The Evolution of the Juvenile Court: Race, Politics, and the Criminalizing of Juvenile Justice

by Barry Feld

Overview

From one of America’s leading experts, an analysis of the history of the nation’s juvenile justice system and a look at the future.

The juvenile court lies at the intersection of youth policy and crime policy, and reflects our changing ideas about children and crime control throughout history. In The Evolution of the Juvenile Court, noted law professor and criminologist Barry C. Feldprovides a sweeping overview of the American juvenile justice system’s development and change over the past century.

Feld traces the juvenile court’s evolution though its four periods―the Progressive Era, the Due Process Revolution in the 1960s, the Get Tough Era of the 1980s and 1990s, and today’s Kids Are Different era. He examines the relationship between social structural factors—changes in the economy, cities, families, race and ethnicity, and politics—and their impact on juvenile justice policies and practices. A comprehensive analysis of juvenile justice history, The Evolution of the Juvenile Court draws on lessons from our past to envision a new, developmentally appropriate justice system for children.

Winner, 2020 ACJS Outstanding Book Award, given by the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781479802777
Publisher:	New York University Press
Publication date:	11/21/2023
Series:	Youth, Crime, and Justice , #4
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	396
File size:	5 MB

About the Author

Barry C. Feld is Centennial Professor of Law Emeritus at the University of Minnesota. He is the author and editor of many books, including The Evolution of the Juvenile Court: Race, Politics, and the Criminalizing of Juvenile Justice (NYU Press, 2019), Kids, Cops, and Confessions: Inside the Interrogation Room (NYU Press, 2014), and Bad Kids: Race and the Transformation of the Juvenile Court (Oxford University Press (1999).

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ix

Introduction 1

Part I The Progressive Era

1 The Progressive Juvenile Court 19

Part II The Due Process Era

2 The Due Process Revolution and the Juvenile Court 43

Part III The Get Tough Era

3 The Get Tough Era I: Structural Change and Youth Crime 71

4 The Get Tough Era II: Politics of Race and Crime 89

5 The Kid Is a Criminal: Transfer and Delinquency Sanctions 105

6 The Girl Is a Criminal: The Impact of Get Tough Policies on Girls 156

7 The Student Is a Criminal: Get Tough Policies and the School-to-Prison Pipeline 173

Part IV The Kids Are Different Era

8 The Criminal Is a Kid: Adolescents' Diminished Culpability 195

9 The Defendant Is a Kid: Adolescents' Competence to Exercise Procedural Rights 224

Epilogue: Opportunities and Obstacles 273

Notes 291

References 343

Index 383

About the Author 397

Editorial Reviews

"Felds work contributes to our understanding of the transformations in the juvenile court across the 20th century[His] work provides a solid foundation from which to rethink the interplay of race, gender, and class as well as the social and political context in the criminalizing of children."

Miroslava Chávez-García

"No one understands the creation, evolution, and transformation of the juvenile court more than Barry Feld. In The Evolution of the Juvenile Court, Feld reveals the recurring exploitation of delinquency as a politically-contested notion throughout the courts first century. Feld applies his vast knowledge of youth crime and juvenile justice to explain how enlightenment science has launched a new era to advance child development within the law. This book shows a path forward to realize the twin ideals of the juvenile court and the foundational rights of adolescents."

Jeffrey Fagan

"Professor Feld wrote (and continues to write) in a unique way, integrating legal and social science research, with an underlying passion for doing right by children and youth in our society[Most] recently, The Evolution of the Juvenile Court: Race, Politics, and the Criminalizing of Juvenile Justice provides an up-to-date, thorough, critical, and evidence-based assessment of past and current juvenile justice philosophy and system operations in our country. It is a book that should be read and utilized by policy-makers, researchers, practitioners, and students."

David L. Myers

"Its about time someone wrote a book that informs readers about the unadulterated truth of how we treat kids in America. It isnt flattering, and worse, the future doesnt look promising despite reform movements peppered across our nation."

Juvenile Justice Information Exchange

"Felds work contributes to our understanding of the transformations in the juvenile court across the 20th century[His] work provides a solid foundation from which to rethink the interplay of race, gender, and class as well as the social and political context in the criminalizing of children."

