Full Description
Offers a clear and concise overview of the latest theories and research on the causes and control of delinquency. The text is organized around three major questions: What is the nature and extent of delinquency? What are the causes of delinquency? What strategies should we employ to control delinquency? Compared to other textbooks on the market, this book is written in a more conversational style. And compared to other textbooks, this book is more focused. Other textbooks attempt to cover all the major theories and areas of research at the risk of confusing and overwhelming students. In contrast, Agnew's Juvenile Delinquincy is more student and instructor friendly in its approach. For instance, rather than covering all the major theories (and numerous versions of each theory), Agnew synthesizes the best of current delinquency theories into "generic" theories representing strain, social learning, control, and labeling theories. The book then show how these theories can be used to interpret research on the causes of delinquency. In addition, the book promotes active learning. Agnew poses questions for students throughout the text and encourage them to apply the text materials to their own lives. This emphasis on application dramatically increases the students' understanding of the materials. Finally, Juvenile Delinquincy describes how criminologists know what they know. Students, then, are not asked to accept the findings of criminology on faith. They are given a sense of what the research process is like.
Contents
Part 1: The Nature and Extent of Delinquency
1. What Is Delinquency and How Does It Differ from Adult Crime?
2. How Is Delinquency Measured?
3. How Much Delinquency Is There, and Is Delinquency Increasing?
4. Who Is Most Likely to Engage in Delinquency?
Part 2: The Causes of Delinquency: Theories
5. What Is a Theory and How Do We Test Theories?
6. Strain Theory
7. Social Learning Theory
8. Control Theory
9. Labeling Theory
10. The Life Course
11. Is Delinquency More Likely in Certain Types of Situations?
12. Group Differences in Delinquency
Part 3: The Causes of Delinquency: Research
13. Individual Traits
14. The Family
15. The School
16. Delinquent Peers and Gangs
17. Other Social Influences
18. Pulling It All Together
Part 4: The Control and Prevention of Delinquency
19. Policies and Programs
20. The Police
21. Juvenile Court and Corrections
22. The Juvenile Justice System
23. The Strategies of Deterrence and Incapacitation
24. The Strategies of Prevention and Rehabilitation
25. What Should We Do to Reduce Delinquency?
