Overview

A New Juvenile Justice System aims at nothing less than a complete reform of the existing system: not minor change or even significant overhaul, but the replacement of the existing system with a different vision. The authors in this volume—academics, activists, researchers, and those who serve in the existing system—all respond in this collection to the question of what the system should be. Uniformly, they agree that an ideal system should be centered around the principle of child well-being and the goal of helping kids to achieve productive lives as citizens and members of their communities. Rather than the existing system, with its punitive, destructive, undermining effect and uneven application by race and gender, these authors envision a system responsive to the needs of youth as well as to the community’s legitimate need for public safety. How, they ask, can the ideals of equality, freedom, liberty, and self-determination transform the system? How can we improve the odds that children who have been labeled as “delinquent” can make successful transitions to adulthood? And how can we create a system that relies on proven, family-focused interventions and creates opportunities for positive youth development? Drawing upon interdisciplinary work as well as on-the-ground programs and experience, the authors sketch out the broad parameters of such a system. Providing the principles, goals, and concrete means to achieve them, this volume imagines using our resources wisely and well to invest in all children and their potential to contribute and thrive in our society.

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9781479898800

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The juvenile justice system is too punitive, too focused on detention, and too wedded to old folk wisdom that ignores recent scientific advances in understanding and treating antisocial behavior. This book is chockfull of innovative ideas, presented by a highly interdisciplinary and highly expert group of authors, for reforming the juvenile justice system, both substantively and procedurally. It makes a strong case for the proposition that juvenile justice should be aimed at treating all children the way we would want our children to be treated. -Christopher Slobogin, Milton Underwood Professor of Law, Vanderbilt University Law School

Author Information

Nancy E. Dowd (Editor) Nancy E. Dowd is Emeritus Distinguished Professor and David Levin Chair in Family Law at the University of Florida Levin College of Law. She is the editor of the Families, Law and Society series at NYU Press, and author or editor of numerous books, including Reimagining Equality: A New Deal for Children of Color. Charles J. Ogletree, Jr. (Foreword by) Charles J. Ogletree, Jr. is the Jesse Climenko Professor of Law and Executive Director of the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice at Harvard Law School. He is the author of All Deliberate Speed: Reflections on the First Half-Century of Brown v. Board of Education (WW Norton and Company, 2004) and Co-Author of From Lynch Mobs to the Killing State: Race and the Death Penalty in America.

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