Over several hundred years, the juvenile justice system has evolved from one in which a child offender was prosecuted under the same guidelines used for adults to the current system in which society has recognized the unique status of juveniles within the criminal justice framework. Written by world-renowned legal scholar Cliff Roberson, Juvenile Justice: Theory and Practice provides a comprehensive overview of the system that administers the prosecution of young offenders. It examines how the juvenile justice system began, its current state, and the direction it appears to be heading. Topics discussed include: Types of juvenile delinquency cases, arrest statistics, juvenile justice organizations, and the concept of judicial waiver The history of juvenile courts, including the parens patriae doctrine, early laws, In re Gault, and concepts of reform versus punishment Delinquency causation philosophies, including social, cultural deviance, symbolic interactionist, and psychological theories Types of abuse and neglect, child protective services, and child abuse prevention programs Law enforcement agencies, the structure of juvenile courts, juvenile court procedures, transfers to criminal court, and the concept of individual rights Juvenile probation and parole, juvenile institutions, group homes, boot camps, and shock programs Selected issues in juvenile justice, including drug abuse, juvenile sex offenders, and youth gangs The book cites actual court cases to demonstrate concepts, provides review questions at the end of each chapter, and includes a glossary of relevant terms. A concise and practical text on juvenile justice, this volume facilitates understanding of this complex and critical subject.

In the context of two hundred years of American colonial control in the Pacific, Katherine Irwin and Karen Umemoto shed light on the experiences of today's inner city and rural girls and boys in Hawaii who face racism, sexism, poverty, and political neglect. Basing their book on nine years of ethnographic research, the authors highlight how legacies of injustice endure, prompting teens to fight for dignity and the chance to thrive in America, a nation that the youth describe as inherently "jacked up"-rigged-and "unjust." While the story begins with the youth battling multiple contingencies, it ends on a hopeful note with many of the teens overcoming numerous hardships, often with the guidance of steadfast, caring adults.

The Handbook of Juvenile Forensic Psychology is a comprehensive handbook for mental health professionals working with juveniles in the criminal justice system and in family and dependency courts. Written by a panel of experts in the field, the book focuses on the proactive prevention, accurate evaluation, and progressive treatment for delinquent juveniles and for juveniles caught in the web of a contentious divorce or in the foster care system.

To reveal how membership in adolescent street gangs influences human development, the authors examine the origins of gang membership and the social and psychological factors that lead to joining. After demonstrating that gang members are responsible for the major share of serious and violent delinquency, they indicate how membership facilitates delinquent behavior and other developmental problems such as teen pregnancy and school dropout.

After decades of rigorous study in the United States and across the Western world, a great deal is known about the early risk factors for offending. High impulsiveness, low attainment, criminal parents, parental conflict, and growing up in a deprived, high-crime neighborhood are among the most important factors. There is also a growing body of high quality scientific evidence on the effectiveness of early prevention programs designed to prevent children from embarking on a life of crime.
Drawing on the latest evidence, Saving Children from a Life of Crime is the first book to assess the early causes of offending and what works best to prevent it. Preschool intellectual enrichment, child skills training, parent management training, and home visiting programs are among the most effective early prevention programs. Criminologists David Farrington and Brandon Welsh also outline a policy strategy--early prevention--that uses this current research knowledge and brings into sharper focus what America's national crime fighting priority ought to be.
At a time when unacceptable crime levels in America, rising criminal justice costs, and a punitive crime policy have spurred a growing interest in the early prevention of delinquency, Farrington and Welsh here lay the groundwork for change with a comprehensive national prevention strategy to save children from a life of crime.

Prisons don't work, but prisoners do. Prisons are often critiqued as unjust, but we hear little about the daily labour of incarcerated workers - what they do, how they do it, who they do it for and under which conditions. Unions protect workers fighting for better pay and against discrimination and occupational health and safety concerns, but prisoners are denied this protection despite being the lowest paid workers with the least choice in what they do - the most vulnerable among the working class. Starting from the perspective that work during imprisonment is not "rehabilitative," this book examines the reasons why people should care about prison labour and how prisoners have struggled to organize for labour power in the past. Unionizing incarcerated workers is critical for both the labour movement and struggles for prison justice, this book argues, to negotiate changes to working conditions as well as the power dynamics within prisons themselves.

