Serious Delinquency

Serious Delinquency: An Anthology adopts a survey approach to major issues in delinquency and the juvenile justice system, with topics including the patterns of offending and victimization, predicators, theoretically driven correlates, and a wide range of issues in the operations of the juvenile justice system. The logical organization of this anthology begins with a brief historical overview and then follows the juvenile justice system from police involvement to the court processes and beyond. The text concludes with a reconsideration of juvenile delinquency using critiques of historical and current perceptions of the system. In addition, the book provides an introduction for each chapter that sets the context for each reading and links each successive chapter. This text covers all the basic issues related to juvenile delinquency and the justice system while presenting them in a manner that allows students to render a solid conclusion about the issues addressed by current delinquency research.

Twenty up-to-date readings provide broad overviews of serious delinquency and the policy responses to it. The readings examine:

* The history of serious delinquency and official responses to it.

* The nature and extent of serious delinquency at the present time.

* Theories and predictors of serious delinquency.

* Juvenile justice responses: police, courts, and corrections.

* Youthful offenders in the (adult) criminal justice system.

* Effective prevention and rehabilitation programs for serious offenders.

* Minority and female juvenile offenders.

Each reading presents a wide range of current, comprehensive, and accurate information. Each also is edited so that it focuses on the most important points and is appropriate for undergraduate students. An introduction by the editor points out the major themes of the reading and ties those themes into a coherent, overall theoretical framework for the book.