Winner, 2020 ACJS Outstanding Book Award, given by the Academy of
Criminal Justice Sciences
**
A major statement on the juvenile justice system by one of America's
leading experts**
The juvenile court lies at the intersection of youth policy and crime
policy. Its institutional practices reflect our changing ideas about
children and crime control. The Evolution of the Juvenile Court provides
a sweeping overview of the American juvenile justice system's
development and change over the past century. Noted law professor and
criminologist Barry C. Feld places special emphasis on changes over the
last 25 years--the ascendance of get tough crime policies and the more
recent Supreme Court recognition that "children are different."
Feld's comprehensive historical analyses trace juvenile courts'
evolution though four periods--the original Progressive Era, the Due
Process Revolution in the 1960s, the Get Tough Era of the 1980s and
1990s, and today's Kids Are Different era. In each period, changes in
the economy, cities, families, race and ethnicity, and politics have
shaped juvenile courts' policies and practices. Changes in juvenile
courts' ends and means--substance and procedure--reflect shifting
notions of children's culpability and competence.
The Evolution of the Juvenile Court examines how conservative
politicians used coded racial appeals to advocate get tough policies
that equated children with adults and more recent Supreme Court
decisions that draw on developmental psychology and neuroscience
research to bolster its conclusions about youths' reduced criminal
responsibility and diminished competence. Feld draws on lessons from the
past to envision a new, developmentally appropriate justice system for
children. Ultimately, providing justice for children requires structural
changes to reduce social and economic inequality--concentrated poverty
in segregated urban areas--that disproportionately expose children of
color to juvenile courts' punitive policies.
Historical, prescriptive, and analytical, The Evolution of the Juvenile
Court evaluates the author's past recommendations to abolish juvenile
courts in light of this new evidence, and concludes that separate, but
reformed, juvenile courts are necessary to protect children who commit
crimes and facilitate their successful transition to adulthood.
