Courting Kids: Inside an Experimental Youth Court

by Carla J. Barrett

Overview

Despite being labeled as adults, the approximately 200,000 youth under the age of 18 who are now prosecuted as adults each year in criminal court are still adolescents, and the contradiction of their legal labeling creates numerous problems and challenges. In Courting Kids Carla Barrett takes us behind the scenes of a unique judicial experiment called the Manhattan Youth Part, a specialized criminal court set aside for youth prosecuted as adults in New York City. Focusing on the lives of those coming through and working in the courtroom, Barrett’s ethnography is a study of a microcosm that reflects the costs, challenges, and consequences the “tough on crime” age has had, especially for male youth of color. She demonstrates how the court, through creative use of judicial discretion and the cultivation of an innovative courtroom culture, developed a set of strategies for handling “adult-juvenile ” cases that embraced, rather than denied, defendants’ adolescence.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780814709450
Publisher:	New York University Press
Publication date:	12/03/2012
Series:	Alternative Criminology , #25
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	220
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Carla J. Barrett is Assistant Professor of Sociology at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ix

Introduction: An Experiment in Youth Justice 1

1 Calendar Days in the Youth Part: Mundanity and Drama 21

2 Creating the "Juvenile Offender" 44

3 Rehabilitation, Youth Part Style 61

4 Individualized Justice in a Criminal Court 89

5 Managing Contradictions 130

6 Judging the Court, Judging Transfer 152

Conclusion: Kids Will Be Kids 167

Notes 173

Bibliography 193

Index 205

About the Author 209

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“This insightful ethnography tells a compelling story of injustice, humanity, and suffering—of a judge’s struggle to do right despite challenging circumstances—and in the process offers a powerful critique against transfer to criminal court.”-Aaron Kupchik,author of Homeroom Security

“An impressive and important book. Meticulously researched and well written the book offers an insightful account of the way one court adapted to the legal effort to try juvenile offenders as adults.” -Austin Sarat,author of Life without Parole

Editorial Reviews

"Explores the experiment in child-saving undertaken by the Manhattan Youth Part of the New York criminal court system and considers the insights it offers about the persecution of youth offenders."

Journal of Economic Literature

"An articulate and intelligent ethnographic study."

Current Issues in Criminal Justice - Sarah Ciftci

"Explores the experiment in child-saving undertaken by the Manhattan Youth Part of the New York criminal court system and considers the insights it offers about the persecution of youth offenders." -Journal of Economic Literature

"An articulate and intelligent ethnographic study."-Sarah Ciftci,Current Issues in Criminal Justice

“An impressive and important book. Meticulously researched and well written the book offers an insightful account of the way one court adapted to the legal effort to try juvenile offenders as adults.”
-Austin Sarat,author of Life without Parole

From the Publisher

"Readers will gain a sense of the history and initial purpose of the juvenile court, an understanding of the impact of accountability-based public policies, the tools used to facilitate accountability, such as legislative and judicial waivers, and the research that, to date, has found that these policies have not necessarily reduced recidivism or deterred criminal conduct. In the end, Courting Kids is not just about youth and a specialized court in New York; it is about all youth, everywhere"

Political Science Quarterly

"This insightful ethnography tells a compelling story of injustice, humanity, and sufferingof a judges struggle to do right despite challenging circumstancesand in the process offers a powerful critique against transfer to criminal court."

Aaron Kupchik

"An impressive and important book. Meticulously researched and well written the book offers an insightful account of the way one court adapted to the legal effort to try juvenile offenders as adults."

Austin Sarat