Delinquency And Juvenile Justice In American Society

Extensively revised, the second edition blends theory, research, and applications into a superb overview of the complex issues surrounding juvenile delinquency and societys attempts to address juvenile crime. After providing an excellent historical foundation, Shelden presents the theories essential to understanding crime and delinquency. He then explores the system and its effects on juveniles and society, including comprehensive coverage of female delinquency. The social, legal, and political influences on how the public perceives juveniles and the inequality in U.S. society that affects families, communities, and schools are highlighted throughout the book. The concluding chapter looks at solutions that have worked and identifies trends in treating juvenile delinquency. The authors almost four decades of teaching about and researching juveniles and the system make him eminently qualified to offer readers the tools necessary to think critically about delinquency and to evaluate the policies enacted to manage the juveniles who violate the laws. Delinquency and Juvenile Justice in American Society, 2/E provides affordable, up-to-date, easily accessible, and thorough analysis of a significant topic.

What is delinquency? What are the pathways to offending? What prevention strategies exist? To understand delinquency, we need to overcome stereotypical thinking and implicit biases. This engaging, affordable text explores the impact of gendered, racial, and class attitudes on decisions to arrest, detain, adjudicate, and place youths in the juvenile justice system. Shelden and Troshynski highlight the social, legal, and political influences on how the public perceives juveniles. They look at the influences of family and schools on delinquency, as well as the impact of gender, trauma, and mental health issues. Discussions of topics such as the school-to-prison pipeline, disproportionate minority contact, and inequality provide a nuanced perspective on delinquency—a critical examination of social policies intended to control delinquency and the populations most likely to enter the juvenile justice system. The authors also examine the dramatically declining juvenile crime rate and advances in neuroscience that have fostered substantive reforms. These alternatives to confinement are replacing the institutions that have repeatedly produced failure with rehabilitative programs that offer hope for a more promising future.

Even though youth crime rates have fallen since the mid-1990s, public fear and political rhetoric over the issue have heightened. The Columbine shootings and other sensational incidents add to the furor. Often overlooked are the underlying problems of child poverty, social disadvantage, and the pitfalls inherent to adolescent decisionmaking that contribute to youth crime. From a policy standpoint, adolescent offenders are caught in the crossfire between nurturance of youth and punishment of criminals, between rehabilitation and "get tough" pronouncements. In the midst of this emotional debate, the National Research Council's Panel on Juvenile Crime steps forward with an authoritative review of the best available data and analysis. Juvenile Crime, Juvenile Justice presents recommendations for addressing the many aspects of America's youth crime problem. This timely release discusses patterns and trends in crimes by children and adolescentsâ€"trends revealed by arrest data, victim reports, and other sources; youth crime within general crime; and race and sex disparities. The book explores desistanceâ€"the probability that delinquency or criminal activities decrease with ageâ€"and evaluates different approaches to predicting future crime rates. Why do young people turn to delinquency? Juvenile Crime, Juvenile Justice presents what we know and what we urgently need to find out about contributing factors, ranging from prenatal care, differences in temperament, and family influences to the role of peer relationships, the impact of the school policies toward delinquency, and the broader influences of the neighborhood and community. Equally important, this book examines a range of solutions: Prevention and intervention efforts directed to individuals, peer groups, and families, as well as day care-, school- and community-based initiatives. Intervention within the juvenile justice system. Role of the police. Processing and detention of youth offenders. Transferring youths to the adult judicial system. Residential placement of juveniles. The book includes background on the American juvenile court system, useful comparisons with the juvenile justice systems of other nations, and other important information for assessing this problem.

