The Criminal Child

The Criminal Child offers the first English translation of a key early work by Jean Genet. In 1949, in the midst of a national debate about improving the French reform-school system, Radiodiffusion Française commissioned Genet to write about his experience as a juvenile delinquent. He sent back a piece that was a paean to prison instead of the expected horrifying exposé. Revisiting the cruel hazing rituals that had accompanied his incarceration, relishing the special argot spoken behind bars, Genet bitterly denounced any improvement in the condition of young prisoners as a threat to their criminal souls. The radio station chose not to broadcast Genet’s views. “The Criminal Child” appears here with a selection of Genet’s finest essays, including his celebrated piece on the art of Alberto Giacometti.

A history of juvenile crime, punishment, and reform in England in the years before, during, and after the era of Charles Dickens. How were juvenile delinquents dealt with in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries? What dire circumstances led to their behavior? Were the efforts to curb their criminal tendencies successful? From 1820–1920, ideas about youth and transgression changed dramatically in the United Kingdom. Criminal Children delves into this period to uncover fascinating insight into the neglected subject of childhood crime and punishment, and the “invention” of juvenile delinquency. Drawing on the life stories of twenty-four “bad seeds,” true crime journalists Emma Watkins and Barry Godfrey explore every aspect of these young and desperate lives: their experiences in prisons, reformatory schools, industrial schools, borstals, and female factories; their trials and criminal petitions; and the harrowing transport to Australia—considered the last resort for adult convicts and children alike. Including resources for researching one’s own criminal forebears, Criminal Children is “an interesting book to anybody who wants to know more about juvenile offenders in England” (Nell Darby, author of Life on the Victorian Stage).

The abuse of women and children transcends geographical boundaries as well as economic, cultural, religious, political, and social divisions. Comprised of the work of more than 20 academics and practitioners from around the world, Criminal Abuse of Women and Children documents the atrocities that have been committed against these victims from ancient to modern times. It examines the causes of such abuse and provides a global survey of what forms of abuse exist and how cases are handled in various parts of the world. International Experts Survey Patterns of Abuse Following an introduction to the historical antecedents and theoretical explanations of criminal abuse, the contributors review efforts at control and prevention. They focus on informal control mechanisms, religious intervention, and the criminal justice system, and highlighting the limitations that are inherent in these attempts. The remainder of the text consists mainly of case studies covering the various facets of abuse in numerous countries in Europe, Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and the Americas. The contributors also explore the role of community policing and supply a critical assessment of how American police practices may contribute to the continued victimization of women and children. A Call to Action to End the Scourge of Victimization A comprehensive analysis of the worldwide problem of the exploitation of women and children, the book elevates this topic to a subject worthy of academic discourse. It underlines the need for concerted global action and intervention at the national, regional, and local level.

Gideon Yaffe presents a theory of criminal responsibility according to which child criminals deserve leniency not because of their psychological, behavioural, or neural immaturity but because they are denied the vote. He argues that full shares of criminal punishment are deserved only by those who have a full share of say over the law.

Children who come into conflict with the law are more likely to have experienced violence or adversity than their non-offending peers. Exacerbating the deleterious effects of this childhood trauma, children’s contact with the criminal justice system poses undue risks of physical, sexual, and psychological violence. This book examines the specific forms of violence that children experience through their contact with the criminal justice system. Comprising contributions from leading scholars and practitioners in children’s rights and youth justice, this book profiles evidence-based prevention strategies and case studies from around the world. It illustrates the diversity of contexts in which various forms of violence against children unfold and advances knowledge about both the nature and extent of violence against children in criminal justice settings, and the specific situational factors that contribute to, or inhibit, the successful implementation of violence prevention strategies. It demonstrates that specialised child justice systems, in which children’s rights are upheld, are crucial in preventing the violence inherent to conventional criminal justice regimes. Written in a clear and accessible style, this book will be of interest to students and researchers engaged in studies of criminology and criminal justice, youth justice, victimology, crime prevention, and children’s rights.

Children of almost any age can break the law, but at what age should children first face the possibility of criminal responsibility for their alleged crimes? This work is the first global analysis of national minimum ages of criminal responsibility (MACRs), the international legal obligations that surround them, and the principal considerations for establishing and implementing respective age limits. Taking an international children's rights approach, with a rich theoretical framework and the vitality of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, this work maintains a critical perspective, such as in challenging the assumptions of many children's rights scholars and advocates. Compiling the age limits and statutory sources for all countries, this book explains the broad historical origins behind most of them, identifying the recurring practical challenges that affect every country and providing the first comprehensive evidence that a general principle of international law requires all nations, regardless of their treaty ratifications, to establish respective minimum age limits.

During the Progressive Era, a rehabilitative agenda took hold of American juvenile justice, materializing as a citizen-and-state-building project and mirroring the unequal racial politics of American democracy itself. Alongside this liberal "manufactory of citizens,” a parallel structure was enacted: a Jim Crow juvenile justice system that endured across the nation for most of the twentieth century. In The Black Child Savers, the first study of the rise and fall of Jim Crow juvenile justice, Geoff Ward examines the origins and organization of this separate and unequal juvenile justice system. Ward explores how generations of “black child-savers” mobilized to challenge the threat to black youth and community interests and how this struggle grew aligned with a wider civil rights movement, eventually forcing the formal integration of American juvenile justice. Ward’s book reveals nearly a century of struggle to build a more democratic model of juvenile justice—an effort that succeeded in part, but ultimately failed to deliver black youth and community to liberal rehabilitative ideals. At once an inspiring story about the shifting boundaries of race, citizenship, and democracy in America and a crucial look at the nature of racial inequality, The Black Child Savers is a stirring account of the stakes and meaning of social justice.