**Six compelling histories of youth crime in the twentieth century
**
Ages of Anxiety presents six case studies of juvenile justice policy in
the twentieth century from around the world, adding context to the
urgent and international conversation about youth, crime, and justice.
By focusing on magistrates, social workers, probation and police
officers, and youth themselves, editors William S. Bush and David S.
Tanenhaus highlight the role of ordinary people as meaningful and
consequential historical actors.
After providing an international perspective on the social history of
ideas about how children are different from adults, the contributors
explain why those differences should matter for the administration of
justice. They examine how reformers used the idea of modernization to
build and legitimize juvenile justice systems in Europe and Mexico, and
present histories of policing and punishing youth crime.
Ages of Anxiety introduces a new theoretical model for interpreting
historical research to demonstrate the usefulness of social histories of
children and youth for policy analysis and decision-making in the
twenty-first century. Shedding new light on the substantive aims of the
juvenile court, the book is a historically informed perspective on the
critical topic of youth, crime, and justice.