NCJ Number
102039
Date Published
1986
Length
212 pages
Annotation
Calls for a new research strategy consisting of longitudinal-experimental studies to learn which young people become involved in crime, which ones persist in criminal careers, and what treatment seems to work and with whom.
Abstract
The book is a report of the Justice Program Study Group consisting of six criminal justice scholars commissioned by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation to identify the understandings needed to deal more effectively with crime. The book is based on consultations with 21 scholars in various disciplines and a followup conference. The strategy proposed by the authors consists of a series of relatively small cohort studies of high-risk groups together with a variety of experimental treatment modalities. The authors present an overview of what is known about crime and criminals, particularly what has been learned from longitudinal and experimental studies. They select key policy issues -- families and schools as targets of prevention measures, theories about the effects of labeling, proposals for reorganizing the juvenile courts, and the effects of imprisonment -- to illustrate what they believe to be current deficiencies in the knowledge needed to develop more cost-effective action strategies. Finally, they discuss in detail some possible research designs and strategies that they think could be implemented. References, author and subject indexes.