Juvenile Justice: An Introduction, Tenth Edition, presents a comprehensive picture of juvenile offending, delinquency theories, and the ways juvenile justice actors and agencies react to delinquency.
Juvenile Justice: An Introduction, Tenth Edition, presents a comprehensive picture of juvenile offending, delinquency theories, and the ways juvenile justice actors and agencies react to delinquency. Whitehead and Lab offer evidence-based suggestions for successful interventions and treatment and examine the prospects for rebalancing the model of juvenile court.
This new edition includes insightful analysis and the latest available statistics on juvenile crime and victimization, drug use, court processing, and corrections. Special attention is given to female involvement, disproportionate minority contact, and diversity issues. The text also includes extensive discussion of police shootings, the issue of race, probation reform, life sentences for juveniles, recent Supreme Court decisions, and reform suggestions from Currie and Feld.
An essential text for undergraduate juvenile justice courses, this book offers rich pedagogical features and online resources. Each chapter enhances student understanding with Key Terms, a What You Need to Know section, and Discussion Questions. Links at key points in the text show students where to get the latest information.
Juvenile Justice: An Introduction gives a comprehensive review of the juvenile justice system, covering the extent of juvenile delinquency, the history of juvenile justice, theories explaining juvenile delinquent behaviors, topical issues such as juvenile gang involvement, juvenile drug use, and juveniles and the police. The juvenile justice process and the system's response to juvenile delinquency are clearly outlined. I also appreciate how the authors interweave the juvenile justice landmark cases into the discussion. The book also discusses restorative justice as an alternative approach to dealing with juvenile delinquency.
Another positive for me is the in-depth coverage of the theories explaining delinquency. While students in this course (usually sophomore or junior) would have already taken their theory course (Criminology) in their second semester, many do not recall even hearing about these theories. This gives me a chance to present this to them a second time.
Sherill Morris-Francis, Ph.D., Associate Professor and Graduate Coordinator, Mississippi Valley State University
