Juvenile Justice: Advancing Research, Policy, and Practice 1st Edition

This book is a must read for anyone working with court involved youth. This book looks at the juvenile justice system from many different angles and offers insight to the innovative reforms that are currently taking place. This is a very readable text and I have found it incredibly helpful in my own work with youth involved in the juvenile justice system. Thank you to both Francine Sherman and Francine Jacobs for giving us this much needed text.

If there were one primer for students, professionals, and policymakers in the juvenile justice field, this book would be it. While there are a host of books, reports, journal articles, and the like that present elements of the complex policy, child development, and institutional responses bearing on this field, none covers the terrain as thoroughly as does this book. With contributions from practitioners in the juvenile justice system, child development experts, health policy professionals, and advocates, this book does a tremendous job of framing the issues, contextualizing youth violence and the juvenile justice system response, and outlining the policy responses -- including the need for additional research -- needed to move the juvenile justice system forward. This book should be required reading for students of the juvenile justice system, as well as practitioners, policymakers, legislators, and advocates. Sherman and Jacobs have done a nice job collecting and presenting the material in this book. This is an accessible and informative outline of where this field has been, as well as the changes needed to better ensure that the juvenile justice system provides better outcomes for children in the future.

The world of juvenile justice cannot, and should not, belong solely to policy makers, researchers, court officers and legal advocates. Fate determines whether a child is thrust into a life of delinquency and destruction, or spared. Along come Sherman and Jacobs, compiling the best, most recent thinking. Putting a new lens on the issue, they encourage us to see the vast, long-term social and economic impacts and possibilities.I have known Fran Sherman for almost two decades. She has dedicated her formidable talents to the issue of juvenile challenges, passionately bringing people together and paving the path with new insights. This collection will encourage more nuanced thinking and courageous action. It might also make the conversation about juvenile justice more urgent and accessible to all.

All of our children, regardless of race or ethnicity, should have an equal chance of succeeding, and all of us need to do what we can to disturb the patterns that result in juvenile delinquency. Thank you, Francine Sherman and Francine Jacobs, for outlining the problem, explaining the challenges, and calling for much needed reform. This is a great book by the experts in juvenile justice.