From Confederation to the partial abolition of the death penalty a century later, defendants convicted of sexually motivated killings and sexually violent homicides in Canada were more likely than any other condemned criminals to be executed for their crimes. Despite the emergence of psychiatric expertise in criminal trials, moral disgust and anger proved more potent in courtrooms, the public mind, and the hearts of the bureaucrats and politicians responsible for determining the outcome of capital cases. Wherever death has been set as the ultimate criminal penalty, the poor, minority groups, and stigmatized peoples have been more likely to be accused, convicted, and executed. Although the vast majority of convicted sex killers were white, Canada's racist notions of "the Indian mind" meant that Indigenous defendants faced the presumption of guilt. Black defendants were also subjected to discriminatory treatment, including near lynchings. In debates about capital punishment, abolitionists expressed concern that prejudices and poverty created the prospect of wrongful convictions. Unique in the ways it reveals the emotional drivers of capital punishment in delivering inequitable outcomes, The Death Penalty and Sex Murder in Canadian History provides a thorough overview of sex murder and the death penalty in Canada. It serves as an essential history and a richly documented cautionary tale for the present.

This book tackles the important question of how we can understand and learn from the school rampage killings that have been prevented. In the flood of recent accounts and analyses of deadly school rampage killings that plague society and inspire widespread public fear, very little attention has been given to the incidents that almost were. Building on Madfis' previous book, The Risk of School Rampage: Assessing and Preventing Threats of School Violence (2014), this vital work addresses key gaps in school violence scholarship through the examination of averted school rampage incidents in the United States and advances existing knowledge through ground-breaking insights from the latest research on mass murder, violence prevention, bystander intervention, disciplinary policy, and threat assessment in school contexts. This empirical study utilizes in-depth interviews conducted with school and police officials (administrators, counselors, security guards, police officers, and teachers) directly involved in averting potential school rampages to explore the processes by which threats are assessed and school rampage plots are thwarted. Madfis finds that many common contemporary school violence prevention policies and practices are ineffective at preventing rampage attacks and may actually increase the likelihood of their occurrence. Rather than uncritically adopting such problematic approaches, Madfis argues that schools must model prevention practices upon what has proven successful in averting potentially deadly incidents.

Innocent people are regularly convicted of crimes they did not commit. A number of systemic factors have been found to contribute to wrongful convictions, including eyewitness misidentification, false confessions, informant testimony, official misconduct, and faulty forensic evidence. In Miscarriages of Justice in Canada, Kathryn M. Campbell offers an extensive overview of wrongful convictions, bringing together current sociological, criminological, and legal research, as well as current case-law examples. For the first time, information on all known and suspected cases of wrongful conviction in Canada is included and interspersed with discussions of how wrongful convictions happen, how existing remedies to rectify them are inadequate, and how those who have been victimized by these errors are rarely compensated. Campbell reveals that the causes of wrongful convictions are, in fact, avoidable, and that those in the criminal justice system must exercise greater vigilance and openness to the possibility of error if the problem of wrongful conviction is to be resolved.

Young Criminal Lives is the first cradle-to-grave study of the experiences of some of the thousands of delinquent, difficult and destitute children passing through the early English juvenile reformatory system. The book breaks new ground in crime research, speaking to pressing present-day concerns around child poverty and youth justice, and resonating with a powerful public fascination for family history. Using innovative digital methods to unlock the Victorian life course, the authors have reconstructed the lives, families and neighbourhoods of 500 children living within, or at the margins of, the early English juvenile reformatory system. Four hundred of them were sent to reformatory and industrial schools in the north west of England from courts around the UK over a fifty-year period from the 1860s onwards. Young Criminal Lives is based on one of the most comprehensive sets of official and personal data ever assembled for a historical study of this kind. For the first time, these children can be followed on their journey in and out of reform and then though their adulthood and old age. The book centres on institutions celebrated in this period for their pioneering new approaches to child welfare and others that were investigated for cruelty and scandal. Both were typical of the new kind of state-certified provision offered, from the 1850s on, to children who had committed criminal acts, or who were considered 'vulnerable' to predation, poverty and the 'inheritance' of criminal dispositions. The notion that interventions can and must be evaluated in order to determine 'what works' now dominates public policy. But how did Victorian and Edwardian policy-makers and practitioners deal with this question? By what criteria, and on the basis of what kinds of evidence, did they judge their own successes and failures? Young Criminal Lives ends with a critical review of the historical rise of evidence-based policy-making within criminal justice. It will appeal to scholars and students of crime and penal policy, criminologists, sociologists, and social policy researchers and practitioners in youth justice and child protection.

