Essential Readings in Juvenile Justice / Edition 1|Paperback

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780130981868
Publisher:	Pearson
Publication date:	03/18/2004
Series:	Pearson Criminal Justice Series
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	432
Product dimensions:	7.00(w) x 9.05(h) x 1.02(d)

About the Author

David L. Parry is an Associate Professor of Law and justice at Endicott College in Beverly, Massachusetts. In more than twenty years of juvenile justice research he has examined the interaction of police, court, and correctional agencies with youths in numerous jurisdictions across the United States.

Read an Excerpt

As an instructor committed to making primary source material the centerpiece of even most undergraduate classes (either instead of or in conjunction with a traditional textbook, depending on the level of the course), I have repeatedly found myself frustrated with the absence of an appropriate book of readings for my 300-level juvenile justice course—one pitched at an accessible level for my students, yet providing uncompromising and informative readings on the full range of juvenile justice subject matter that I normally cover in a semester. The field is so rich in writings that may fairly be described as "essential" for anyone seeking more than a cursory understanding of how our juvenile justice system works and why it works the way it does that I have often wondered why someone didn't try to pull all of this material together under a single cover. This book is intended to approximate that ideal. It is sufficiently meaty to sustain graduate students, yet the readings have been carefully chosen and edited to maximize their accessibility for undergraduates as well.

My intent has been to provide a, penetrating yet eminently accessible overview of the entire field of juvenile justice, aped to do so in a manner that systematically integrates published scholarship, case law and other pertinent materials in a mosaic affording readers an opportunity to directly view the multiple layers of law, policy and analysis that guide contemporary juvenile justice system practices. I have drawn together a wide array of documents including classic statements of traditional juvenile court philosophy, landmark Supreme Court cases, groundbreaking examinations of juvenile court history and contemporary juvenile justice system practices, influential juvenile justice legislation, and model standards for juvenile justice agency policy and procedure. All of this I have done with an eye toward touching upon the entire range of juvenile justice topics one normally finds referenced only in single-author textbooks and in widely scattered books, articles, monographs, court decisions and other isolated sources—many of which are hard to find (even if available on the Internet) and, once found, daunting to wade through in their original, unabridged form.

In order to augment the accessibility of the material and, just as important, to manage the integration of all the selections into a single volume of reasonable size, I have limited most selections to no more than seven or eight pages in length, editing them in such a way as to preserve the essential points and the flow of the authors' arguments, but omitting non-essential passages and those that seem comparatively unlikely to provoke discussion or excite more than passing interest. Many selections have been cut down even further, following the model of law school casebooks in which even landmark Supreme Court cases are often reduced to just three or four pages of key passages. In several instances, extremely brief readings—some under a page in length—are introduced as succinct counterpoints to positions taken in other selections or to provide points of departure for classroom discussion of issues that do not receive focused attention elsewhere. Also, reference lists following some selections have been adapted to omit sources that are not cited in included passages, and I have omitted nearly all footnotes—and in-text case citations as well—in excerpts from Supreme Court cases and law review articles, where content-laden notes and citations to statutes and precedent-setting cases often rival the main text in overall length. Wherever I have preserved footnotes, though, the original numbering is retained even if it produces non-sequential note numbers.

I have also inserted a variety of learning aids designed to help students get the most out of their reading. Each chapter begins with a brief introduction designed to place the selections in a broader context by describing relevant historical developments, outlining general practices and issues pertaining to the chapter topic, highlighting points that receive insufficient coverage in the included selections or for which the selections assume greater familiarity with the subject matter than many readers are likely to have, and, finally, summarizing the selections and showing how they relate to each other and to other aspects of juvenile justice. Individual selections are in each instance followed by a set of review questions designed to focus attention on key concepts, highlight any ideas that are notably similar to or in conflict with ones raised in earlier selections, elucidate ways in which points raised in the selection relate to overarching themes or broader trends in juvenile justice policy, and guide readers toward a fuller understanding of the implications of particular practices and issues. Rounding out each chapter is a list of further readings for those who wish to explore particular aspects of juvenile justice in greater depth. This feature will be especially helpful as a resource for students who are asked to write library-based research papers addressing juvenile justice system practices.

