2007 recipient of the Ruth Shonle Cavan Young Scholar Award presented by
the American Society of Criminology Winner of the 2007 American Society
of Criminology Michael J. Hindelang Award for the Most Outstanding
Contribution to Research in Criminology An extremely well written book
that will make an important and unique contribution. -Richard E.
Redding, co-editor of Juvenile Delinquency: Prevention, Assessment, and
Intervention An important book that will make a valuable contribution.
Policy makers and students of the criminal justice system would be most
wise to consider this book if they wish to understand what it really
means to prosecute juveniles as if they were adults. -Simon Singer,
author of Recriminalizing Delinquency: Violent Juvenile Crime and
Juvenile Justice Reform This book asks basic questions-what difference
does the label we put on the court make in an institution's treatment of
young offenders? What sorts of cases and what sorts of kids are
transferred from juvenile to criminal court systems? What effects on
youth are associated with different types of court? Close observation of
two radically different institutional responses to youth crime breaks
new ground in this empirical study of legal policy toward young
offenders. -Franklin E. Zimring, author of American Juvenile Justice By
comparing how adolescents are prosecuted and punished in juvenile and
criminal (adult) courts, Aaron Kupchik finds that prosecuting
adolescents in criminal court does not fit with our cultural
understandings of youthfulness. As a result, adolescents who are
transferred to criminal courts are still judged as juveniles.
Ultimately, Kupchik makes a compelling argument for the suitability of
juvenile courts in treating adolescents. Judging Juveniles suggests that
justice would be better served if adolescents were handled by the system
designed to address their special needs. Aaron Kupchik is an assistant
professor in the Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice at the
University of Delaware.
