Our Children, Their Children

Confronting Racial and Ethnic Differences in American Juvenile Justice

Edited by Darnell F. Hawkins and Kimberly Kempf-Leonard

Edited by Darnell F. Hawkins and Kimberly Kempf-Leonard

The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Series on Mental Health and Development, Research Network on Adolescent Development and Juvenile Justice

Cloth $52.50 ISBN: 9780226319889 Published December 2005

E-book $7.00 to $42.00 About E-books ISBN: 9780226319919 Published February 2010

In Our Children, Their Children, a prominent team of researchers argues that a second-rate and increasingly punitive juvenile justice system is allowed to persist because most people believe it is designed for children in other ethnic and socioeconomic groups. While public opinion, laws, and social policies that convey distinctions between "our children" and "their children" may seem to conflict with the American ideal of blind justice, they are hardly at odds with patterns of group differentiation and inequality that have characterized much of American history.

Our Children, Their Children provides a state-of-the-science examination of racial and ethnic disparities in the American juvenile justice system. Here, contributors document the precise magnitude of these disparities, seek to determine their causes, and propose potential solutions. In addition to race and ethnicity, contributors also look at the effects on juvenile justice of suburban sprawl, the impact of family and neighborhood, bias in postarrest decisions, and mental health issues. Assessing the implications of these differences for public policy initiatives and legal reforms, this volume is the first critical summary of what is known and unknown in this important area of social research.

Review Quotes

William H. Feyerherm | William H. Feyerherm

"This is an outstanding volume that offers a collection of original essays examining the extent of racial and ethnic differences in rates of juvenile offending and in the processing of youths within the juvenile justice system in the United States. The contributors then consider the ramifications of these differences for evaluating the impact of public policy initiatives and legal reforms that have been implemented or proposed over the last several decades."

Steven Schlossman | Steven Schlossman

“Our Children, Their Children is a landmark in social science research. Offering no simplistic solutions about how to reduce racial disparities that permeate the juvenile justice system, it consistently demonstrates how multidisciplinary analysis can expose and explain the pervasive impact of race on American social institutions. And, perhaps most valuably, it revives belief that in the early twenty-first century, just like a century before, a public policy centered on nurturing rather than punishing children—all children—is the only guarantor of a criminal justice system that is moral and just.”--Steven Schlossman, Carnegie Mellon University

Cathy Spatz Widom | Cathy Spatz Widom

“In this excellent collection of original essays Darnell Hawkins, Kimberly Kempf-Leonard, and a group of distinguished contributors have produced an important book that forces readers to confront racial and ethnic differences in juvenile offending and juvenile justice in the United States. This critical volume expands the discourse on this topic by emphasizing the complex and subtle nature of the problem.”--Cathy Spatz Widom, New Jersey Medical School

For more information, or to order this book, please visit http://www.press.uchicago.edu

Black Studies

Criminology

Law and Legal Studies: General Legal Studies | Law and Society | Legal History

Political Science: Political Behavior and Public Opinion | Public Policy

Sociology: Criminology, Delinquency, Social Control | Individual, State and Society | Social Change, Social Movements, Political Sociology

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