American Youth Violence

Franklin E. Zimring

Studies in Crime and Public Policy

An empirically-grounded study of a timely topic
Written by a leading expert in the field

American Youth Violence

Franklin E. Zimring

Studies in Crime and Public Policy

Description

In the past decade, alarming reports of youth violence have appeared with increasing frequency in the news media. Legislators across the United States have responded to this sense of national emergency by changing many of the laws designed to cope with juvenile offenders. But are we really in the midst of a surge in youth violence? More to the point, what causes youth violence and what should we do about it? Franklin Zimring offers the definitive examination of adolescent violence in the United States both as a social phenomenon and a policy problem. This book covers the range of youth violence issues in the 1990s, from crime statistics to demographic projections to new legislation. The result is a thorough debunking of Congressional predictions of "a coming storm of juvenile violence" and the half-baked policy proposals that accompany such warnings. The book sets forth comprehensive and dispassionate analyses of three key areas of youth violence policy: adolescent firearms possession and use, standards for transfer from juvenile to criminal court jurisdiction, and legal sanctions for adolescents who kill. Throughout the book, the core issues of youth violence in the 1990s are examined with an unprecedented degree of analytic rigour. Zimring also offers an appropriate set of responses to youth violence that are consistent with a positive future for the juvenile court and for America's children. Timely and authoritative, American Youth Violence gives students, scholars, and policy makers a much-needed tool with which to fashion a constructive response to one of the nation's most disturbing social ills.

American Youth Violence

Franklin E. Zimring

Studies in Crime and Public Policy

Part I: Youth Violence in the 1990s
1:The Perception of a Problem Is a Problem
2:American Youth Violence—A Profile
3:A Youth Violence Epidemic: Myth or Reality?
4:The Case of the Terrifying Toddlers
Part II: Legal Policy Toward Youth Violence
5:Some Basic Principles
6:Firearms Policy for the Young
7:"That Malice Which Is to Supply Age": Standards for Transfer to Criminal Court
8:Adolescents Who Kill
Part III: Larger Contexts
9:Youth Violence and the Future of the Juvenile Court
10:Youth Violence and Youth Policy
References
Index

American Youth Violence

Franklin E. Zimring

Studies in Crime and Public Policy

Author Information

Franklin E. Zimring, William F. Simon Professor of Law; Director, Earl Warren Legal Institute, University of California, Berkeley

Franklin E. Zimring is William G. Simon Professor of Law and Director of the Earl Warren Legal Institute at the University of California at Berkeley. He is the author of The Changing Legal World of Adolesence (1982) and co-author of many books on law and legal institutions, including Incapacitation: Penal Confinement and the Restraint of Crime (1995) and Crime Is Not the Problem: Lethal Violence in America (with Gordon Hawkins, Oxford, 1997).

American Youth Violence

Franklin E. Zimring

Studies in Crime and Public Policy

Reviews and Awards

Zimring's book offers a clear and concise analysis of the problem of contemporary youth crime that both debunks myths and points a way forward for future research. - Keith Hayward, University of East London

"Scientific criminology and democratic jurisprudence should already be operating on the basis of the ideas and data put forth so meticulously in this work. It is an important refutation of right-wing academics and politicians. Its contents deserve to be presented in every course offered on juvenile delinquency and justice policy in the nation. Zimring is as eloquent and cogent a legal scholar as he is a skilled empiricist."—The Law and Politics Book Review -

"A balanced, empirical analysis of youth violence which shows that it is a complex issue deserving complex thought."—Jodi Lane, Center for Studies in Criminology & Law, University of Florida -

"This thorough, well-documented analysis is important reading for policymakers and the public, and an excellent selection for all academic and public libraries."—Library Journal -

"...creatively thoughtful....this is a very important book....It may well contribute to the development of new relationships between the American polity and its youthful citizens."—Federal Probation -