Book Review: Dangerous or Endangered? Race and the Politics of Youth in Urban America
| DOI | 10.1177/1473225411420534b |
| Date | 01 December 2011 |
| Author | Janet Jamieson |
| Published date | 01 December 2011 |
| Subject Matter | Book Reviews |
295
The social and economic causes of delinquency have not changed; the responses to delinquency
have changed …. Today legislators, prosecutors and judges portray youthful offenders as
responsible and autonomous individuals rather than as dependent and vulnerable children, and
view their behaviour as deliberate rather than as determined (pp. 267−268).
This situation, as Lawrence and Hesse explain in the most accessible terms, has arisen, not
as the result of rising youth crime, but instead through populist policies that focus on the
‘behavioural anomalies’ (p. 277) of a few, to the detriment of promoting and securing
justice for all children and young people. This shift, as we are all aware, started in the
USA, but as with many criminal justice policy developments in recent years, has been
adopted in England and Wales and has tainted the previously more enlightened approaches
to youth justice in several other Western jurisdictions.
Lawrence and Hesse highlight the need for a ‘revitalized juvenile justice system’ (p.
282) based upon ‘rational, informed responses to the problem of crime’ (p. 44). This has
become all the more pressing in recent years as political expediency and media discourses
have stymied more creative alternative solutions. It is to be hoped that this cogent and
even-handed textbook will kindle the criminological imaginations of new undergraduate
students and help equip them with the knowledge and skills to formulate more human and
effective responses to children and young people in trouble with the law. This helpful
textbook deserves to become core introductory reading for undergraduate students of
juvenile justice in the USA in addition to becoming a resource for undergraduate students
in other countries.
J Tilson, Dangerous or Endangered? Race and the Politics of Youth in Urban America,
New York University Press, New York/London, 2010, £16.99 Pb, ISBN 978-0-81478-312-2.
Reviewed by: Dr Janet...
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