American Juvenile Justice

by Franklin E. Zimring

Overview

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. The book concludes with applications of the core concerns to five specific problem areas in current juvenile justice: teen pregnancy, transfer to criminal court, minority overrepresentation, juvenile gun use, and youth homicide.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780190207724
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	10/06/2005
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Franklin E. Zimring is the William G. Simon Professor of Law at the University of California, Berkeley. He is the author or co-author of many books on topics including deterrence, the changing legal world of adolescence, capital punishment, the scale of imprisonment, and drug control. Recent books include The Contradictions of American Capital Punishment (voted a Book of the Year by the economist), American Youth Violence, and A Century of Juvenile Justice.

Table of 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
I. Adolescence: Social Facts and Legal Theory
1. Childhood and Public Law Before the Revolution
2. Modern Adolescence as a Learner's Permit
3. The Problem of Individual Variation
II. A Rationale for American Juvenile Justice
4. The Common Thread—Diversion in Juvenile Justice
5. Penal Proportionality for the Young Offender
III. The Adolescent Offender
6. Kids, Groups, and Crime: Some Implications of a Well-Known Secret
7. Two Patterns of Age Progression in Adolescent Crime
8. The Case of the Disappearing Super-Predator: Some III. Lessons from the 1990s
IV. Policy Problems in Modern Juvenile Justice
9. The Jurisprudence of Teen Pregnancy
10. Juvenile or Criminal Court? A Punitive Theory of Waiver
11. Reducing the Harms of Minority Over-representation in American Juvenile Justice
12. Choosing a Coherent Policy Toward Juveniles and Guns
13. The Hardest of the Hard Cases—The Young Homicide Offender