Juvenile Delinquency in American Society: Race, Class, and Politics examines juvenile delinquency and the juvenile justice system as they are influenced by matters of race and ethnicity. Rooted in current research, the book explores how race and racism play a role in which youth are arrested, which are adjudicated delinquents in juvenile courts, and which end up in residential facilities, juvenile detention centers, or adult prisons. The content is organized into four primary units covering the historical context of race, theories of race and delinquency, the social context of race and delinquency, and current issues in juvenile justice. Specific topics include the impact of race on the social construction of adolescence, measures and correlates of delinquency, social process, life course, and critical theories, the school-to-prison pipeline, and corrections and punishment in the modern era. With its thoughtful exploration of a critical issue, Juvenile Delinquency in American Society is designed to serve as a primary text in college and university courses in criminal justice and juvenile justice. It can also be used to provide in-service training for professionals at all levels within the juvenile justice system. James Windell has worked for many years as a court clinical psychologist. He is an adjunct faculty member of criminal justice at Wayne State University and a lecturer at Oakland University, both in Michigan. Windell is the author of The American Criminal Justice System and Looking Back in Crime. Abu Mboka holds a Ph.D. from Arizona State University and worked for several years at a juvenile corrections facility where he was assigned to violent offenders, sex offenders, and substance abusers. Dr. Mboka is now an associate professor of criminal justice at California State University, Stanislaus.

This third edition of Juvenile Justice in America takes us directly into the new millennium with the incorporation of the most recent studies and statistical data available at the time of publication. The book is now organized to allow the student to move quickly and decisively into the action of the police, courts, and corrections. Major issues and findings from all of these subsystems of the justice system are discussed, as well as new materials on gangs, drugs, guns, and schools. Where we are today is described, and the issues of whether the juvenile system should be reformed or abolished, whether hard or soft policies should prevail, and whether the rights of juveniles should be extended are subjects of much attention. Consideration is given to what works and what does not. Materials on the profile of juveniles in trouble and the social context from which juveniles come are emphasized, as are the treatments and programs available to them in the community and institutions. A major new feature of this third edition is a chapter on International Juvenile Justice, based on the 1985 Bejing Rules. It illustrates just how far some countries have come and, even more aptly, how fa

Today’s headlines vividly illustrate the importance of understanding aspects of the criminal justice system too often ignored. While the second edition of Crime and Criminal Justice in American Society includes the most recent statistics on the police, courts, and corrections, its provocative, current examples also spur critical thinking about justice in the United States. The authors offer an alternative interpretation of criminal justice rarely presented in traditional textbooks or by the media. They encourage readers to examine their beliefs about crime, punishment, and the law. Discussions in the chapters about how African Americans, Hispanics, whites, women, juveniles, the rich, and the poor experience crime and the criminal justice system contribute context for understanding different viewpoints. The poor and minorities are the most likely to be caught in the net of criminal justice—but inequities have consequences for everyone. Reflection on various perspectives provides helpful input for assessing attitudes and for becoming actively involved with issues that have significant consequences. Eighteen thoroughly revised chapters present historical backgrounds, theories, and emerging issues. New to the second edition is a chapter on veterans involved in the criminal justice system. Affordable, succinct, and engaging, this textbook presents the key concepts of the criminal justice system at less than half the cost of many competing textbooks.

Juvenile Delinquency in American Society: Race, Class, and Politics examines juvenile delinquency and the juvenile justice system as they are influenced by matters of race and ethnicity. Rooted in current research, the book explores how race and racism play a role in which youth are arrested, which are adjudicated delinquents in juvenile courts, and which end up in residential facilities, juvenile detention centers, or adult prisons. The content is organized into four primary units covering the historical context of race, theories of race and delinquency, the social context of race and delinquency, and current issues in juvenile justice. Specific topics include the impact of race on the social construction of adolescence, measures and correlates of delinquency, social process, life course, and critical theories, the school-to-prison pipeline, and corrections and punishment in the modern era. With its thoughtful exploration of a critical issue, Juvenile Delinquency in American Society is designed to serve as a primary text in college and university courses in criminal justice and juvenile justice. It can also be used to provide in-service training for professionals at all levels within the juvenile justice system.

This handbook is an up-to-date examination of advances in the fields of juvenile delinquency and juvenile justice that includes interdisciplinary perspectives from leading scholars and practitioners. Examines advances in the fields of juvenile delinquency and juvenile justice with interdisciplinary perspectives from leading scholars and practitioners Provides a current state of both fields, while also assessing where they have been and defining where they should go in years to come Addresses developments in theory, research, and policy, as well as cultural changes and legal shifts Contains summaries of juvenile justice trends from around the world, including the US, the Netherlands, Brazil, Russia, India, South Africa, and China Covers central issues in the scholarly literature, such as social learning theories, opportunity theories, criminal processing, labeling and deterrence, gangs and crime, community-based sanctions and reentry, victimization, and fear of crime