Book Reviews: B. Goldson, Dictionary of Youth Justice, Willan Publishing, Cullompton, 2008, £24.99 Pb, ISBN 978—1—84392—293—3
| DOI | 10.1177/1473225409345208 |
| Date | 01 December 2009 |
| Published date | 01 December 2009 |
| Author | Ursula Kilkelly |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
BOOK REVIEWS
© The Author(s), 2009. Reprints and permissions:
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Published by SAGE Publications
(Los Angeles, London, New Delhi, Singapore and Washington DC)
www.sagepublications.com
ISSN 1473–2254, Vol 9(3): 304–310
DOI: 10.1177/1473225409345208
Book Reviews
B. Goldson, Dictionary of Youth Justice, Willan Publishing, Cullompton, 2008,
£24.99 Pb, ISBN 978–1–84392–293–3.
Reviewed by: Dr Ursula Kilkelly, Centre for Criminal Justice and Human Rights,
University College Cork, Ireland.
The Dictionary of Youth Justice, edited by Barry Goldson, is one of a series of dictionaries published
by Willan Publishing. Youth justice is particularly well suited to indexing in this way, given the in-
exorable expansion of the subject and its associated terms and concepts, and its reach across law and
the social sciences. The Dictionary, which is closer to an encyclopaedia in form, is an informative
account of the myriad concepts and issues relevant to the ever expanding fi eld of youth justice both
nationally and internationally. It is a comprehensive and authoritative guide with almost 300 entries
written by academics, practitioners and policy makers from a range of disciplines and organizations
across the United Kingdom. The wide range of subjects covered in the Dictionary illustrates the
complexity and breadth of modern youth justice. The challenge of the book is to make the fi eld
accessible to the growing numbers of researchers, teachers, students and practitioners from a range
of disciplines and perspectives and with varying degrees of knowledge, understanding and experience
of the area.
The book begins with Goldson’s introduction in which he highlights the complex nature of
youth justice as a subject riddled with ‘paradox, irony and contradiction’ (p. xvii). He refl ects on the
ever-changing perceptions and realities of youth justice, the different approaches to the treatment
of children in trouble that prevail across jurisdictions, and the increasing need and desire to have
recourse to comparative analyses of youth justice across disciplines and jurisdictions. Goldson’s intro-
duction also outlines how the book is designed to help researchers, teachers, policy makers, students
and practitioners to ‘make sense of the complexities and challenges that characterize contemporary
youth justice’ (p. xxi).
Each entry begins with a short defi nition, clearly identifi ed in shaded text, followed by the main
substance of the entry. The entries vary in length depending on the subject being examined and each
concludes with a thorough cross-referenced list of related entries together with identifi ed ‘key texts
and sources’. The Dictionary also includes a comprehensive ‘Directory of Agencies’ and a substantial
aggregated bibliography of the literature that is referenced throughout. Finally, the detailed index
makes for further ease of use.
A key merit of the Dictionary is that it manages to cut evenly across the theoretical, legal, policy
and practice frameworks. Indeed, the mixing of theoretical concepts with legal instruments is one of
the book’s main strengths. In choosing not to separate the range of measures and sanctions that are
central to law and policy instruments in the area from the myriad of concepts and terms so integral
to youth justice theory, the book makes clear that the two ‘domains’ are inter-connected and that an
understanding of both is vital to understanding the whole.
The Dictionary is primarily focused on the UK. Its extensive references to specifi c instruments of
legislation and policy, as well as the institutions and organizations comprising youth justice systems,
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