Juvenile Justice: An Introduction

Juvenile Justice: An Introduction, Tenth Edition, presents a comprehensive picture of juvenile offending, delinquency theories, and the ways juvenile justice actors and agencies react to delinquency. Whitehead and Lab offer evidence-based suggestions for successful interventions and treatment and examine the prospects for rebalancing the model of juvenile court.

This new edition includes insightful analysis and the latest available statistics on juvenile crime and victimization, drug use, court processing, and corrections. Special attention is given to female involvement, disproportionate minority contact, and diversity issues. The text also includes extensive discussion of police shootings, the issue of race, probation reform, life sentences for juveniles, recent Supreme Court decisions, and reform suggestions from Currie and Feld.

An essential text for undergraduate juvenile justice courses, this book offers rich pedagogical features and online resources. Each chapter enhances student understanding with Key Terms, a What You Need to Know section, and Discussion Questions. Links at key points in the text show students where to get the latest information.

John T. Whitehead is Professor Emeritus and former Chair in the Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology at East Tennessee State University. He completed his M.A. at the University of Notre Dame and earned his Ph.D. in Criminal Justice from the University at Albany. He has published articles about corrections, probation, and the death penalty. He is co-author of Ethics in Criminal Justice: The Search for the Truth, Report Writing for Criminal Justice Professionals, and Teaching Criminal Justice.

Steven P. Lab is Professor of Criminal Justice at Bowling Green State University. He holds a Ph.D. in Criminology from the Florida State University School of Criminology and Criminal Justice. Lab is the author or co-author of eight books, co-editor of one encyclopedia, and the author of more than 50 articles or book chapters. He is a past editor of the Journal of Crime and Justice and is the assistant editor of Crime Prevention and Community Safety: An International Journal. Lab has been a visiting professor at the Jill Dando Institute of Crime Science of University College London and at Keele University, as well as Visiting Fellow at Loughborough University and a research consultant with the Perpetuity Research Group at Leicester University. Lab is also a past president of the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences.