NCJ Number
183985
Date Published
1999
Length
455 pages
Annotation
This text examines changing perspectives, definitions, and responses to juvenile delinquency over time, with emphasis on concepts of the nature of childhood, the evolution of rules that define delinquency, delinquent behavior, juvenile delinquency theory, and the juvenile justice system.
Abstract
The first section describes the historical interdependency of concepts of childhood, delinquency, and juvenile justice and recent finds about the treatment of children in earlier times. The second section focuses on the nature, extent, and distribution of juvenile delinquency, based on official statistics, self-reports, and victim accounts. The third section focuses on explanations of delinquent behavior and compares the classical and positive schools of criminology. Subsequent chapters examine biological and psychodynamic control theory, cultural deviance theory, differential association theory, social learning theory, strain theory, social control and self-control theories, neoclassical theory, labeling theory, radical theory, and integrated theories. The final section presents and assesses the traditional concept of juvenile justice and examines the impact of this traditional concept on the actions of the police, the juvenile court, and corrections. The discussion covers juvenile justice practices through the 1990’s and includes community policing, crime prevention, and recent changes such as determinate sentencing of juveniles. Figures, tables, footnotes, chapter discussion questions and reference lists, glossary, and index