One of the key premises for creating a separate criminal justicesystem for juveniles was that juveniles were not the same as adults,and could therefore be rehabilitated. Despite this premise, stilllargely held today, the rate of recidivism for juveniles is dismal.The history of a supposedly rehabilitative juvenile justice systemin the United States is a failed history of incarceration, muchlike that of adult corrections. Rehabilitation by incarcerationhas proven to be an ineffective and unsustainable strategy. Arobust amount of research shows that treating juveniles closer tohome, in fact in their communities, is the most effective tool forrehabilitating juvenile offenders. This book not only makes an argument for juvenile justice withina young person's community; it provides a model. Tarrant CountyJuvenile Services has been an exception to the national normfrom the beginning. This book will trace the history of Texas'soldest juvenile probation department and the legacy left by theleaders of this agency from its inception. The reader will take awayvivid pictures of the leaders who transformed the system, andreal-life examples of the key concepts underlying an effective andsustainable juvenile justice system, with accountability both forjuvenile offenders and for their communities.

From the late-nineteenth to mid-twentieth century juvenile reformatories served as citizen-building institutions and a political tool of state racism in post-emancipation America. New South advocates cemented their regional affiliation by using these reformatories to showcase mercies which were racialized, gendered, and linked to sexuality. Southern Mercy uses four historical examples of juvenile reformatories in North Carolina to explore how spectacles of mercy have influenced Southern modernity. Working through archival material pertaining to race and moral uplift, including rare photos from the private archives of Samarcand Manor (the State Home and Industrial Manor for Girls) and restricted archival records of reformatory racial policies, Annette Bickford examines the limits of emancipation, and the exclusions inherent in liberal humanism that distinguish racism in the contemporary "post-race" era.

"The Child Savers deeply influenced me and dozens of other feminist scholars who have studied social policy critically. This reissue is remarkable in allowing us to rethink it, and nowhere more valuable than in Tony Platt's own thoughtful reconsideration."- Linda Gordon, professor of history, New York University "The Child Savers, at forty, is a classic. Accompanied by lively contributions that reflect on its impact and outline recent research, this new edition will ensure that the book lives on, its message always challenging, its relevance undiminished."- Hugh Cunningham, emeritus professor of social history, University of Kent "The Child Savers is a classic, and the updated edition is even more relevant today; a must for the informed public and the perceptive student."- Jock Young, Distinguished Professor of Criminal Justice, Graduate Center, City University of New York and John Jay College "Platt's brilliant inquiry into the oxymoron of juvenile justice demands again that we upend our ritualized system of punishing, containing, and crushing our defiant young."-Bernardine Dohrn, Northwestern University School of Law Hailed as a definitive analytical and historical study of the juvenile justice system, this 40th anniversary edition of The Child Savers features a new essay by Anthony M. Platt that highlights recent directions in the field, as well as a critique of his original text. This expanded edition includes insightful commentaries from cross-disciplinary academics, along with an introductory essay by Miroslava Chavez-Garcia, critically examining how Platt's influential study has impacted many of the central arguments social scientists and historians face today. Anthony M. Platt is a professor emeritus at California State University, Sacramento. He is the author of several books on American history, social policy, and race relations. A volume in the Critical Issues in Crime and Society series, edited by Raymond J. Michalowski

Since its implementation in 2003, the Youth Criminal Justice Act has been the subject of intense political and scholarly debate. A complicated mixture of provisions intended to provide harsher punishments for serious violent crimes while encouraging positive, non-punitive interventions in less serious cases, its impact on the youth justice system remains controversial. Implementing and Working with the Youth Criminal Justice Act across Canada provides the first comprehensive, province-by-province analysis of how each Canadian jurisdiction has implemented the Act in accordance with its own history, traditions, and institutional arrangements. Drawing on in-depth interviews with probation officers, counselors, educators, and social workers, the contributors use the experiences of practitioners to offer a new analytical perspective on a complicated and contentious aspect of the Canadian justice system. Their conclusions provide vital policy and program information for researchers, practitioners, and policy makers concerned with Canada's youth justice systems.

A great number of incarcerated youth have diagnosable psychiatric problems and, while in detention, this population experiences events that make them more vulnerable to disorders of mental health. This issue of Child & Adolescent Psychiatric Clinics is edited and authored by psychiatrists expert in working with youth in detention. Topics include Demographics of youth in detention; Mental health screening and assessment; Mental health care of detained youth and solitary confinement and restraint within juvenile detention facilities; Civil and constitutional rights of adjudicated youth; Community based alternatives to incarceration and assessment and community based planning for probation/community based alternatives; The role of the child and adolescent psychiatrist in the adjudicatory assessments; Screening and assessment of detained youth; Quality of education for youth in the juvenile detention system; Variety of out-of-home placements for juvenile offenders; Juvenile sexual offenders; Sexual exploitation of children in detention; Transfer from juvenile to adult court: Which states have the most effective models? ; Competence to stand trial; Firesetting. Clinical vignettes are presented with each topic to exemplify a case of the discussion.

What should be done with minors who kill, maim, defile, and destroy the lives of others? The state of Texas deals with some of its most serious and violent youthful offenders through "determinate sentencing," a unique sentencing structure that blends parts of the juvenile and adult justice systems. Once adjudicated via determinate sentencing, offenders are first incarcerated in the Texas Youth Commission (TYC). As they approach age eighteen, they are either transferred to the Texas prison system to serve the remainder of their original determinate sentence or released from TYC into Texas's communities. The first long-term study of determinate sentencing in Texas, Lost Causes examines the social and delinquent histories, institutionalization experiences, and release and recidivism outcomes of more than 3,000 serious and violent juvenile offenders who received such sentences between 1987 and 2011. The authors seek to understand the process, outcomes, and consequences of determinate sentencing, which gave serious and violent juvenile offenders one more chance to redeem themselves or to solidify their place as the next generation of adult prisoners in Texas. The book's findings-that about 70 percent of offenders are released to the community during their most crime-prone years instead of being transferred to the Texas prison system and that about half of those released continue to reoffend for serious crimes-make Lost Causes crucial reading for all students and practitioners of juvenile and criminal justice.

By the close of the twentieth century, the United States became known for its reliance on incarceration as the chief means of social control, particularly in poor communities of color. The carceral state has been extended into the public school system in these communities in what has become known as the ""school-to-prison pipeline."" Through interviews with young people suspended from school, Weissman examines the impact of zero tolerance and other harsh disciplinary approaches that have transformed schools into penal-like institutions. In their own words, students describe their lives, the challenges they face, and their efforts to overcome those challenges. Unlike other studies, this book illuminates the students' perspectives on what happens when the educational system excludes them from regular school. Weissman draws attention to research findings that suggest punitive disciplinary policies and practices resemble criminal justice strategies of arrest, trial, sentence, and imprisonment. She demonstrates how harsh school discipline prepares young people from poor communities of color for their place in the carceral state. An invaluable resource for policy makers, Prelude to Prison presents recommendations for policy, practice, and political change that have the potential to dismantle the school-to-prison pipeline.

This book provides a comprehensive, cutting-edge look at the problems that impact the way we conduct intervention and treatment for youth in crisis today-an indispensable resource for practitioners, students, researchers, policymakers, and faculty working in the area of juvenile justice. Understanding Juvenile Justice and Delinquency provides a concise overview of the most compelling issues in juvenile delinquency today. It covers not only the range of offenses but also the offenders themselves as well as those impacted by crime and delinquency. All of the chapters contain up-to-date research, laws, and data that accurately frame discussions on youth violence, detention, and treatment; related issues such as gangs and drugs; the consequences for scholars, teachers, and students; and best practices in intervention methods. The book's organization guides readers logically from the broader definitions and parameters of the study of juveniles to the more specific. The volume leads with an explanation of the relationship between victimization and juvenile behavior and sets up boundaries of the arenas of delinquency-from the family to the streets to cyberspace. The book then focuses on more specific populations of offenders and offenses, including recent, emerging issues, offering the most accurate information available and cutting-edge insight into the issues that affect youth in custody and in our communities. Provides insights into juvenile justice from contributors and editors who have extensive experience in teaching, researching, and writing on the subject Represents an ideal teaching text for courses in juvenile justice-a staple topic in all criminology and criminal justice college programs Presents analysis and evaluation of techniques used and programs employed, enabling readers to be better advocates for law and policy impacting youth Includes discussion questions appropriate for classroom settings and lists of additional resources, related websites, and supporting films that guide students in investigating the subject further Supplies updated data and information on policy and law that will serve as a vital resource for students writing papers or scholars teaching in the field of juvenile justice

