NCJ Number
124638
Date Published
1990
Length
245 pages
Annotation
This book discusses the characteristics of adolescent offenders, adolescent crime and delinquency, the role of the juvenile justice system in "creating" delinquency and trying to combat it, trends in juvenile delinquency prevention, and implications for controlling adolescent criminality in the future.
Abstract
Part I explores the dimensions of adolescent crime. After defining adolescent criminality, it examines the major means of measuring juvenile crime and analyzes its general scope and characteristics. Other topics covered in this section are the dynamics of the violent adolescent offender, the magnitude and diversity of adolescent property crime, the juvenile status offender, adolescent prostitution, child pornography, female delinquency, juvenile drug and alcohol abuse, and juvenile gangs. Part II, which focuses on theories and explanations regarding adolescent deviant behavior, addresses the biological, psychological, and sociological perspectives of delinquency. Family determinants in adolescent delinquent conduct are also discussed. In examining the juvenile justice system, Part III discusses the role of law enforcement in adolescent-police encounters, the history of the juvenile court system, juvenile rights, the court process, features of juvenile correctional institutions and inmates, and juvenile noninstitutional community-based corrections. Part IV examines adolescent delinquency and crime in other countries, trends in delinquency prevention and control, and improvement in addressing and preventing adolescent crime in the future. Chapter notes, 72-item bibliography, subject index.