How does the law deal with young offenders, and to what extent does the law protect and promote the rights of young people in conflict with the law? These are the central issues addressed by Young Offenders and the Law in its examination of the legal response to the phenomenon of youth offending, and the contemporary forces that shape the law. This book develops the reader’s understanding of the sociological, criminological, historical, political, and philosophical approaches to youth offending in England and Wales, and also presents a comparative review of developments in other jurisdictions. It provides a comprehensive critical analysis of the legislative and policy framework currently governing the operation of the youth justice system in England and Wales, and evaluates the response of the legal system in light of modern legislative framework and international best practice. All aspects of trial and pre-trial procedure affecting young offenders are covered, including: the age of criminal responsibility, police powers, trial procedure, together with the full range of detention facilities and non-custodial options. Young Offenders and the Law provides, for the first time, a primary source of reference on youth offending. It is an essential text for undergraduate and postgraduate students of Law, Criminology, and Criminal Justice Studies.

At a time when the nation is focused on devising new responses to street crime and on reforming the juvenile justice system, this book brings together in a single volume, current and emerging perspectives on the control of crime by and against children and youth. Young Victims, Young Offenders provides you with an overview of established and emerging practices in treating juvenile offenders and adults who prey on children and youth.This book explores the nature and causes of criminal offenses committed by and against juveniles. While children and youth show up statistically as offenders, they also figure disproportionately as victims. The contributing authors consider both of these aspects as they discuss current programs for the treatment of youths who commit or are victimized by criminal offenses.Topics of a wide range are addressed in Young Victims, Young Offenders for people--like you-- who work with our nation's youth. A sampling of topics includes: How states address child maltreatment through reporting laws and special courtroom procedures Associations between selected psychosocial variables and chronic delinquency Implications of mandatory Child Abuse Reporting Laws on treating offenders The success of diversion during a 20-year period in a youth service bureau Clinical techniques in the treatment of juvenile sex offenders A study on the effectiveness of an intervention program in Iowa for youthful offendersThis book is useful for the pre-service student pursuing course work in juvenile delinquency, correctional counseling, probation, parole, and social work. At the in-service level, correctional counselors, probation officers, parole officers, social workers, psychologists, psychiatrists, correctional administrators, and child care workers can find much to challenge and enhance their effectiveness in their work with young victims and offenders.

This text considers the developing law in England and Wales as it applies to the burgeoning and confusing subject of the rights of children. It examines the extent to which the emerging legal principles can be harnessed to fulfil those rights.

This book presents a critique of the traditional responses to youth crime by criminal justice agencies in Australia, UK, New Zealand, USA, Canada, and a vision of how these agencies could respond more effectively. The critique examines the ways in which traditional criminal justice approaches trap young people into, rather than turn them away from, a life of crime. The vision is for criminal justice agencies - police, courts, and corrections - to become more pro-active partners in society's efforts to guide young people towards becoming happy and productive citizens; for these agencies to focus less on the exercise of retributive powers and to embrace restorative approaches; and for agencies to develop a crime prevention role through partnership with community organisations. Author Paul Omaji argues against concentrating resources on the symptom when the underlying causes are within our intellectual grasp and amenable to effective criminal justice responses. Omaji demonstrates the capacity of criminal justice agencies to become constructive partners with community organisations in preventing youth crime and constructs ground rules for high impact partnerships.

This comprehensive reference work presents inside information on the Juvenile Justice-systems in 19 different countries, both in old and new EU-member states and in the United States and Canada. The book is the result of research conducted by a group of outstanding researchers, who are concerned about trends in Juvenile Justice in the last two decades, which blur the border between criminal and juvenile justice.