The book is organized into ten chapters, each addressing a major aspect of juvenile justice. Chapter One frames many of the themes to be developed in subsequent parts of the book. The selections include a synopsis of juvenile justice system structure and process, statistical breakdowns of juvenile arrest patterns and juvenile court case flow, a summary of the findings of developmental psychologists with respect to reasoning ability and judgment in adolescents and the implications for juvenile justice, and assessments of special problems confronted by minority youth and females in the juvenile justice system. These selections together offer a panoramic overview of the juvenile justice system and process, and they raise many of the central issues that are investigated more thoroughly in later chapters.

Chapter Two traces the evolution of delinquency control measures leading up to the emergence of juvenile courts at the beginning of the 20th Century. Included Eire Anthony Platt's article-length summary of his classic work on the child saving movement that culminated in creation of the first juvenile court in Chicago, Judge Julian Mack's first-person account of that court and its underlying philosophy, an excerpt from the 1899 Illinois Juvenile Court Act establishing the court, and the pivotal Ex Parte Crouse and Commonwealth v. Fisher cases that bracketed the child saving era. These selections combine to give the reader a thorough understanding of the philosophical underpinnings of the juvenile justice system, at least as it existed prior to the comparatively recent drift toward increased formality and punitiveness.

The sweeping changes in juvenile justice first called for in the seminal discussion of juvenile delinquency and youth crime in the 1967 report of the President's Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice, and then mandated by the Supreme Court in a series of decisions handed down between 1966 and 1975, are documented in Chapter Three. In this chapter the reader gains a sense of the widespread disenchantment with a system that, despite continued lip service to the lofty ideals espoused by Judge Mack and other 19" Century reformers, had by the 1960s degenerated into one in which young offenders seemed to receive "the worst of both worlds ... neither the protections accorded to adults nor the solicitous care and regenerative treatment postulated for children" (Kent v. U.S., 383 U.S. 541, 556 1966). Rounding out the chapter—and exemplifying the reformist spirit of the times—are authoritative summaries of two extraordinarily influential sets of model standards for juvenile justice system operation.

The law enforcement response to juvenile delinquency is the focus of Chapter Four. After extensive examination in the 1960s and 1970s, police juvenile interactions have received surprisingly little attention in the recent scholarly literature. I looked hard for a set of readings that would effectively convey a sense of the special problems associated with policing juveniles and ways in which contemporary police juvenile interactions differ from those involving adults. The result is a blend of standards, cases, and both classic and contemporary articles highlighting arrest decisions, interrogation, search and seizure (school searches), gang suppression tactics and the implications of the recent ascendance of community policing for interactions between law enforcement officials and juveniles.

Chapters Five through Seven examine the intermediate stages of the juvenile justice process, addressing the many decisions normally falling to an "intake" officer (often a probation officer assigned specifically to work with newly referred youth), prosecutor or other juvenile court gatekeeper after a youth is referred by the police or another source for further processing. Chapter Five introduces the intake screening process via two sets of model standards offering alternative views of the responsibilities of intake officers and prosecutors in reviewing cases and deciding in each case whether to file a "petition" initiating formal court action or instead to "divert" the child away from juvenile court and handle the case informally. Additional readings probe issues related to the proliferation of diversion programs for minor offenders, relate one State's statutory provisions for case screening and diversion agreements, and assess the teen court phenomenon that has taken root as an alternative to formal juvenile court processing in many jurisdictions across the country.

Detention of accused juvenile offenders pending the outcome of court action, the focus of Chapter Six, is addressed through excerpts from a landmark Supreme Court case granting judges wide latitude in deciding whether to detain juveniles awaiting adjudication hearings, a set of model standards enumerating far more restrictive criteria for detention decisions, passages in the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act of 1974 (as amended most recently in 2002) detailing its familiar deinstitutionalization, separation, jail removal and disproportionate minority confinement mandates, and an article addressing trends and reforms in juvenile detention.

