Full Description
American Juvenile Justice is a definitive volume for courses on the criminology and policy analysis of adolescence. The focus is on the principles and policy of a separate and distinct system of juvenile justice. The book opens with an introduction of the creation of adolescence, presenting a justification for the category of the juvenile or a period of partial responsibility before full adulthood. Subsequent sections include empirical investigations of the nature of youth criminality and legal policy toward youth crime. At the heart of the book is an argument for a penal policy that recognizes diminished responsibility and a youth policy that emphasizes the benefits of letting the maturing process continue with minimal interruption. In this updated and expanded second edition, Zimring has included four new chapters with examinations on important topics including, US Supreme Court decisions of life sentences for minors, the elected use of juvenile courts over criminal court, punitive sex offender registration for juveniles, and appropriate tactics for juvenile justice reform.
Contents
Introduction
Part I Adolescence: Social Facts and Legal Theory
one Childhood and Public Law before the Revolution
two Modern Adolescence as a Learner's Permit
three The Problem of Individual Variation
Conclusion to Part I
Part II - A Rationale for American Juvenile Justice
four The Common Thread: Diversion in Juvenile Justice
five Penal Proportionality for the Young Offender: Notes on Immaturity, Capacity, and Diminished Responsibility
six The Central Mission of Separate Juvenile Courts
Part III - The Adolescent Offender
seven Kids, Groups and Crime
eight Two Patterns of Age Progression
nine American Youth Violence-A Cautionary Tale
Part IV - Policy Problems in Modern Juvenile Justice
ten Sex Offender Registration and Community Notification-How Should Juvenile Courts Respond?
eleven Juvenile or Criminal Court? A Punitive Theory of Waiver
twelve Reducing the Harms of Minority Overrepresentation in American Juvenile Justice
thirteen Choosing a Coherent Policy toward Juveniles and Guns
fourteen The Hardest of the Hard Cases: The Young Homicide Offender
fifteen Strategy and Tactics in Juvenile Justice Reform
Notes and References
Index