* Real life stories with expert analysis * Case studies and comment * Provides a valuable perspective on youth offending * Contains key messages about youth crime The voices of young offenders-the real life stories behind the worrying and sometimes tragic lives of those who get into trouble with the law. Setting these within the context of descriptions of youth justice policy, Jackie Worrall conveys to her readers an understanding of how and why young people become offenders going far beyond that to be gleaned from everyday rhetoric and theory. Why Did You Do It? contains raw, first-hand accounts of young people involved in crime. These stories cast a different light on youth offending to that so often portrayed by the media, making this new and insightful work a valuable resource for anyone trying to grasp the social, penal or criminological implications of youth crime. What are the traps that can ensnare young people as they grow up and the triggers which can so easily see them onto the wrong side of the tracks? In Why Did You Do It? Jackie Worrall sets out their explanations, examines a critical phase in their lives and dissects the political mantra, over-tidy solutions and off-the-cuff responses. Review 'Having worked with offenders for decades, Jackie Worrall's experience and knowledge is unparalleled' Paul McDowell, CEO, Nacro. Author Dr Jackie Worrall was born in London and read law at Warwick University before working as a probation officer in Birmingham and Warwickshire. In 1982, she joined Nacro, the crime reduction charity, as manager of a youth training scheme. During her career she took on a variety of crime-related responsibilities for Nacro, culminating in her role as that organization's Director of Policy and Public Affairs-and hence her unrivalled knowledge and experience when dissecting the explanations or excuses in this book. Foreword With a Foreword by Paul MacDowell, Chief Executive of Nacro.

Over the last two decades, researchers have made significant discoveries about the causes and origins of delinquency. Specifically, we have learned a great deal about adolescent development and its relationship to decision-making, about multiple factors that contribute to delinquency, and about the processes and contexts associated with the course of delinquent careers. Over the same period, public officials have made sweeping jurisprudential, jurisdictional, and procedural changes in our juvenile justice systems. The Oxford Handbook of Juvenile Crime and Juvenile Justice presents a timely compilation of state-of-the-art critical reviews of knowledge about causes of delinquency and their significance for justice policy, and about developments in the juvenile justice system to prevent and control youth crime. The first half of the handbook focuses on juvenile crime and examines trends and patterns in delinquency and victimization, explores causes of delinquency-at the individual, micro-social, and macro-social levels, and from natural and social science perspectives-and their implications for structuring a youth justice system. The second half of the handbook concentrates on juvenile justice and examines a range of issues-including the historical origins and re-invention of the juvenile court; juvenile offenders' mental health status and considerations of trial competence and culpability; intake, diversion, detention, and juvenile courts; and transfer/waiver strategies-and considers how the juvenile justice system itself influences delinquency. The Oxford Handbook of Juvenile Crime and Juvenile Justice provides a comprehensive overview of juvenile crime and juvenile justice administration by authors who are all leading scholars involved in cutting-edge research, and is an essential resource for scholars, students, and justice officials. "Many volumes of this sort aspire to such balance, but this one succeeds. For those looking for a one-stop approach to the primary debates in this important subfield, this is the place to start shopping."-CHOICE

To date, knowledge of the everyday world of the juvenile correction institution has been extremely sparse. Compassionate Confinement brings to light the challenges and complexities inherent in the U.S. system of juvenile corrections. Building on over a year of field work at a boys' residential facility, Laura S. Abrams and Ben Anderson-Nathe provide a context for contemporary institutions and highlight some of the system's most troubling tensions. This ethnographic text utilizes narratives, observations, and case examples to illustrate the strain between treatment and correctional paradigms and the mixed messages regarding gender identity and masculinity that the youths are expected to navigate. Within this context, the authors use the boys' stories to show various and unexpected pathways toward behavior change. While some residents clearly seized opportunities for self-transformation, others manipulated their way toward release, and faced substantial challenges when they returned home. Compassionate Confinement concludes with recommendations for rehabilitating this notoriously troubled system in light of the experiences of its most vulnerable stakeholders.

