Juvenile Crime, Juvenile Justice

Juvenile Crime, Juvenile Justice PDF

Author: Institute of Medicine

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 2001-06-05

Total Pages: 405

ISBN-13: 0309172357

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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.

Rethinking Juvenile Justice

Rethinking Juvenile Justice PDF

Author: Elizabeth S Scott

Publisher: Harvard University Press

Published: 2009-06-30

Total Pages: 379

ISBN-13: 0674043367

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What should we do with teenagers who commit crimes? In this book, two leading scholars in law and adolescent development argue that juvenile justice should be grounded in the best available psychological science, which shows that adolescence is a distinctive state of cognitive and emotional development. Although adolescents are not children, they are also not fully responsible adults.

Reforming Juvenile Justice

Reforming Juvenile Justice PDF

Author: National Research Council

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 2013-05-22

Total Pages: 463

ISBN-13: 0309278937

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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.

Youth Crime and Justice

Youth Crime and Justice PDF

Author: Barry Goldson

Publisher: Pine Forge Press

Published: 2006-05-15

Total Pages: 255

ISBN-13: 1446228924

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`Youth Crime and Justice presents a detailed and comprehensive critical analysis of evidence from leading national and international scholars. As such it provides a powerful antidote to the excesses of contemporary correctionalism' - Professor Andrew Rutherford, University of Southampton `Youth Crime and Justice is the most comprehensive and up-to-date collection on the market today. A must for all researchers, teachers and students of youth justice' - Professor Tim Newburn, London School of Economics and Political Science and President of the British Society of Criminology For the first time, leading national and international scholars have been brought together to engage explicitly with a comprehensive critical assessment of the relation between 'evidence' and contemporary youth justice policy formation. This book, along with its companion volume Comparative Youth Justice (edited by John Muncie and Barry Goldson) , will significantly advance the development of an emerging 'youth criminology'. The book is essential reading for criminology and criminal justice students, researchers and practitioners. Contributors' Affiliations: Tim Bateman is a Senior Policy Development Officer with Nacro, a UK-based crime reduction agency Chris Cunneen is Professor of Criminology and Director of the Institute of Criminology at the University of Sydney Matthew Follett is a Lecturer in Criminology at the University of Leicester Loraine Gelsthorpe is a Reader in Criminology and Criminal Justice at the Institute of Criminology, University of Cambridge Barry Goldson is a Senior Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Liverpool, England. Kevin Haines is Head of Applied Social Sciences at the University of Swansea Lynn Hancock is a Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Liverpool Harry Hendrick is an Associate Professor of History at the University of Southern Denmark Gordon Hughes is Professor of Criminology at the International Centre for Comparative Criminological Research at the Open University Fergus McNeill is a Senior Lecturer at the Glasgow School of Social Work, Universities of Glasgow and Strathclyde Phil Mizen is a Senior Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Warwick John Muncie is Professor of Criminology and Co-Director of the International Centre for Comparative Criminological Research at the Open University David O'Mahony is a Senior Lecturer in Youth Justice at the Institute of Criminology and Criminal Justice, School of Law, Queen's University Belfast Gilly Sharpe is a Doctoral Research Student at the Institute of Criminology, University of Cambridge David Smith is Professor of Criminology at Lancaster University Roger Smith is a Lecturer in Social Work at the University of Leicester Colin Webster is a Senior Lecturer in Criminology at the University of Teesside Rob White is Professor of Sociology and Head of the School of Sociology and Social Work at the University of Tasmania

Urban Policy Reconsidered

Urban Policy Reconsidered PDF

Author: Charles C. Euchner

Publisher: Psychology Press

Published: 2003

Total Pages: 372

ISBN-13: 9780415944700

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First Published in 2003. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Youth Gangs and Community Intervention

Youth Gangs and Community Intervention PDF

Author: Robert J. Chaskin

Publisher: Columbia University Press

Published: 2010

Total Pages: 292

ISBN-13: 023114685X

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Although a range of program and policy responses to youth gangs exist, most are largely based on suppression, implemented by the police or other criminal justice agencies. Less attention and fewer resources have been directed to prevention and intervention strategies that draw on the participation of community organizations, schools, and social service agencies in the neighborhoods in which gangs operate. Also underemphasized is the importance of integrating such approaches at the local level. In this volume, leading researchers discuss effective intervention among youth gangs, focusing on the ideas behind, approaches to, and evidence about the effectiveness of community-based, youth gang interventions. Treating community as a crucial unit of analysis and action, these essays reorient our understanding of gangs and the measures undertaken to defeat them. They emphasize the importance of community, both as a context that shapes opportunity and as a resource that promotes positive youth engagement. Covering key themes and debates, this book explores the role of social capital and collective efficacy in informing youth gang intervention and evaluation, the importance of focusing on youth development within the context of community opportunities and pressures, and the possibilities of better linking research, policy, and practice when responding to youth gangs, among other critical issues.