The application of psychological principles to research and practice in crime prevention, detection, legal processes and offender treatment is a feature of the growing number of advanced undergraduate courses and graduate courses, and professional training programmes. This book reflects the need to provide an overview of psychological knowledge and its forensic applications and implications, to psychology students and its forensic applications and implications, to psychology students and to related professional disciplines such as psychiatry, nursing, policing, law, prison work and probation.
The Editors are very well known academics and clinicians. The chapters are written by contributors who are recognised leaders in their own fields, and they have provided accessible accounts of the applications and implications of behavioural sciences for their peers, and for professionals and students in other disciplines. Multi-professional case work and innovative approaches to crime and offenders are being supported by research, by poicy and by legislation. There is a growing need to provide a wide range of professionals with a common framework and knowledge base to aid their shared understanding of crime and offenders, and of related interventions.
"Behaviour, Crime and Legal Processes will be of great interest to psychologists, psychiatrists, lawyers and others concerned with understanding and treating offenders. The book is readable, scholarly and wide-ranging, covering legal issues, psychology and the police, witness evidence, decision-making in court, criminological theories, risk assessment and the treatment of mentally disordered and sex offenders." - Professor David Farrington, Institute of Criminology, University of Cambridge, UK

This book presents a study of co-offending relations among youths under 21 suspected of criminal offenses in Stockholm during 1991-1995. In total, the study includes just over 22,000 individuals suspected of around 29,000 offenses. Jerzy Sarnecki employs the method of network analysis that makes it possible to study the ties, social bonds, interactions, differential associations and connections that are central to many of the sociologically oriented theories on the etiology of crime. Up to now, network analysis had been used only rarely in the criminological context.

Why are females rarely antisocial and males antisocial so often? This is one of the key questions addressed in a fresh approach to sex differences in the causes, course and consequences of antisocial behavior. A multidisciplinary team of authors present all-new findings from the landmark Dunedin Longitudinal Study and also provide new insights into such topics as the importance of puberty, diagnostic issues in psychiatry, the problem of domestic violence and the intergenerational transmission of antisocial behavior.

There is a growing consensus that offender rehabilitation, prison regimes, and the treatment of offenders with special needs must be based on research, methods and experience that are effective, humane and related to individual, organisational, and social considerations. This authoritative, comprehensive and international handbook will fill this need, as a resource for advanced students and professional courses and for researchers and practitioners.

The Handbook provides an up-to-date review of current knowledge and best practice in the rehabilitation and treatment of offenders, in coomunity, prison and secure hospital settings. Major sections cover the rationale and objectives of treatment, risk assessment, the whole range of approaches to treatment (including behavioural/cognitive, family work, reasoning, rehabilitation, and anger management), and the assessment and treatment of various categories of offenders and problems (with detailed chapters that include child abuse, violence, mentally disordered offenders and sex offenders). A final section of the Handbook deals with different types of treatment settings - maximum security hospitals, residential settings, and in the community.

This important volume will be essential for prison and correctional services, forensic psychologists and psychiatrists and mental health nurses working with offenders, and probation and coummunity workers, and also for libraries serving academics and professionals in criminology, law and penal policy.

This handbook combines the latest theory on a high-profile, complex subject in criminology, exploring the legal and ethical dimensions of society s response to sex offenders in jurisdictions from the USA to Japan. * The first publication to offer a detailed and wide-ranging analysis of legal and ethical issues relating to sex offender treatment and management * Covers a range of related issues, from media coverage to equality duties * Presents research from numerous national jurisdictions including the UK, USA, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Norway, Germany, Netherlands, Japan, and Israel * Includes perspectives from respected leading academics and practitioners, including William Marshall, Tony Ward, Doug Boer, Daniel Wilcox, and Marnie Rice

This book addresses how and why criminal offenders repeat their actions after being released from prison. It is part of an attempt to explain criminal behavior within the context of a contemporary psychological understanding of behavior, rather than more traditional theories of crime. Over 300 male criminal "repeat offenders" were interviewed and tested. The results indicate that their new offenses may be the result of something like a "breakdown." This report, written for a general audience, has important implications for release supervision, rehabilitation programs, and the prediction of recidivism.

