NCJ Number
185517
Date Published
January 2000
Length
67 pages
Annotation
This chapter examines multiple forces that have substantially
impacted the juvenile justice endeavor during the 20th century,
so as to provide a foundation for envisioning justice for youth
in the new century.
Abstract
From its inception, the central focus of the juvenile justice
system has been on delinquency, an amorphous construct that
includes not only "criminal" behavior but also an array of
youthful actions that offend prevailing social mores. Thus, the
meaning of delinquency is markedly time dependent. Likewise,
methods for addressing juvenile delinquency have reflected the
vagaries of social construction of youth and youth deviance.
American juvenile justice was founded on internally conflicting
value systems: the diminished responsibility and heightened
malleability of youths versus individual culpability and the
social control of "protocriminality." During its first century,
the latter value for juvenile justice has become increasingly
predominant over the former. The youth caught up in the juvenile
justice system, however, have remained overwhelmingly society's
most marginalized youths, from immigrants' offspring in the early
20th century to children of color in contemporary society.
Population projections for the 21st century predict great
increases in the proportions of Hispanic citizens. The gross
economic disadvantage that exists for minority families --
especially Hispanic and African-American -- must be viewed in the
new century as an important challenge for juvenile justice,
rather than as a cultural blight that produces deviants rather
than prosocial, law-abiding citizens. 6 exhibits, 4 notes, and
203 references
Date Published: January 1, 2000
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