Chapter Seven, wrapping up consideration of intermediate-stage decisions and processes, includes selections outlining the various mechanisms for transferring juveniles to adult criminal court and their attendant problems, criminal court outcomes for transferred juveniles, and the impact of transfer on the likelihood of recidivism. A passage from law professor Victor L. Streib's meticulously maintained web site cataloguing all death sentences imposed on juvenile offenders since 1973 and brief excerpts from two Supreme Court cases addressing the Constitutionality of the death penalty for juveniles round out the material on transfer.

In Chapter Eight attention shifts to practices and issues related to adjudication and disposition of delinquency cases in juvenile court. The chapter begins with passages from Edward Humes' compelling account of his observations over a one-year period in a Los Angeles juvenile court. It then continues through a series of selections examining cross jurisdictional variations in juvenile court formality, the role of the prosecutor in delinquency cases, the extent and influence of legal representation in juvenile court, and issues related to the process of pleading guilty in delinquency cases. The chapter ends with consideration of the variety of statutory provisions for sentencing young offenders, factors that influence juvenile court dispositions and, in the final selection, the advent of blended sentencing statutes that in a growing number of states permit judges to combine juvenile and adult sanctions—or choose between the two—for certain categories of juvenile offender.

The entire range of juvenile correctional intervention strategies is touched upon in Chapter Nine. The results of a national assessment of conditions of confinement in juvenile detention and correctional facilities open the chapter. This is followed by a review of the rise and fall of the notion of a Constitutional right to treatment in juvenile correctional law and an assessment of alternative legal foundations for assuring rehabilitative care in institutions for juvenile offenders. From here, and for the balance of the chapter, attention shifts to successful intervention strategies via an extended selection describing in rich detail a wide variety of exemplary community-based and institutional programs for juvenile offenders.

Finally, Chapter Ten draws together several disparate images of the future direction of the juvenile justice system. The first of these comes from an influential manifesto for attacking serious, violent and chronic delinquency through vigorous prevention efforts and implementation of a system of "graduated sanctions." This is followed by Professor Barry Feld's astonishingly compelling case for abolishing the juvenile court's delinquency jurisdiction altogether and, closing the book, the case for restorative justice and the "balanced approach" as presented by Gordon Bazemore and Susan E. Day.

Juvenile Justice System Structure and Process, Howard N. Snyder and Melissa Sickmund. National Estimates of Juvenile Court Processing for Delinquency Cases, 1999, National Center for Juvenile Justice—as compiled in the OJJDP Statistical Briefing Book. Juvenile Arrests 2000, Howard N. Snyder. The Evolution of Adolescence: A Developmental Perspective on Juvenile Justice Reform, Elizabeth S. Scott and Thomas Grisso. Disproportionate Minority Confinement: A Review of the Research Literature From 1989 Through 2001, Carl E. Pope, Rick Lovell, and Heidi M. Hsia. What About the Girls? Delinquency Programming as if Gender Mattered, Meda Chesney-Lind.

2. Juvenile Courts and the Invention of Delinquency.

Ex Parte Crouse, 4 Whart. 9 (1839). The Rise of the Child-Saving Movement: A Study in Social Policy and Correctional Reform, Anthony Platt. An Act to Regulate the Treatment and Control of Dependent, Neglected and Delinquent Children, Illinois Juvenile Court Act approved April 21, 1899. The Juvenile Court, Julian W. Mack. Commonwealth v. Fisher, 213 Pa. 48, 62 A. 198 (Pa. 1905).

3. The Constitutionalization of Juvenile Justice and the Movement for Reform.

Juvenile Delinquency and Youth Crime, The President's Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice. Kent v. U.S., 383 U.S. 541 (1966). In re Gault, 387 U.S. 1 (1967). In re Winship, 397 U.S. 358 (1970). McKiever v. Pennsylvania, 403 U.S. 528 (1971). Breed v. Jones, 421 U.S. 519 (1975). Standards for the Administration of Juvenile Justice, National Advisory Committee for Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. Introduction to the IJA-ABA Juvenile Justice Standards, Barbara Flicker.

