Juvenile Delinquency in the United States and the United Kingdom

by McDowell, Gary L.; Smith, Jinney S.

• ISBN13: 9780312222048
• ISBN10: 0312222041
• eBook ISBN(s): 9781349274123
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1999-07-01
• Publisher: Palgrave
• More Book Details

Summary

Nine papers from a conference in London called in response to the murder of a toddler by two ten-year-olds in 1993. Corrections officials, criminologists, psychologists, and law scholars argue that the juvenile justice systems of both countries are not only failing to solve the crisis in juvenile delinquency, but also exacerbating it because of inattention to the importance of character or lack thereof. They describe promising experimentation in the schools and correctional settings of both countries to improve character, and explain how government can help the family, as the most influential character-shaping institution, raise the next generation well.

Table of Contents

Notes on Contributors	ix
Foreword	xiii
James Q. Wilson
Preface and Acknowledgments	xix
Part I: The Crisis of Delinquency	1	(44)
Predicting Persistent Young Offenders	3	(20)
David P. Farrington
Youth Violence and the Backgrounds of Chronic Violent Offenders	23	(22)
Lawrence A. Greenfeld
Maureen A. Henneberg
Part II: Problems in British and American Juvenile Justice	45	(68)
The New Political Consensus on Youth Justice in Britain	47	(14)
Andrew Rutherford
Juvenile Justice Professionals: Opponents of Reform	61	(26)
Ralph A. Rossum
Common Sense and Juvenile Justice in America	87	(12)
Edwin Meese III
Law, Morality and the Common Good	99	(14)
Jonathan Sacks
Part III: Teching Virtue in Juvenile Justice, Family and Educational Settings	113	(75)
Juvenile Probation on the Eve of the Next Millennium	115	(24)
Ronald P. Corbett, Jr.
The Center of Concern: Crime and the Family	139	(24)
Patricia Morgan
Reducing Delinquency by Improving Character	163	(25)
Jinney S. Smith
Afterword: How Can Young Men Learn Virtue?	183	(5)
Mary Tuck
Index	188