2007 Ruth Shonle Cavan Young Scholar Award presented by the American Society of Criminology

2007 American Society of Criminology Michael J. Hindelang Award for the Most Outstanding Contribution to Research in Criminology

By comparing how adolescents are prosecuted and punished in juvenile and criminal (adult) courts, Aaron Kupchik finds that prosecuting adolescents in criminal court does not fit with our cultural understandings of youthfulness. As a result, adolescents who are transferred to criminal courts are still judged as juveniles. Ultimately, Kupchik makes a compelling argument for the suitability of juvenile courts in treating adolescents. Judging Juveniles suggests that justice would be better served if adolescents were handled by the system designed to address their special needs.

Corruption is a problem in prisons about which we hear very little, except when there is an escape from custody or other scandal that makes the media. The closed nature of correctional institutions has made the activities that go on within them less visible to the outside world. While some persons might be inclined to dismiss correctional corruption as an issue, this view ignores the scale of criminality and misconduct that can go on in prison and the impact it can have upon not just the good order of the prison or the rights of prisoners but on the prospects for successful reintegration of ex-prisoners into society. This book is the first to examine the phenomenon in any detail or to suggest what might be done to reduce its incidence and the harms that can arise from it. Andrew Goldsmith, Mark Halsey and Andrew Groves argue that it is not enough to tackle corruption alone. Rather there should be a broader attempt to promote what the authors call 'correctional integrity'.

"Revolutionary love, revolutionary memory and revolutionary analysis are at work in every page written by Mumia Abu-Jamal ...His writings are a wake-up call. He is a voice from our prophetic tradition, speaking to us here, now, lovingly, urgently. Black man, old-school jazz man, freedom fighter, revolutionary--his presence, his voice, his words are the writing on the wall."--Cornel West, from the foreword From the first slave writings to contemporary hip hop, the canon of African American literature offers a powerful counter-narrative to dominant notions of American culture, history and politics. Resonant with voices of prophecy and resistance, the African American literary tradition runs deep with emancipatory currents that have had an indelible impact on the United States and the world. Mumia Abu-Jamal has been one of our most important contributors to this canon for decades, writing from the confines of the U.S. prison system to give voice to those most silenced by chronic racism, impoverishment and injustice. Writing on the Wall is a selection of more than 100 previously unpublished essays that deliver Mumia Abu-Jamal's essential perspectives on community, politics, power, and the possibilities of social change in the United States. From Rosa Parks to Edward Snowden, from the Trail of Tears to Ferguson, Missouri, Abu-Jamal addresses a sweeping range of contemporary and historical issues. Written mostly during his years of solitary confinement on Death Row, these essays are a testament to Abu-Jamal's often prescient insight, and his revolutionary perspective brims with hope, encouragement and profound faith in the possibility of redemption. "Greatness meets us in this book, and not just in Mumia's personal courage and character. It's in the writing. This is art with political power, challenging institutional injustice in the U.S. while catalyzing our understanding, memory and solidarities for liberation and love. Writing on the Wall can set the nation aflame--yes, for creating new possible worlds." --Mark Lewis Taylor, Professor of Theology and Culture, Princeton Theological Seminary Mumia Abu-Jamal is an award-winning journalist and author of two best-selling books, Live From Death Row and Death Blossoms. Johanna Fernandez is a Fulbright Scholar and Professor of History at Baruch College in New York City. Cornel West is a scholar, philosopher, activist and author of over a dozen books including his bestseller, Race Matters. He appears frequently in the media, and has appeared on Real Time with Bill Maher, The Colbert Report, CNN and C-Span as well as Tavis Smiley.

In his engaging narrative history of the rise and workings of America's first juvenile court, David S. Tanenhaus explores the fundamental and enduring question of how the law should treat the young. Sifting through almost 3,000 previously unexamined Chicago case files from the early twentieth century, Tanenhaus reveals how children's advocates slowly built up a separate system for juveniles, all the while fighting political and legal battles to legitimate this controversial institution. Harkening back to a more hopeful and nuanced age, Juvenile Justice in the Making provides a valuable historical framework for thinking about youth policy.

