Book Review: Loeber R, Wim Slot N., van der Laan P, and Hoeve M (eds) Tomorrow’s Criminals: The Development of Child Delinquency and Effective Interventions, Ashgate, Farnham, 2008, £65 Hb, ISBN 978—0—75467—151—0
| Author | Roger Smith |
| DOI | 10.1177/1473225409356762 |
| Published date | 01 April 2010 |
| Date | 01 April 2010 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Youth Justice
Book Reviews
10(1) 96–103
© The Author(s) 2010
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DOI: 10.1177/1473225409356762
yjj.sagepub.com
Loeber R, Wim Slot N., van der Laan P, and Hoeve M (eds)
Tomorrow’s Criminals: The Development of Child Delinquency and Effective
Interventions, Ashgate, Farnham, 2008, £65 Hb, ISBN 978–0–75467–151–0.
Reviewed by: Professor Roger Smith, De Montfort University, Leicester, UK.
The title gives this book away really. Apart from one or two brief glimmers, the combined
authorship of this volume make no attempt to problematize the concepts of crime or crim-
inality, and hence their entire project is suspect. Whilst they occasionally fudge the issue
of what constitutes criminality by referring to apparent, but by no means self-evident prox-
ies, such as ‘aggressive’ or ‘anti-social’ behaviour, this only complicates the issue further,
weakening again the central project of the volume which is to offer an evidence-based
account of what antecedent factors are associated with (influence? cause?) involvement in
delinquent activities. That this is largely written from a Netherlands perspective is interest-
ing but disturbing on a number of levels. Firstly, it seems to suggest that the ‘risk factor
paradigm’ (Pitts, 2009) holds sway in that country much as it does elsewhere. Secondly, it
is clear that researchers internationally seem to be prepared to subscribe to the view that
young criminals are somehow different to everybody else in ways which are quantifiable
(if only the science was good enough; Beck, 1992). Thirdly, they also seem blithely
unaware of the essentially political dimension of their classificatory endeavours – it is not
just questionable science, it also leads to the unjustifiable and damaging stigmatization of
entire neighbourhoods, or, at worst, an entire generation, given what we ‘know’ about the
peak age of offending. And, finally, the book is implicitly (and sometimes...
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