This chapter answers two deceptively simple questions, “How much juvenile crime is there today?” and “How does the level of juvenile crime today compare with juvenile crime 20 or 30 years ago?”
A Community Youth Development Approach to Gang Control Programs
To make real progress in gang control, especially with prevention programs that focus on the youngest gang members and those at risk of gang involvement, researchers and practitioners must cooperate to build comprehensive interventions using frameworks that are theoretically, conceptually, and administratively sound.
Juvenile Crime Interventions
This chapter reviews the cost-benefit literature on juvenile crime reduction programs, and proposes four program models that should be investigated for their potential cost-effectiveness: mentoring programs, teen courts, juvenile drug courts, and systemic reform strategies.
Can we do Without Juvenile Justice?
Elected officials throughout the U.S. are gradually dismantling the juvenile justice system and replacing it with a pseudo-criminal system, one that emphasizes mandatory sentences and formal, adversarial procedures. Is the separate, juvenile justice system still feasible? If not, what can replace it?
Probation and Parole
Probation and parole are essential components of the juvenile and criminal (adult) justice systems.
Whose Problem?
Rather than simply responding punitively to the criminal behavior of youth, we try to resolve the problems that generate criminal behavior - but whose problems? We Americans are biased in how we identify problems and choose solutions. We like to explain our social problems in a way that conforms to a predetermined set of affordable solutions.
Teen Courts – A Focus on Research
Edited by Thomas Bernard, Serious Delinquency features a survey approach to the major issues in delinquency and the juvenile justice system. Coverage is both broad and deep, yet presented accessibly. Topics include patterns of offending and victimization, predictors, theoretically driven correlates, and a wide range of issues in the operations of the juvenile justice system.
Reviving Juvenile Justice in a Get-Tough Era
Edited by Thomas Bernard, Serious Delinquency features a survey approach to the major issues in delinquency and the juvenile justice system. Coverage is both broad and deep, yet presented accessibly. Topics include patterns of offending and victimization, predictors, theoretically driven correlates, and a wide range of issues in the operations of the juvenile justice system.
Juvenile Drug Courts and Teen Substance Abuse
We do not know whether juvenile drug courts are more effective than traditional juvenile courts in reducing substance abuse among young offenders. Practitioners, researchers, and policymakers should think carefully about the role drug courts should play in the juvenile justice system.
