American Youth Violence

by Franklin E. Zimring

Overview

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 rigor. 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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780195121452
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	12/17/1998
Series:	Studies in Crime and Public Policy
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	9.30(w) x 6.34(h) x 0.81(d)
Lexile:	1450L (what's this?)

About the Author

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).

Table of Contents

Part I: Youth Violence in the 1990s1. The Perception of a Problem Is a Problem2. American Youth Violence—A Profile3. A Youth Violence Epidemic: Myth or Reality? 4. The Case of the Terrifying ToddlersPart II: Legal Policy Toward Youth Violence5. Some Basic Principles6. Firearms Policy for the Young7. "That Malice Which Is to Supply Age": Standards for Transfer to Criminal Court8. Adolescents Who KillPart III: Larger Contexts9. Youth Violence and the Future of the Juvenile Court10. Youth Violence and Youth PolicyReferencesIndex

What People are Saying About This

Robert G. Schwartz

American Youth Violence should be read in every statehouse and courthouse in the country. Frank Zimring, once again, is the most principled voice in the country addressing adolescent violence. Zimring is a brilliant logician who grounds his argument in data. With insight and irony, he offers an empirically-based blueprint for practitioners and policy makers that shows what society must do in its enlightened self-interest to mitigate the impact of violence among the young.
— Juvenile Law Center

Barry Krisberg

At long last, a book on youth violence that is based on sound research and clear thinking. American Youth Violence is one of the most outstanding analyses of juvenile crime written in the past several decades. Franklin Zimring shows us how to escape the demagoguery and youth-baiting that has dominated the recent national policy discussion on youth violence. This book is a must read for all elected officials, and all those who care about the future of our nation (Barry Krisberg is President, National Council on Crime and Delinquency).

Marian Wright Edelman

The pervasive violence in our society spills over to the next generation, and neither inflammatory rhetoric nor business as usual will heal the violence being committed by and upon our children. American Youth Violence presents a wealth of information and will be a valuable resource as we all work together to address both the causes and effects of this national affliction.
— The Children's Defense Fund

Martin Guggenheim

This book is devoted to the most importance juvenile justice question facing policy makers: what is the appropriate sanction for young people who commit violent acts? Expanding on his important earlier works (including Confronting Youth Crime and The Changing Legal World of Adolescence), Zimring has developed a matchless jurisprudence of juvenile justice. Zimring's is by far the most enlightened, thoughtful, comprehensive voice in the field. We would all do well to study this book carefully.
— New York University School of Law

Deborah Leff

This is a book that anyone who cares about America's young people should read, before endless millions of dollars are spent on wrong and destructive choices. With careful factual analysis, Professor Zimring effectively shreds the arguments of those who would base juvenile policies on catch-phrases about 'superpredator' stereotypes that play to our fears. He argues compellingly for policies based on facts and shows what those facts are. And he persuasively makes the case that when policymakers focus solely on youth crime rather than on youth development, they place America's future at risk.
— The Joyce Foundation

Margaret K. Rosenheim

Franklin Zimring's book...is a notable achievement. In particular, his careful analysis of the assumptions and projections regarding future waves of youth violence deserves the closest attention. While the book will be indispensable for specialists in juvenile justice, it will be of great interest and value to anyone concerned with policy related to youth.
— Helen Ross Professor Emerita, School of Social Service Administration, University of Chicago

Joan McCord, Ph.D.

In his new book, Frank Zimring asks some tough questions. For example, if youths have diminished capacities that justify forbidding their purchase of firearms or liquor, how can it justify treating some of their behaviors as deserving maximum punishments? Or, in the face of general acceptance of court practices by those who use them, how can legislatures justify their frenzy for court overhaul? As usual, Zimring has produced a thoughtful and provocative treatise that must be read by all who are interested in juvenile justice (Joan McCord, Ph.D. is Co-chair, Panel on Juvenile Crime, National Research Council)

James Jacobs

Zimring has brilliantly critiqued the alarmist rhetoric about youth crime and violence that dominates the popular media and political arenas. He has reframed the policy debate about juvenile justice in the larger context of youth policy generally, and he has generated the most sophisticated jurisprudential analysis of youthful criminals that has yet appeared....I'm sure that the book will get a great deal of attention and be instantly recognized as a tour de force.
— New York University School of Law

Editorial Reviews

"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, 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

From the Publisher

This book is a scholarly critique of dire predictions of an imminent "blood bath" of teen violence made by a few academicians and many politicians. Part one scrutinizes data on the rate and nature of violence by modern American juveniles and examines the veracity of predictions about the future nature and rate of juvenile violence. Part two examines the policies that have resulted from popular beliefs about youth violence in this decade. The last two chapters look at the future of the juvenile court and youth policy. 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. This book is exactly the kind of product that we have come to expect from him over the years. However, the language and style of scholarship are little competition for the drama of modern media and the over generalizations of politicians. This is not a book that will fascinate either undergraduates or the general public. Its pace is slow and its language sophisticated. The very fact that it will not rank as a bestseller may be indicative of the reactionary pathology of postmodern America.

James F. Quinn