by John T. Whitehead and Steven P. Lab,     Cincinnati, OH: LexisNexis-Anderson Publishing, 2006, 498 pp, ISBN-1-59345-318-3 (Pbk)  US $ 62.95

For those wanting to understand Juvenile Justice in the United States, this book offers a comprehensive and current overview with a solid history segment and the latest on the newest trends or services. The first hundred pages also include a primer on adolescent psychology as well as a sociological explanation of  delinquency. 

New in this  fifth edition is the chapter on Restorative Justice (20 pages). This chapter does an outstanding job in showing why this potentially threatening change to the status quo is worthy of serious consideration.  As could be expected, the renewed focus on the victim is an important core element in this chapter and in the applications for restorative justice in the juvenile justice field. In an almost 500 page textbook the authors do an outstanding job of reviewing almost everything you would initially need to know about juvenile justice.

Each chapter starts and ends with thought provoking questions. Text boxes are used throughout to draw attention to topical examples, statistical data, or the 1999 and 2002 ‘best practices’ and ‘desk top’ guides for juvenile justice practioners.

The book starts with the history of juvenile justice in the United States and ends with a chapter on future directions  in juvenile justice. Also included is discussion of the ‘broken windows theory’ and ‘disorder-correcting' community policing. Whitehead and Lab include drug court, teen court, gangs and due process segments, topics missing in some other texts.

To the credit of the authors, several controversial topics are included and are addressed in an even handed fashion. These topics include the death penalty, transfer or waiver to adult court jurisdiction, the reintroduction of spiritual dimensions into corrections, and the removal of CHINS offenders from the court. The book includes thought provoking discussion questions, statistical support, citations on each page and a fifty page reference or bibliography section.

The text offers just the right amount of foundational and recent case law to acquaint the non-lawyer student with key legal issues and challenges in juvenile justice.

Eric Assur
June 2007