Rates of female delinquency, especially for violent crimes, are increasing in most common law countries. At the same time the growth in cyber-bullying, especially among girls, appears to be a related global phenomenon.While the gender gap in delinquency is narrowing in Australia, United States, Canada and the United Kingdom, boys continue to dominate the youth who commit crime and have a virtual monopoly over sexually violent crimes. Indigenous youth continue to be vastly over-represented in the juvenile justice system in every Australian jurisdiction. The Indigenisation of delinquency is a persistent problem in other countries such as Canada and New Zealand.Young people who gather in public places are susceptible to being perceived as somehow threatening or riotous, attracting more than their share of public order policing. Professional football has been marred by repeated scandals involving sexual assault, violence and drunkenness. Given the cultural significance of footballers as role models to thousands, if not millions, of young men around the world, it is vitally important to address this problem. Offending Youth explores these key contemporary patterns of delinquency, the response to these by the juvenile justice agencies and moreover what can be done to address these problems.The book also analyses the major policy and legislative changes from the nineteenth to twenty first centuries, chiefly the shift the penal welfarism to diversion and restorative justice. Using original cases studied by Carrington twenty years ago, Offending Youth illustrates how penal welfarism criminalised young people from socially marginal backgrounds, especially Aboriginal children, children from single parent families, family-less children, state wards and young people living in poverty or in housing commission estates. A number of inquiries in Australia and the United Kingdom have since established that children committed to these institutions, supposedly for their own good, experienced systemic physical, sexual and psychological abuse during their institutionalisation. The book is dedicated to the survivors of these institutions who only now are receiving official recognition of the injustices they suffered.The underlying philosophy of juvenile justice has fundamentally shifted away from penal welfarism to embrace positive policy responses to juvenile crime, such as youth conferencing, cautions, warnings, restorative justice, circle sentencing and diversion examined in the concluding chapter.Offending Youth is aimed at a broad readership including policy makers, juvenile justice professionals, youth workers, families, teachers, politicians as well as students and academics in criminology, policing, gender studies, masculinity studies, Indigenous studies, justice studies, youth studies and the sociology of youth and deviance more generally.

Detailed and comprehensive, Serious and Violent Juvenile Offenders presents authoritative discussions by a select group of leading scholars on issues surrounding serious and violent juvenile offenders. This population is responsible for a disproportionate percentage of all crime and poses the greatest challenge to juvenile justice policymakers. Under the skillful editorship of Rolf Loeber and David P. Farrington, this unique volume integrates knowledge about risk and protective factors with information about intervention and prevention programs so that conclusions from each area can inform the other. Current literature on these two areas does not, for the most part, apply directly to serious and violent juvenile offenders. This volume contends that serious and violent juvenile offenders tend to start displaying behavior problems and delinquency early in life, warranting early intervention. It is the contributors' thesis that prevention is never too early. They also maintain, however, that interventions for serious and violent juvenile offenders can never be too late in that effective interventions exist for known serious and violent juvenile offenders. Augmented by charts, tables, graphs, figures, and an extensive bibliography, Serious and Violent Juvenile Offenders is an excellent reference work and a must read for policy and lawmakers, judges, attorneys, law enforcement personnel, education administrators, researchers, academics, social workers, sociologists, as well as graduate students and interns.

Juvenile justice has been and remains a topical issue at national and international levels. There are various standards and guidelines for administration, but six major models characterize juvenile justice systems worldwide: participatory, welfare, corporatism, modified justice, justice, and crime control. Juvenile Justice: International Perspectives, Models, and Trends presents contributions by authors from different countries in all five continents employing these six models. The book begins with a comprehensive overview of the topic and the various international standards and guidelines designed to inform juvenile justice practices. This introduction is followed by chapters on individual countries covered independently by resident experts, allowing readers to appreciate a range of comparisons and to critically reflect on the relative merits of the different models. Topics presented in each chapter include: The country’s history of juvenile justice The nature and status of delinquency Current legislation on juvenile justice How well the legislation complies with the Standard Minimum Rules of the Administration of Juvenile Justice as defined by the United Nations The type of juvenile justice model followed Age limits for male and female juvenile offenders Legal and social issues confronting juvenile offenders Current theoretical biases used to explain and justify response to delinquency Future issues, challenges, and/or initiatives Text boxes supply current and relevant examples to contextualize key issues and themes. Each chapter features discussion questions and helpful web links to facilitate further research. Presented in an unbiased manner, the book is a consolidated yet comprehensive overview of juvenile justice models and practices worldwide. It enables readers to compare the relative strengths and weaknesses of different juvenile justice models/systems and to evaluate all countries in light of the larger international phenomena of delinquency.