This book is a comparative study of delinquency and the government measures devised to counter it in Singapore and Hong Kong, the "two little dragons" in Asia. It looks at the causes of youth crime and examines the strategies for effective handling of the problem. This cross-cultural analysis of the two little dragons' social backgrounds, delinquency rates, and government programs addressing the issue is a result of the authors' strong enthusiasm for the subject and their intense work in compiling and analyzing the data for their respective society. The book also will appeal to a broad spectrum of readers with its insightful case studies of youths who descend into delinquency and crime, balanced by analyses of theories and statistical data. This second edition contains an update of facts, statistical figures and terminology, as well as a new foreword and preface.
Even though youth crime rates have fallen since the mid-1990s, public fear and political rhetoric over the issue have heightened. The Columbine shootings and other sensational incidents add to the furor. Often overlooked are the underlying problems of child poverty, social disadvantage, and the pitfalls inherent to adolescent decisionmaking that contribute to youth crime. From a policy standpoint, adolescent offenders are caught in the crossfire between nurturance of youth and punishment of criminals, between rehabilitation and "get tough" pronouncements. In the midst of this emotional debate, the National Research Council's Panel on Juvenile Crime steps forward with an authoritative review of the best available data and analysis. Juvenile Crime, Juvenile Justice presents recommendations for addressing the many aspects of America's youth crime problem. This timely release discusses patterns and trends in crimes by children and adolescentsâ€"trends revealed by arrest data, victim reports, and other sources; youth crime within general crime; and race and sex disparities. The book explores desistanceâ€"the probability that delinquency or criminal activities decrease with ageâ€"and evaluates different approaches to predicting future crime rates. Why do young people turn to delinquency? Juvenile Crime, Juvenile Justice presents what we know and what we urgently need to find out about contributing factors, ranging from prenatal care, differences in temperament, and family influences to the role of peer relationships, the impact of the school policies toward delinquency, and the broader influences of the neighborhood and community. Equally important, this book examines a range of solutions: Prevention and intervention efforts directed to individuals, peer groups, and families, as well as day care-, school- and community-based initiatives. Intervention within the juvenile justice system. Role of the police. Processing and detention of youth offenders. Transferring youths to the adult judicial system. Residential placement of juveniles. The book includes background on the American juvenile court system, useful comparisons with the juvenile justice systems of other nations, and other important information for assessing this problem.
In recent years, western societies have experienced a fundamental transformation in the way crime is understood and dealt with. Against the backdrop of a current great interest in narratives in criminology, this book draws on a narrative perspective to explore this transformation. Drawing on data from Germany, the book focuses on changing narratives of youth crime in recent decades and the exact narratives that have been used, abandoned, invented or criticized in order to instil particular understandings of crime and measures to act against it. The author draws upon a wide range of sources, including debates on youth crime in six parliaments from 1970 to 2012; articles on youth crime in four police and six social work journals from 1970 to 2009; and case studies with 15 young defendants who were interviewed before and after their trial and whose trial was observed. In doing so, the author reconstructs narratives over several decades and, overall, reveals a fascinating and multifaceted scope of narratives of youth crime. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of youth crime and justice, as well as criminology, sociology, politics and social work more broadly.
The New Politics of Youth Crime argues that the centrality of 'law and order' to the New Labour project has generated a youth justice strategy which threatens to deepen the problems it purports to solve. Analysing the profound changes in UK youth crime in the 1980s, this book posits the French Social Prevention Initiative of the 1980s as an alternative model for a genuinely 'joined-up', social democratic response to the increasingly complex problem of youth crime in Europe.
Hearing on the predicted coming storm of violent youth crime & how the Federal Government can work with the States & the Nation to prepare for this. Witnesses: Kevin Beary, sheriff; Linda Roster Clark; Richard Cullen, former U.S. attorney; Peter W. Greenwood, Rand Corp.; Ellen Halbert, Texas Board of Criminal Justice; Scott C. Newman, prosecutor; Karen Schreier, chair, Attorney General's Advisory Subcomm. on Juvenile Crime Issues, Dept. of Justice; Jefferson B. Sessions, III, Attorney Gen., State of Alabama; Hon. Sandra Storm; Patricia Thomas; Kathy Trammel; Public Defender Service, D.C.; Charles Wilson, attorney; & Safe Streets Coalition.
Why has America experienced an explosion in crime rates since 1960? Why has the crime rate dropped in recent years? Though politicians are always ready both to take the credit for crime reduction and to exploit grisly headlines for short-term political gain, these questions remain among the most important-and most difficult to answer-in America today. In Crime & Politics, award-winning journalist Ted Gest gives readers the inside story of how crime policy is formulated inside the Washington beltway and state capitols, why we've had cycle after cycle of ineffective federal legislation, and where promising reforms might lead us in the future. Gest examines how politicians first made crime a national rather than a local issue, beginning with Lyndon Johnson's crime commission and the landmark anti-crime law of 1968 and continuing right up to such present-day measures as "three strikes" laws, mandatory sentencing, and community policing. Gest exposes a lack of consistent leadership, backroom partisan politics, and the rush to embrace simplistic solutions as the main causes for why Federal and state crime programs have failed to make our streets safe. But he also explores how the media aid and abet this trend by featuring lurid crimes that simultaneously frighten the public and encourage candidates to offer another round of quick-fix solutions. Drawing on extensive research and including interviews with Edwin Meese, Janet Reno, Joseph Biden, Ted Kennedy, and William Webster, Crime & Politics uncovers the real reasons why America continues to struggle with the crime problem and shows how we do a better job in the future.
