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Crit Crim (2014) 22:599601
DOI 10.1007/s10612-014-9236-5
BOOK REVIEW
Published online: 14 February 2014 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2014
In Juvenile Delinquency in a Diverse Society, authors Kristin A. Bates and Richelle S. Swan put forward a textbook expressly designed to make gender, race, and class central to the discussion of juvenile delinquency. The authors propose that such a textbook is necessary by successfully arguing that the majority of delinquency textbooks are written from mainstream criminological orientations, and understate associations between social diversity and behavior. To address this gap in the literature, the authors approach delinquency from a critical perspective. Bates and Swans textbook devotes ample discussion to social control, and moves beyond purely theoretical discussions of critical theories, to policy initiatives and responses to juvenile delinquency grounded in critical frameworks. Ultimately, the abundant use of real world examples of juvenile justice policies and news items invites readers to think critically about delinquency at local, national, and global levels.
Juvenile Delinquency in a Diverse Society is organized into four parts: (1) Understanding Juvenile Delinquency, (2) Theories of Juvenile Delinquency, (3) The Social Contexts of Juvenile Delinquency, and (4) Responses to Juvenile Delinquency. Each part is subsequently broken down into three or four chapters, each addressing a series of subtopics that relate to the overarching theme of their respective parts. Chapters open by presenting a short vignette that describes a delinquency issue that is related to the topic of the chapter. The authors refer to the vignette frequently throughout the chapter to exemplify key points and arguments. Chapters are supplemented with In the News sections, included to relate concepts from the chapter to current events, as well as Focus on Research sections that feature key studies from the empirical literature, as they relate to chapter objectives. Research and practice come together in sections titled From the Classroom to the Community, which the authors include to demonstrate how social science research shapes policy responses to juvenile delinquency in communities. Finally, each chapter concludes with a summary, discussion questions, list of key terms, and a suggested class exercise or service learning activity (Eye on Diversity Exercise).
K. L. Barrett (&)
Eastern Michigan University, Ypsilanti, MI, USA e-mail: [email protected]
Kristin A. Bates and Richelle S. Swan: Juvenile Delinquency in...