A Disturbing and Shocking Expose-A Passionate Cry for Reform

Prison Madness exposes the brutality and failure of today's correctional system-for all prisoners-but especially the incredible conditions Andured by those suffering from serious mental disorders.

"A passionately argued and brilliantly written wake-up call to America about the myriad ways our penal systems brutalize our entire culture. Dr. Kupers not only diagnoses the problem, he also offers a set of solutions. I hope this book will be read by all concerned citizens and voters, for it conveys truths that are vitally important to all of us."-James Gilligan, Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, and author of Violence: Reflections on a National Epidemic

Can offenders be rehabilitated? Can this be done in ways that benefit the community as a whole, as well as offenders? This book is about the history, theory, practice and effectiveness of rehabilitation. It shows how different beliefs about the value of rehabilitation and about 'what works' have influenced criminal justice policy and practice at different times, and it identifies a number of promising approaches for the future. Everyone interested in the rehabilitation of offenders should read this book.

American Juvenile Justice is a definitive volume for courses on the criminology and policy analysis of adolescence. The focus is on the principles and policy of a separate and distinct system of juvenile justice. The book opens with an introduction of the creation of adolescence, presenting a justification for the category of the juvenile or a period of partial responsibility before full adulthood. Subsequent sections include empirical investigations of the nature of youth criminality and legal policy toward youth crime. At the heart of the book is an argument for a penal policy that recognizes diminished responsibility and a youth policy that emphasizes the benefits of letting the maturing process continue with minimal interruption. The book concludes with applications of the core concerns to five specific problem areas in current juvenile justice: teen pregnancy, transfer to criminal court, minority overrepresentation, juvenile gun use, and youth homicide.

People behave in ways that make sense to them and are consistent with their own understanding and views of the world. Offenders are no different, and personal construct theory and techniques offer the clinician and therapist a powerful framework for understanding an individual s view of the world, which has practical implications for assessment and treatment. Julia Houston has many years experience of using Personal Construct Psychology (PCP) in offender rehabilitation. Her book is aimed at clinical and forensic psychologists, psychiatrists and nurses, and probation officers and social workers, who work with offenders in secure or community settings. For those unfamiliar with PCP this book provides a concise introduction to the concepts, and methods (principally the use of repertory grids), which would be useful in many clinical and therapeutic settings. But the unique feature of the book is the focus on offender assessment and treatment, showing how PCP relates to offending behaviour and offenders, and demonstrating how PCP is used with a variety of offender types. There are specialised chapters on young offenders, violent offenders, sexual offenders, personality disordered offenders, mentally ill offenders and those with problems of alcohol or drug abuse.

Sexual offenders - arguably the most hated and feared of all offenders - commit their crimes in our communities and are then hidden from public view as they serve long prison sentences. However, despite the public's understandable anxiety, our criminal justice systems hold to the premise that almost all offenders have the right to hope for rehabilitation, even redemption. Therefore the majority of sexual offenders return to live in our communities, closely monitored by criminal justice agencies and subject to rigorous controls. This book provides an authoritative guide to working with sexual offenders, with a focus on managing those who are reintegrating into the community. It includes those with the most striking histories of trauma and psychological difficulty, and those who have previously failed in their attempts at resettlement. It covers helpful theoretical ideas, such as attachment theory and models of desistance, as well as the latest evidence base for good quality risk assessment. The book supports practitioners on the front line of this work by providing them with evidence-based guidance. It presents a multitude of case examples and practice tips that can support effective decision making and achieve safe outcomes, as well as help such offenders build worthwhile community lives.