4. Policing Juveniles.

Police Encounters with Juveniles, Irving Piliavin and Scott Briar. Criteria for Taking a Juvenile into Custody and Referral to Intake—Delinquency, National Advisory Committee for Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. Process and Structure in Juvenile Justice, Aaron V. Cicourel. Fare v. Michael C., 442 U.S. 707 (1979). Procedures Applicable to Interrogation of Juveniles, National Advisory Committee for Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. New Jersey v. T.L.O., 469 U.S. 325 (1985), Vernonia School District 47J v. Acton, 515 U.S. 646 (1995). Board of Education of Independent School District No. 92 of Pottawatomie County v. Earls, 536 U.S. (2002). Gang Suppression Through Saturation Patrol, Aggressive Curfew, and Truancy Enforcement: A Quasi-Experimental Test of the Dallas Anti-Gang Initiative, Eric J. Fritsch, Tory J. Caeti and Robert W. Taylor. Police Encounters with Juveniles Revisited: An Exploratory Study of Themes and Styles in Community Policing, Gordon Bazemore and Scott Senjo.

5. The Intake Process and Diversion of Minor Offenders.

Standards Relating to the Juvenile Probation Function: Intake and Predisposition Investigative Services, IJA-ABA Joint Commission on Juvenile Justice Standards-Josephine Gittler, Reporter. National Prosecution Standards: Juvenile Justice—Responsibilities of the Prosecutor for Charging Function and Diversion of Legally Sufficient Cases, National District Attorneys Association. Juvenile Diversion: The Ongoing Search for Alternatives, Mark Ezell. Complaints, Case Screening and Diversion Agreements, Revised Code of Washington, Juvenile Justice Act of 1977 - RCW 13.40.070 and RCW 13.40.080. Teen Courts: A Focus on Research, Jeffrey A. Butts and Janeen Buck.

6. Detention.

Schall v. Martin, 467 U.S. 253 (1984). Criteria for Detention in Secure Facilities—Delinquency, National Advisory Committee for Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. The Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act of 1974, as amended through November 2, 2002: Formula Grant Program—Core Requirements. Trends in Juvenile Detention and Steps Toward Reform, Madeline Wordes and Sharon M. Jones.

7. Transfer to Adult Criminal Court.

Trying Juveniles as Adults in Criminal Court: An Analysis of State Transfer Provisions, Patrick Griffin, Patricia Torbet and Linda Szymanski. Consequences of Transfer, Donna Bishop and Charles Frazier. The Juvenile Death Penalty Today: Death Sentences and Executions for Juvenile Crimes, January 1, 1973-May 1, 2003, Victor L. Streib. Thompson v. Oklahoma, 487 U.S. 815 (1988). Stanford v. Kentucky, 492 U.S. 361 (1989).

8. The Juvenile in Court: Adjudication and Disposition of Juvenile Delinquency Cases.

No Matter How Loud I Shout, Edward Humes. Justice By Geography: Urban, Suburban, and Rural Variations in Juvenile Justice Administration, Barry C. Feld. National Prosecution Standards: Juvenile Justice, National District Attorneys Association. A Call for Justice: An Assessment of Access to Counsel and Quality of Representation in Delinquency Proceedings, Patricia Puritz, Sue Burrell, Robert Schwartz, Mark Soler and Loren Warboys. Pleading Guilty in Juvenile Court: Minimal Ado About Something Very Important to Young Defendants, Joseph B. Sanborn, Jr. Sentencing in the Juvenile Justice System: Punishment and Treatment, Barry C. Feld. Judicial Disposition/Sentencing Authority: Blended Sentencing, Patricia Torbet, Richard Gable, Hunter Hurst IV, Imogene Montgomery, Linda Szymanski and Douglas Thomas.

9. Juvenile Corrections.

Conditions of Juvenile Confinement, Dale G. Parent. Whatever Happened to the Right to Treatment?: The Modern Quest of a Historical Promise, Paul Holland and Wallace J. Mlyniec. Graduated Sanctions for Serious, Violent, and Chronic Juvenile Offenders, Barry Krisberg et al.

10. The Future of Juvenile Justice.

A Comprehensive Strategy for Serious, Violent, and Chronic Juvenile Offenders, John J. Wilson and James C. Howell. Juvenile (In)Justice and the Criminal Court Alternative, Barry C. Feld. Restoring the Balance: Juvenile and Community Justice, Gordon Bazemore and Susan E. Day.

Preface