Juvenile Delinquency in the United States and the United Kingdom

This volume about juvenile delinquency in the United States and United Kingdom includes a foreword, nine chapters organized in three parts, and an afterword. Chapters 1 and 2 in Part I describe juvenile delinquency in both countries and the urgency of the current crisis. Chapters 3 to 6 in Part II deal with the two nations' juvenile justice systems, focusing on structural and ideological obstacles preventing reform. Presented in the final chapters in Part III are suggestions for reform in school, and juvenile justice setting that recognize the importance of character in causing delinquency. "After two boys killed the toddler James Bulger in England in 1993, the Institute of United States Studies hosted a conference where British and American academics, opinion leaders, and policy-makers dissected the delinquency crisis in the two countries. This volume, which grew out of that conference, argues that the juvenile justice systems of both countries are not only failing to solve the crisis, but are exacerbating it because of inattention to the importance of character - or lack thereof - in causing delinquency. However, rather than suggesting government can do little to tackle one of the root causes of delinquency, this volume describes promising experimentation occurring in both countries, in schools and correctional settings, to improve character, as well as explaining how government can help the most influential character-shaping institution - the family - raise the next generation well."--BOOK JACKET Front Matter....Pages i-xx Front Matter....Pages 1-1 Predicting Persistent Young Offenders....Pages 3-21 Youth Violence and the Backgrounds of Chronic Violent Offenders....Pages 23-43 Front Matter....Pages 45-45 The New Political Consensus on Youth Justice in Britain....Pages 47-60 Juvenile Justice Professionals: Opponents of Reform....Pages 61-86 Common Sense and Juvenile Justice in America....Pages 87-98 Law, Morality and the Common Good....Pages 99-112 Front Matter....Pages 113-113 Juvenile Probation on the Eve of the Next Millennium....Pages 115-138 The Center of Concern: Crime and the Family....Pages 139-162 Reducing Delinquency by Improving Character....Pages 163-182 Afterword: How Can Young Men Learn Virtue?....Pages 183-187 Back Matter....Pages 189-197