This exploration of juvenile corrections librarianship provides a complete description of these specialized services, addresses unique challenges in this library environment, and promotes intellectual and social growth for at-risk youth. The facts regarding juvenile corrections are grim. In California alone, 13,000 youth are housed as wards of the state. Rearrest rates for young people in detention and correction facilities range from 77 to 90 percent. The good news is youth corrections librarianship has the potential to improve the situation. This book fills a gap in the literature on corrections librarianship, which is focused almost solely on adult prisons. Programs for juvenile offenders require significantly more emphasis on education and rehabilitation than adults. There is also greater urgency in delivering needed services to youth offenders. Literacy: A Way Out for At-Risk Youth provides librarians in juvenile detention facilities with tools to face their unique challenges, such as collaborating with corrections staff and encouraging youth to maintain their connection to the library after release. The author's recommendations for reader's advisory, collection development, and other services are geared toward helping teens cope with their problems and develop better decision making skills. Provides a brief history of juvenile detention and juvenile detention libraries in the United States Describes and explains current service models in juvenile detention center libraries Includes demographic charts, process maps, and historical photographs Supplies bibliographic references following each chapter

"[Gangs in America's Communities] is one of the most comprehensive treatments of gangs in the marketplace. . . . I highly recommend its adoption as you will not be disappointed and, most importantly, neither will your students." -Elvira White-Lewis, Texas A&M University-Commerce Gangs in America's Communities, Third Edition blends theory with current research to help readers identify essential features associated with youth violence and gangs, as well as apply strategies for gang control and prevention. Authors Dr. James C. Howell and Dr. Elizabeth Griffiths introduce readers to theories of gang formation, illustrate various ways of defining and classifying gangs, and discuss national trends in gang presence and gang-related violence across American cities. They also offer evidence-based strategies for positioning communities to prevent, intervene, and address gang activity. New to the Third Edition: A series of new case studies document the evolution of numerous gangs in large cities, including the community aspect, evolutionary nature, and how cities influence levels of violence. New discussions highlighting the role of social media, insights into how gangs use it to recruit members, and the response from law enforcement. Current nationwide gang trends are discussed to encourage readers to analyze and interpret the most recent statistics for which representative data is available. Updated macro and micro gang theories enable readers to explore a recent encapsulation of leading developmental models. New discussions around female gang members offer readers potentially effective programs for discouraging females from joining gangs-along with highly regarded delinquency prevention and reduction programs that have the potency to be effective in reducing gang crimes among young women. A comprehensive gang prevention, intervention, and suppression program in Multnomah County, Oregon shows how theory was successfully applied to reduce gang activity in a local community. New research on "gang structures" and their rates of crime illustrate the connections between violent crimes and the amount of violent offenders within a gang. Additional discussion of distinguishing features (e.g., typologies) of major gangs, and numerous examples of gang symbols, tattoos, and graffiti has been added to help readers identify and differentiate various types of gangs.

A veteran teacher gives an "inside" view of the lives of juveniles sentenced as adults
David Chura taught high school in a New York county penitentiary for ten years--five days a week, seven hours a day. In these pages, he""gives a face to a population regularly demonized and reduced to statistics""by the mainstream media. Through language marked by both the grit of the street and the expansiveness of poetry, the stories of these young people break down the di-visions we so easily erect between us and them, the keepers and the kept--and call into question the increasing practice of sentencing juveniles as adults.

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.

Violence by and against youth continues to be one of the most challenging subjects facing criminologists.a In this comprehensive and integrated analysis of the interrelationships of youth violence, violent victimization, and gang membership, Finn-Aage Esbensen, Dana Peterson, Terrance J. Taylor and Adrienne Freng seek to understand what causes youth violence and what can be done about it. Using the results from an inclusive study they conducted of eighth-graders in eleven American cities, the authors examine how the nature, etiology, and intersections of youth violence are structured by both sex and race/ethnicity. a

a

"Youth Violence "is pertinent to juvenile justice policy considerations. The authors frame their discussion within the public health perspective, focusing on risk factors associated with violent behavior. The" "findings address prevalence and incidence, as well as the demographic correlates and cumulative effects of the risk factors associated with engagement in violence.a Ultimately, the theories and research methodologies here are essential for understanding the dynamics of youth violence.aaa

A revolutionary book that offers a fresh, bold approach to confronting the juvenile crime epidemic With the rise of violent crimes committed by teenagers in recent years, heated discussion has arisen over the societal factors that lead to juvenile criminality and the ways that public institutions are failing to curtail them. Now a team of experts with decades of collective hands-on experience present a book that cuts through the hype and paranoia to offer real solutions. Drawing on actual case studies, Dispatches from Juvenile Hall shows how conventional ?tough on crime? tactics have only worsened the problem, and presents a new blueprint for change that incorporates punitive action, rehabilitation, and family intervention?a progressive program that will encourage and enlighten all those concerned about the future of our youth.

Despite the fact that media bombard the public with the notion that sex offenders are everywhere-and could be just next door-official sources show that official sex offense rates have been steadily declining over the past 10 years. Yet, when a juvenile is accused of a sexually-based crime, media attention is swift and relentless. The truth about juvenile sex offenders is often, therefore, misunderstood. In many cases, such offenders are victims themselves. Here, Gibson and Vandiver reveal the truth about juvenile sex offenders and what can be done to help them and to prevent the cycle of abuse that leads to such tragic outcomes. This book sets the records straight about juvenile sex offending. It provides accurate, up-to-date statistics, real life cases, and information about offender characteristics, victim characteristics, family factors, social issues, media involvement, and other related areas. It offers explanations for juvenile sex offending from a variety of perspectives and reviews legal and criminal responses to the problem. Included are discussions of female offenders, punitive measures to prevent repeat offenses, and other steps the federal government and individual states are taking to address the problem. The authors conclude with advice on how to protect children from becoming victims and how to prevent sexual offending in the first place.

A refined young lady stands proudly in front of the mirror in her bedroom remembering the teachers and parents who told her she'd never amount to anything. She herself even doubted, at one time, that she would ever overcome her addictions. It's the '80s: Stefany reaches puberty and begins to compare her lifestyle to other people she comes in contact with. She is faced with the cruelties of childhood and begins looking for an outlet. Media influence, gang activity is on the rise, and the pregnancy rate is the highest in their district. Stefany's teachers notice a change in her behavior when she walks into her eighth-grade class with makeup on her face, tight jeans and a nasty attitude. Society is rapidly changing for the worst. Young ladies were acting out more aggressively than the young men, and parents couldn't prepare for what was to come. ************ Stefany's downfall is a chain reaction. Reverend Sowell is sickly and Mrs. Sowell cannot control her. After her father's death, her sister Elaine, living in North Carolina, suggests to their Mother that she put their apartment building up for sale, and move Stefany there. The change is good, however, she picks up some of her old bad habits, despite her family's efforts to steer her in the right direction. She eventually gets a job, graduates from high school, and is accepted into a historically black university where she faces more challenges. Stefany eventually develops self -love and continues striving for success. She finally matures and goes back to her church roots. Through her transformation, she discovers what really matters in life. *Note: Names have been changed to protect the innocent and the guilty.

Youth Justice is a key area of the current governments criminal justice policy in England and Wales. It has been the subject of an inordinate amount of recent legislation seeking to enhance the criminal courts powers to punish and prevent offending and re-offending by young people. This legislation attempts to prevent offending through criminal justice measures and there is little attempt to use non-criminal or civil law procedures to achieve the same result. This book seeks to challenge that focus and to question why delinquency in young people has been so firmly criminalized in this jurisdiction. The book addresses the consequences of criminalization in terms of the effectiveness of the measures used as well as the implications for the social construction of youth and childhood and our attitudes towards the young. Criminalization of young peoples behaviour results in them being labeled as criminal,losing identity as an individual, losing their childhood through the process of taking adult responsibility for their actions and, in policy terms, becoming viewed as a crime problem rather than as a product of failing social policy regarding employment, education and youth culture. At a society level it is contended that the identification of young people with criminal activity and the negative public image that results creates a culture of fear and distrust which may in turn create further possibilities for criminalization of their behaviour. A comparative perspective in this work examines welfare-based responses to youth crime in other European jurisdictions and questions whether the criminal justice process is an appropriate context in which to deal with young peoples problematic behaviour. This book has been shortlisted for the 2007 SLSA Book Prize.

As juvenile justice dominates the headlines, the time has come to reexamine the history of this controversial institution. In Transforming Juvenile Justice, Steven L. Schlossman traces the evolution of the idea that young lawbreakers, or potential lawbreakers, merit special treatment. He closely examines the Milwaukee Juvenile Court and the Wisconsin State Reform School to reveal how Progressive theory-the belief that rehabilitation and careful oversight should replace punishment of delinquent youth-played out in practice. Since its original publication in 1977, Schlossman's history of the juvenile justice system contributed to the debate on the delinquency problem and remains a landmark study today. In an engaging new introduction for this fresh edition of his classic, Schlossman reveals his sources of inspiration and relates his discovery of the rare records that offered an exclusive glimpse into the Milwaukee court's day-to-day operations. His account of the changing definitions of delinquency and reformers' attempts to remedy it offers insights on dilemmas that continue to plague American society.