Juvenile Justice

The late Hess (Normandale Community College) et al. present an applied text that introduces undergraduate students to the juvenile justice system and its programs, policies, practices, philosophies, and challenges. They stress that there is a need to refocus on treating juveniles as juveniles and a need for a systemic approach to issues. They discuss the origins and history of the juvenile justice system; its philosophical and theoretical bases; the nation's youths in society and the developmental risk and protective factors they may encounter; juvenile victims, offenders, and youth gangs; the contemporary system and its components of law enforcement, pretrial services and diversion, the court, and corrections; and practices and programs, such as for preventing delinquency and recidivism. This edition has updated and new statistics; reworked sections on biological and psychological theories; added discussion of how youth who have advantages can still end up in the system and the link between parenting style and delinquency; an expanded section on oppositional defiant disorder and conduct disorder; new sections on child pornography and its victims, the goals of corrections, defining recidivism and desistance, and bullying and cyberbullying; more on curfew laws and transfer mechanisms and the treatment program needs of females in secure facilities; content on serious, violent offenders, the Safe School Initiative, school attackers, teen court, and violence, assault, and sexual victimization in secure facilities; updated discussion on sex offenders; deleted sections on outlaw motorcycle gangs and prison gangs; and some reorganization. Annotation c2012 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)