Transforming Juvenile Justice

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.

Adolescence is a distinct, yet transient, period of development between childhood and adulthood characterized by increased experimentation and risk-taking, a tendency to discount long-term consequences, and heightened sensitivity to peers and other social influences. A key function of adolescence is developing an integrated sense of self, including individualization, separation from parents, and personal identity. Experimentation and novelty-seeking behavior, such as alcohol and drug use, unsafe sex, and reckless driving, are thought to serve a number of adaptive functions despite their risks. Research indicates that for most youth, the period of risky experimentation does not extend beyond adolescence, ceasing as identity becomes settled with maturity. Much adolescent involvement in criminal activity is part of the normal developmental process of identity formation and most adolescents will mature out of these tendencies. Evidence of significant changes in brain structure and function during adolescence strongly suggests that these cognitive tendencies characteristic of adolescents are associated with biological immaturity of the brain and with an imbalance among developing brain systems. This imbalance model implies dual systems: one involved in cognitive and behavioral control and one involved in socio-emotional processes. Accordingly adolescents lack mature capacity for self-regulations because the brain system that influences pleasure-seeking and emotional reactivity develops more rapidly than the brain system that supports self-control. This knowledge of adolescent development has underscored important differences between adults and adolescents with direct bearing on the design and operation of the justice system, raising doubts about the core assumptions driving the criminalization of juvenile justice policy in the late decades of the 20th century. It was in this context that the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) asked the National Research Council to convene a committee to conduct a study of juvenile justice reform. The goal of Reforming Juvenile Justice: A Developmental Approach was to review recent advances in behavioral and neuroscience research and draw out the implications of this knowledge for juvenile justice reform, to assess the new generation of reform activities occurring in the United States, and to assess the performance of OJJDP in carrying out its statutory mission as well as its potential role in supporting scientifically based reform efforts.

Explores the nature of occupational culture, team membership and professional identity through the lived experience of youth justice professionals in the time of transition and change after Crime and Disorder Act 1998 was passed. It also shows how profound and complex the effects of this organisational change were.

In 1997 the newly modernized Labour party swept into power promising a radical overhaul of the youth justice system. The creation of inter-agency Youth Offending Teams (YOTs) for the delivery of youth justice services were the cornerstone of the new approach. These new YOTs were designed to tackle an 'excuse culture' that was allegedto pervade the youth justice system and aimed to encourage the emergence of a shared culture among youth justice practitioners from different agencies. The transformation of the youth justice system brought about a period of intense disruption for the practitioners working within it. The nature and purpose of contemporary youth justice work was called into question and wider issues of occupational identity and culture became of crucial importance. Through a detailed ethnographic study of the formation of a YOT this book explores a previously neglected area of organisational cultures in criminal justice. It examines the nature of occupational culture and professional identity through the lived experience of youth justice professionals in this time of transition and change.It shows how profound and complex of the effects of organisational change are, and the fundamental challenges it raises for practitioners' sense of professional identity and vocation. Transforming Youth Justice makes a highly significant contribution not only to the way that professional cultures are understood in criminal justice, but to an understanding of the often dissonant relationship between policy and practice.

Written by a leading scholar of juvenile justice, this book examines the social and legal changes that have transformed the juvenile court in the last three decades from a nominally rehabilitative welfare agency into a scaled-down criminal court for young offenders. It explores the complex relationship between race and youth crime to explain both the Supreme Court decisions to provide delinquents with procedural justice and the more recent political impetus to "get tough" on young offenders. This provocative book will be necessary reading for criminal and juvenile justice scholars, sociologists, legislators, and juvenile justice personnel.

This book has three enlightening sections regarding juvenile recidivism, administrative services and treatment methodologies. The first section is based on research, studies and analyses of the social characteristics of 40 randomly selected juvenile recidivists referred to the juvenile court over a ten year period. This study explores and analyzes the respective families, neighborhoods, schools, grade levels, religious affiliation, socio-economic status, mental health and the types and numbers of legal offenses that were committed by the repeat offenders. This study establishes a pattern and identifying social factors relating to causal factors contributing to their repetitious offensive acts and violations of the law. There are clearly predictive factors for juvenile repeat offenders that can be used to predict, control, prevent, control and reduce significantly, juvenile offenses and recidivism. The second section of this book explores essentials for effective administration for juvenile courts and other social service agencies in the community. All agencies, and especially human service agencies must be administratively and operationally healthy. They must not contribute to the demoralization of the staff who already face low morale challenges in treating and serving clients who are associated with substantial depressive pathologies. Specific personnel standards, policies and procedures are vital to optimize the effectiveness of the service providing staff. There are certain training essentials and requirements that center around competence, morality, professionalism and ethical standards that must be enforced in order to maintain an efficient, functional, healthy and safe work environment. If the service providing staff are not trained and treated well, it is doubtful that they can serve and treat their clients well. Treatment providers must be protected from administrative persecution and incompetence, especially when they have the responsibility to protect and restore their clients to health and stability. Intimidating, threatening and unsafe work environments retards and inhabits productivity. The third section of New Possibilities for Juvenile Justice enumerates a comprehensive list of factors associated with youth problems, failures in school, delinquent acts and law violations. The list is based on seasoned, experienced and knowledgeable probation officers with decades of training and experience. Also, the third section of this book provides an exploration and understanding of the ongoing cultural crisis and the serious adverse impact this crisis is having on America, its people and institutions. The social problems, reinforced by new ideologies and technology appear to be increasing more rapidly than answers and solutions to solve them. Transforming American youth into positive, law abiding, healthy and productive citizens is possible if the responsible, patriotic and enlightened leader- ship will utilize the artistic, scientific, ethical and transforming knowledge that is available. The information contained in this volume can be a significant beginning in that process of directions for youth transformation.l

A New Juvenile Justice System aims at nothing less than a complete reform of the existing system: not minor change or even significant overhaul, but the replacement of the existing system with a different vision. The authors in this volume—academics, activists, researchers, and those who serve in the existing system—all respond in this collection to the question of what the system should be. Uniformly, they agree that an ideal system should be centered around the principle of child well-being and the goal of helping kids to achieve productive lives as citizens and members of their communities. Rather than the existing system, with its punitive, destructive, undermining effect and uneven application by race and gender, these authors envision a system responsive to the needs of youth as well as to the community’s legitimate need for public safety. How, they ask, can the ideals of equality, freedom, liberty, and self-determination transform the system? How can we improve the odds that children who have been labeled as “delinquent” can make successful transitions to adulthood? And how can we create a system that relies on proven, family-focused interventions and creates opportunities for positive youth development? Drawing upon interdisciplinary work as well as on-the-ground programs and experience, the authors sketch out the broad parameters of such a system. Providing the principles, goals, and concrete means to achieve them, this volume imagines using our resources wisely and well to invest in all children and their potential to contribute and thrive in our society.