Juvenile Delinquency in the United States and the United Kingdom

209 Pages·1999·9.83 MB·English

by  Gary L. McDowell

JUVENILE DELINQUENCY IN THE UNITED STATES
AND THE UNITED KINGDOM
Juvenile Delinquency in
the United States and
the United Kingdom
Edited by
Gary L. McDowell
Institute of United States Studies
University of London
and
Jinney S. Smith
Northwestern University
Foreword by
James Q. Wilson
University of California
First published in Great Britain 1999 by
MACMILLAN PRESS LTD
Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS and London
Companies and representatives throughout the world
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN 978-1-349-27414-7 ISBN 978-1-349-27412-3 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-27412-3
First published in the United States of America 1999 by
ST. MARTIN'S PRESS, INC.,
Scholarly and Reference Division,
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010
ISBN 978-0-312-22204-8
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Juvenile delinquency in the United States and the United Kingdom /
edited by Gary L. McDowell, Jinney S. Smith ; foreword by James Q.
Wilson.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-312-22204-8 (cloth)
1. Juvenile delinquency-United States-Congresses. 2. Juvenile
delinquency-Great Britain-Congresses. I. McDowell, Gary L.,
.
1949- . II. Smith, Jinney S., 1971-
HV9104.J846 1999
364.36'0973-dc21 98-43701
CIP
Selection, editorial matter and Introduction © Gary L. McDowell and Jinney S. Smith 1999
Foreword© James Q. Wilson 1999
Chapter 9 © Jinney S. Smith 1999
Afterword© Mary Tuck 1999
Chapters 1-8 © Macmillan Press Ltd 1999
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1999
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Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to
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accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and
sustained forest sources.
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
08 07 06 05 04 03 02 01 00 99
In memory of Mary Tuck
Contents
Notes on Contributors ix
Foreword xiii
James Q. Wilson
Preface and Acknowledgments XIX
Part 1: The Crisis of Delinquency 1
1 Predicting Persistent Young Offenders 3
David P. Farrington
2 Youth Violence and the Backgrounds of
Chronic Violent Offenders 23
Lawrence A. Greenfeld and Maureen A. Henneberg
Part II: Problems in British and American Juvenile Justice 45
3 The New Political Consensus on Youth
Justice in Britain 47
Andrew Rutheiford
4 Juvenile Justice Professionals: Opponents
of Reform 61
Ralph A. Rossum
5 Common Sense and Juvenile Justice in America 87
Edwin Meese III
6 Law, Morality and the Common Good 99
Jonathan Sacks
Part III: Teaching Virtue in Juvenile Justice, Family and
Educational Settings 113
7 Juvenile Probation on the Eve of
the Next Millennium 115
Ronald P. Corbett, Jr.
8 The Center of Concern: Crime and the Family 139
Patricia Morgan
vii
viii Contents
9 Reducing Delinquency by Improving Character 163
Jinney S. Smith
Afterword: How Can Young Men Learn Virtue? 183
Mary Tuck
Index 188
Notes on Contributors
Ronald P. Corbett, Jr. has worked in corrections for 20 years
and is currently Deputy Commissioner of the Massachusetts
Probation Department. Dr Corbett has published widely in crimi
nal justice journals, and has been recognized for his contributions
to criminal justice by the New England Council on Crime and
Delinquency (the Manson-Robinson Award in 1994) and by the
American Probation and Parole Association (the Sam Houston
State University Award in 1990). He is also Immediate Past
President of the National Association of Probation Executives. In
addition, Dr Corbett has taught part-time for almost 20 years, and
currently serves as Adjunct Professor in the graduate program at
the University of Massachusetts-Lowell. In 1990, he received the
William Haskell Memorial Distinguished Teaching Award from
the University of Massachusetts.
David P. Farrington, FBA, is Professor of Psychological
Criminology at Cambridge University, where he has been on the
faculty since 1969. His major research interest is in the longitudi
nal study of delinquency and crime. Dr Farrington is Director of
the Cambridge Study in Delinquent Development, a prospective
longitudinal study of over 400 London males from age eight to age
40. He is also co-Principal Investigator of the Pittsburgh Youth
Survey, a prospective longitudinal study of over 1500 males from
age 7 to 18. In addition to over 150 articles on criminological and
psychological topics, he has published 13 books, one of which,
Understanding and Controlling Crime (1986), won the prize for
distinguished scholarship of the American Sociological Association
