Juvenile Homicide

This book focuses on the small but disturbing percentage of homicides by children that occur each year, providing a brief overview of the legal, individual, and social aspects of this phenomenon. Since the 1980s, these crimes have been on the rise and the resulting legal response has been harsher punishments as well as treatment of children like adults. This has led to a host of failures in the juvenile justice system wherein recidivism is high and general outcome is low. The book reviews the literature on youth homicide, including gender, age, and race factors, as well as individual, familial, and environmental risks. The authors seek to aid in the identification and understanding of juvenile homicide to raise awareness of both a population that receives little formal psychological intervention and of the systemic deficiencies that affect these individuals as well as society itself. Exploring current theories, trends, and common factors in juvenile homicide, this brief aims to improve prevention, intervention, and reintegration of young offenders into the community.

The Routledge International Handbook of Juvenile Homicide is the definitive work on juvenile homicide. This volume provides an up-to-date, comprehensive, and in-depth exploration of what is known about juveniles involved in murder. Taking an interdisciplinary approach to juvenile homicide, this handbook brings together the leading experts in social sciences, mental health, and law from many countries. The volume covers the phenomenon of juvenile homicide from beginning to end, by addressing the questions “why do kids kill?” all the way to “how does society stop them from killing?”. The tough issues involved in sentencing youths who take the lives of others, often deliberately and in horrific ways, are confronted through chapters addressing the legal issues, child development factors, risk assessment, public attitudes, and ethical concerns. The volume brings together research specifically conducted for this volume, in addition to summaries and discussions of clinical and empirical findings. Each chapter ends with key takeaway points. Contributors include psychologists, psychiatrists, criminologists, sociologists, lawyers, economists, biologists, epidemiologists, and public health and public policy experts. Uniquely, they examine murder by juveniles across the globe. The volume includes research pertaining to the causes, correlates, and theoretical explanations of juvenile homicide offending. Moving beyond discussions of juvenile homicide offenders (JHOs) as a homogenous group, the volume includes research on specific types of JHOs and research investigating age and gender differences among JHOs. In addition, it draws attention to the empirical factors associated with juvenile homicide offending, effective treatment of JHOs, recidivism, and prevention of violent behavior. The volume also makes recommendations for policy and practice, including how to shift government policy from punishing lawbreakers to saving lives. This volume is essential reading for scholars and students researching youth violence/juvenile homicide across a variety of disciplines including criminology, criminal justice, law, psychology, psychiatry, sociology, social work, public health, and education. It is also an invaluable reference for mental health professionals, practitioners in the juvenile and criminal justice systems, policymakers, and government leaders.

Sexual homicide is murder committed in tandem with either an overt sexual assault or sexually symbolic behavior. This type of murder carried out by youths is one of the rarest and most poorly understood crimes. How can young people carry out such horrific crimes? Do the offenders have anything in common? Do they show any warning signs? This book highlights groundbreaking research that begins to find the answers to these questions. Juvenile Sexual Homicide is the first book to take a comprehensive look at this specific type of crime and attempt to understand the young criminals involved. It is based on a 10-year study that evaluates a sample of juvenile sexual murderers and provides a revealing look at the psychopathology, personality, criminal, and behavioral characteristics of their offenses. Roger Blashfield, Mark Safarik, and Linda Monaco are contributing authors. Part I reviews the origins and framework of the research sample and provides a comprehensive overview of sexual homicide. Part II delves deeply into the criminal aspects of the sample study in relation to various mental disorders. Personal findings and psychopathy of the offenders are revealed in addition to the investigation into the role of anger in the crimes. Part III presents a more in-depth look at special issues and circumstances surrounding the juveniles and their crimes. The first in-depth study of juvenile sexual murderers A revealing look at the interaction between mental illness, personality function and crime characteristics

These factors often interact with certain personality characteristics and biological influences, causing many youths to conclude that they have little or nothing to lose by engaging in reckless and destructive acts. Although this book focuses mainly on boys who kill, Dr. Heide also discusses the increasing number of girls arrested for murder and examines gender issues in juvenile homicide.

State-of-the-art critical reviews of recent scholarship on the causes of juvenile delinquency, juvenile justice system responses, and public policies to prevent and reduce youth crime are brought together in a single volume authored by leading scholars and researchers in neuropsychology, developmental and social psychology, sociology, history, criminology/criminal justice, and law.

The Routledge Handbook of Homicide Studies comprehensively examines the topic of homicide from a diverse collection of perspectives and backgrounds. It brings together original contributions on homicide, with a focus on the broad range of impacts of homicide from a multitude of disciplines that evaluate and examine homicide in actual practice and theory. The editors have assembled a comprehensive collection highlighting the multifaceted causes and ramifications of homicide both across the United States and globally, with chapters exploring the current state of homicide, typologies of homicides offenders, causes and correlates of homicide, homicides and the criminal justice system, and a professional observations chapters authored by some of the leading practicing professionals in the world, many of whom have made pivotal contributions to the evaluation and investigation of homicide offenders and cases. Providing state-of-the-art scholarship on homicide in modern society, this handbook is a key collection and an invaluable resource for students, researchers, and practitioners engaged in the study of homicide across a diverse range of disciplines, including criminal justice and criminology, psychology, sociology, forensics, interdisciplinary departments, and sociolegal studies.

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.

A set of chapters prepared by leading figures currently engaged in the study of homicide. Each chapter provides a review and summary of research literatures that deal with social theories of homicide, methodological problems in the study of homicide research among specific groups, and public policy reactions designed to prevent homicide.