and completely original articles, Tammy Anderson gives her fellow instructors of undergraduate deviance a refreshing way to energize and revitalize their courses. [36 are reprints; 12 are original to this text/anthology] First, in 12 separate sections, she presents a wide range of deviant behaviors, traits, and conditions including: underage drinking and drunk driving, doping in elite sports, gang behavior, community crime, juvenile delinquency, hate crime, prison violence and transgendered prisoners, mental illness, drug-using women and domestic violence, obesity, tattooing, sexual fetishes, prostitution, drug epidemics, viral pandemics, crime control strategies and racial inequality, gay neighborhoods, HIV and bugchasers, and (lastly) youth, multicultural identity and music scenes. Second, her pairing of "classic" and "contemporary" viewpoints about deviance and social control not only "connects" important literatures of the past to today's (student) readers, her "connections framework" also helps all of us see social life and social processes more clearly when alternative meanings are accorded to similar forms of deviant behavior. We also learn how to appreciate and interact with those who see things differently from ourselves. This may better equip us to reach common goals in an increasingly diverse and ever-changing world. Third, a major teaching goal of Anderson's anthology is to sharpen students' critical thinking skills by forcing them to look at how a deviant behavior, trait or condition, can be viewed from opposing or alternative perspectives. By learning to see deviance from multiple perspectives, students will better understand their own and other's behavior and experiences and be able to anticipate future trends. Balancing multiple perspectives may also assist students in their practical work in social service, criminal justice and other agencies and institutions that deal with populations considered "deviant" in one way or another.

The first decade of the new century proved to be a deadly one for many children and young people in the United States. Despite increased policing on the streets, higher rates of incarceration, harsher sentencing, stricter control of illegal drugs, and attempts to reduce access to firearms, FBI reports show that more than 7,300 young people between the ages of 15 and 29 were murdered in 2008 alone. It's clear that traditional crime reduction strategies have not stemmed the rising tide of homicides perpetrated by and upon one of society's most vulnerable populations. Innovative, practicable solutions are needed to staunch this lethal trend. Based on the findings of a unique longitudinal study, Young Homicide Offenders and Victims: Risk Factors, Prediction, and Prevention from Childhood now provides experts with unprecedented analysis of prospectively collected data on 1,517 boys and young men who grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Following these males from childhood into early adulthood, examining their lives and the conditions under which they grew up in a representative mid-sized American city, the study forms the basis of this unique volume designed to stimulate debate on key questions of prevention and intervention as well as dispel popular myths about the childhood and adolescent features of homicide offenders and homicide victims. Key areas of coverage include: Early childhood risk factors of young homicide offenders and victims. Insights into homicide offenders' lives as told in their own words. The effectiveness of screening for at-risk youth. Risk factor-based prevention and intervention strategies. The impact of interventions on homicide rates. Policy implications at the local, state, and national levels. Young Homicide Offenders and Victims: Risk Factors, Prediction, and Prevention from Childhood is essential reading for researchers, practitioners, and policy makers across the fields of juvenile justice and criminology, developmental psychology, sociology, psychiatry, public health, and policy making. ------- "This book changes the game in violence research ... The analysis is masterful, the prose is readable, and the achievement is nothing short of stunning." Richard Rosenfeld, Ph.D. / Curators Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice, University of Missouri-St. Louis "This book will stand the test of time as a landmark homicide study." James C. Howell, Ph.D. / Senior Research Associate, National Gang Center "This is a fascinating, pioneering book ... The authors' sophisticated analyses demonstrate convincingly the considerable value of prospective longitudinal data for enhancing our understanding of the etiology and control of lethal violence." Steven F. Messner, Ph.D. / Distinguished Teacher Professor, Department of Sociology, University at Albany, SUNY / President, American Society of Criminology

Children and youth become involved with the juvenile justice system at a significant rate. While some children move just as quickly out of the system and go on to live productive lives as adults, other children become enmeshed in the system, developing deeper problems and or transferring into the adult criminal justice system. Justice for Kids is a volume of work by leading academics and activists that focuses on ways to intervene at the earliest possible point to rehabilitate and redirect-to keep kids out of the system-rather than to punish and drive kids deeper. Justice for Kids presents a compelling argument for rethinking and restructuring the juvenile justice system as we know it. This unique collection explores the system's fault lines with respect to all children, and focuses in particular on issues of race, gender, and sexual orientation that skew the system. Most importantly, it provides specific program initiatives that offer alternatives to our thinking about prevention and deterrence, with an ultimate focus on keeping kids out of the system altogether.

This book explores young people's 'nested' and 'political' ecological relationships with crime through an empirical investigation of the important 'places' and 'spaces' in young people's lives; in their social relationships with peers and family members; and within formal institutional systems such as education, youth justice and social care.

This book explores the extent to which children engage with questions of morality, arguing that they are active members of society who have both the capacity and understanding to engage with discourses of morality.

This book vigorously challenges the dominant academic view of ASBOs as erroneous tools of social control, and offers an alternative perspective on anti-social behaviour management which argues that ASBOs are capable of enabling a positive process of engagement among local authorities, housing professionals and residents.

Exploring the illegal drug issue in international context, this book looks at why harmonization has not already taken place at the European level. It considers the desirability and viability of harmonization, examines the conflict between repressive and liberal drug policies and applies a multi-level governance lens to the issue.