Criminology Section. He is a member of a number of academic
and advisory boards in America, Europe and the United Kingdom,
and was awarded the Sellin-Glueck Award of the American Society
of Criminology for international contributions to criminology.
Lawrence A. Greenfeld is Deputy Director of the Bureau
of Justice Statistics, the statistical arm of the United States
ix
Notes on Contributors
X
Department of Justice. Mr Greenfeld holds an MS in
Administration of Justice from American University, and has
been employed in local, state, and federal criminal justice agen
cies for nearly three decades. He has authored more than 60 pub
lications appearing in refereed journals, government reports, and
edited volumes. Mr Greenfeld has served on numerous national
panels and commissions, including the Surgeon General's
National Advisory Commission on Drunk Driving. His contribu
tions to criminal justice have been recognized by awards from the
American Correctional Association (the Lejins Award in 1993),
and he was selected as the 'Best of the Best' in the field of
corrections by Corrections Today.
Maureen A. Henneberg has served as the Chief of Planning,
Management and Budget in the Bureau of Justice Statistics
since 1991. She graduated magna cum laude with a BA in politi
cal science from the State University of New York-Genesseo in
1988. After receiving her Master of Public Administration (con
centrating in judicial administration) from American University
in 1990, Ms Henneberg spent a year at the Bureau of Justice
Statistics as a Presidential Management Intern, also holding a
rotational assignment at the Federal Judicial Center's Judicial
Education Division.
Edwin Meese III served as United States Attorney General in
the Reagan administration, and was among President Reagan's
important advisors. As Chairman of the Domestic Policy Council
and the National Drug Policy Board, and as a member of the
National Security Council, he played a key role in the develop
ment and execution of domestic and foreign policy. During the
1970s Mr Meese was Director of the Center for Criminal Justice
Policy and Management and Professor of Law at the University of
San Diego. Before this he was a local prosecutor in California.
He is currently the Ronald Reagan Distinguished Fellow in Public
Policy at The Heritage Foundation. He also is a Distinguished
Visiting Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, and
a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Institute of United States
Studies, University of London.
Notes on Contributors xi
Patricia Morgan is a sociologist specializing in criminology and
family policy, and is currently Senior Research Fellow on the
Family at the Institute of Economic Affairs' Health and Welfare
Unit in London. In addition to contributing frequently to televi
sion and radio programs in the UK, Ms Morgan has authored or
co-authored six books, and contributed chapters to several others.
Ralph A. Rossum is the Henry Salvatori Professor of American
Constitutionalism at Claremont McKenna College and a member
of the faculty of Claremont Graduate University. Dr Rossum has
authored five books and over 50 articles in legal and professional
journals on criminal and juvenile justice topics, in addition
to American Constitutional ww, now in its fourth edition. He
has served as a member of the Board of the National Institute
of Justice, and as Deputy Director of the Bureau of Justice
Statistics, both in the US Department of Justice. Professor Rossum
co-directed the conference on comparative juvenile justice at
the University of London in 1994 that gave rise to this edited
volume.
Andrew Rutherford is currently Professor of Law and Criminal
Policy at Southampton University in the Faculty of Law, where
he has been since 1979. After graduating from Durham University
and Cambridge University, Professor Rutherford worked as an
assistant and later deputy governor of the Prison Service between
1962 and 1973. During 1968-70 and 1973-9 he studied,
researched or taught in the US at the University of California,
Yale Law School, Ohio State University, University of Minnesota
and at Abt Associates in Massachusetts. Professor Rutherford is
actively involved with the Howard League for Penal Reform and
has served as its chairman since 1984. Between 1994 and 1996
he was a member of the National Criminal Justice Commission
in the United States. He has authored four books, and edited two
others, in the area of criminal justice and policy.
Jonathan Sacks has been Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew
Congregations of the Commonwealth since 1991, and is the sixth
rabbi to hold this office since 1845. Previously Dr Sacks had