Miroslava Chávez-García

"For readers interested in policy, this book highlights how economic and public policy decisions that disproportionately affected minority groups created many of the disparities that are seen in the juvenile justice system today... For other readers, this book is critical in educating them on the decisions and events that have shaped the juvenile justice system thus far, to ensure that there is a shift to the creation of a more effective justice system for children in the United States."

Journal of Youth and Adolescence

"Provides a comprehensive history of juvenile justice, from the creation of the first juvenile court to the current era. Feld applies his deep reading of legal, social, economic, demographic, and crime trends throughout the past century to help us understand how and why we punish children as we do, and what we should do better. Feld weaves together his background as legal scholar, historian, and sociologist to produce this extraordinary analysis - it is the most thorough and important treatment of juvenile justice I have read."

Aaron Kupchik

"Feld has delivered an important book that will enrich scholars understanding of race and juvenile justice in the recent American past. Though the work might have more closely examined the tensions within, and failures of, the US juvenile justice system since its inception-not just in the & Get Tough era-Feld nonetheless makes a compelling case for reform and restitution."

Journal of the History of Childhood and Youth

"Barry C. Feld has been a longtime advocate for young people and a critic of the juvenile justice system. The Evolution of the Juvenile Court culminates his career, bringing together broad and deep knowledge across numerous fields to make a powerful argument for change. The book will be highly valuable for scholars in various disciplines and for policy makers across the United States and beyond."

The Journal of American History

"Feld has created a thorough and insightful history of the juvenile court system that is a worthy read for both those new to the field and those with extensive knowledge. Furthermore, the book is presented in a manner that is accessible to non-academics while supplying the depth and documentation that those in academia desire. Finally, through the breadth of the scholarship, the work has relevance to those whose focus is law, history, crime, policy, or social science. Feld has crafted a seminal book in the study and interpretation of the juvenile court."

American Journal of Sociology

"Students of juvenile justice, youth advocates, and policymakers need to read this book. They will undoubtedly learn the sad reality of late twentieth-century juvenile justice reforms, and why current policies disproportionately punish impoverished minority youth. No scholar has written more persuasively and boldly about the legal, sociological, and developmental reasons to pursue justice for all juveniles than Barry Feld."

Simon I. Singer

"Students of juvenile justice, youth advocates, and policymakers need to read this book. They will undoubtedly learn the sad reality of late twentieth-century juvenile justice reforms, and why current policies disproportionately punish impoverished minority youth. No scholar has written more persuasively and boldly about the legal, sociological, and developmental reasons to pursue justice for all juveniles than Barry Feld."

"Feld has created a thorough and insightful history of the juvenile court system that is a worthy read for both those new to the field and those with extensive knowledge. Furthermore, the book is presented in a manner that is accessible to non-academics while supplying the depth and documentation that those in academia desire. Finally, through the breadth of the scholarship, the work has relevance to those whose focus is law, history, crime, policy, or social science. Feld has crafted a seminal book in the study and interpretation of the juvenile court."

"Provides a comprehensive history of juvenile justice, from the creation of the first juvenile court to the current era. Feld applies his deep reading of legal, social, economic, demographic, and crime trends throughout the past century to help us understand how and why we punish children as we do, and what we should do better. Feld weaves together his background as legal scholar, historian, and sociologist to produce this extraordinary analysis - it is the most thorough and important treatment of juvenile justice I have read."

"Barry C. Feld has been a longtime advocate for young people and a critic of the juvenile justice system. The Evolution of the Juvenile Court culminates his career, bringing together broad and deep knowledge across numerous fields to make a powerful argument for change. The book will be highly valuable for scholars in various disciplines and for policy makers across the United States and beyond."

"No one understands the creation, evolution, and transformation of the juvenile court more than Barry Feld. In The Evolution of the Juvenile Court, Feld reveals the recurring exploitation of delinquency as a politically-contested notion throughout the courts first century. Feld applies his vast knowledge of youth crime and juvenile justice to explain how enlightenment science has launched a new era to advance child development within the law. This book shows a path forward to realize the twin ideals of the juvenile court and the foundational rights of adolescents."

From the Publisher