This highly topical book integrates theory and practice about children and their education provision in secure accommodation. Bridging the fields of education, health, and youth justice, it provides a unique interdisciplinary perspective outlining the importance of taking a holistic approach to the education and rehabilitation of children who are 'locked up'. The book has brought together contributors from across the UK and beyond to share their academic research, practical knowledge, and experiences working with children and young people. Shedding light on the intricacies and realities of working in the context of secure settings, the book is divided into the following five parts: Contextualising the field Practice insights Case examples and models of practice Inclusion and voice Recommendations from research Children and Their Education in Secure Accommodation unravels the complexity of the topic and offers 'whole-system' perspectives, as well as a child-centred view, on the issue of educating and rehabilitating children and the needs and rights of children in such settings. With unique and valuable insights from those involved in policy or provision, this book will be an essential text for researchers, practitioners, and students in this interdisciplinary field.

Privatisation was introduced into the probation service on the 1st June 2014 whereby work with medium and low risk offenders went to a number of private and voluntary bodies, work with high risk offenders remained with the State. The National Probation Service (NPS) covered State work whilst the 35 existing Probation Trusts were replaced by 21 Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRCs). Staff were allocated to either side of the divide but all remained as probation officers. The effect was that the existing probation service lost control of all but 30,000 of the most high risk cases, with the other 220,000 low to medium risk offenders being farmed out to private firms. Privatisation was justified as the only available way of achieving important policy objectives of extending post release supervision to offenders on short sentences, a group who are the most prolific offenders with high reconviction rates yet who receive no statutory support. This book describes the process by which the probation service became privatised, assessing its impact on the probation service itself, and on the criminal justice system generally. It considers both the justifications for privatisation, as well as the criticisms of it, and asks to what extent the probation service can survive such changes, and what future it has as a service dedicated to the welfare of offenders. It demonstrates how the privatisation of probation can be seen as a trend away from traditional public service in criminal justice towards an emphasis on efficiency and cost effectiveness. This book is essential reading for criminology students engaged with criminal justice, social policy, probation, punishment and working with offenders. It will also be key reading for practitioners and policy makers in jurisdictions where there is an interest in extending their own privatisation practice.

At a time when Europe is witnessing major cultural, social, economic and political challenges and transformations, this book brings together leading researchers and experts to consider a range of pressing questions relating to the historical origins, contemporary manifestations and future prospects for juvenile justice. Questions considered include: How has the history of juvenile justice evolved across Europe and how might the past help us to understand the present and signal the future? What do we know about contemporary juvenile crime trends in Europe and how are nation states responding? Is punitivity and intolerance eclipsing child welfare and pedagogical imperatives, or is 'child-friendly justice' holding firm? How might we best understand both the convergent and the divergent patterning of juvenile justice in a changing and reformulating Europe? How is juvenile justice experienced by identifiable constituencies of children and young people both in communities and in institutions? What impacts are sweeping austerity measures, together with increasing mobilities and migrations, imposing? How can comparative juvenile justice be conceptualised and interpreted? What might the future hold for juvenile justice in Europe at a time of profound uncertainty and flux? This book is essential reading for students, tutors and researchers in the fields of criminology, history, law, social policy and sociology, particularly those engaged with childhood and youth studies, human rights, comparative juvenile/youth justice, youth crime and delinquency and criminal justice policy in Europe.

At a time when Europe is witnessing major cultural, social, economic and political challenges and transformations, this book brings together leading researchers and experts to consider a range of pressing questions relating to the historical origins, contemporary manifestations and future prospects for juvenile justice. Questions considered include: How has the history of juvenile justice evolved across Europe and how might the past help us to understand the present and signal the future? What do we know about contemporary juvenile crime trends in Europe and how are nation states responding? Is punitivity and intolerance eclipsing child welfare and pedagogical imperatives, or is 'child-friendly justice' holding firm? How might we best understand both the convergent and the divergent patterning of juvenile justice in a changing and reformulating Europe? How is juvenile justice experienced by identifiable constituencies of children and young people both in communities and in institutions? What impacts are sweeping austerity measures, together with increasing mobilities and migrations, imposing? How can comparative juvenile justice be conceptualised and interpreted? What might the future hold for juvenile justice in Europe at a time of profound uncertainty and flux? This book is essential reading for students, tutors and researchers in the fields of criminology, history, law, social policy and sociology, particularly those engaged with childhood and youth studies, human rights, comparative juvenile/youth justice, youth crime and delinquency and criminal justice policy in Europe.