The Child Savers: The Invention of Delinquency / Edition 40

by Anthony M. Platt, Miroslava Chávez-García

Overview

Hailed as a definitive analytical and historical study of the juvenile justice system, this 40th anniversary edition of The Child Savers features a new essay by Anthony M. Platt that highlights recent directions in the field, as well as a critique of his original text.

Focusing on social reformers of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Platt's principal argument is that the "child savers" movement was not an effort to liberate and dignify youth but, instead, a punitive and intrusive attempt to control the lives of working-class urban adolescents. This expanded edition provides a renewed and distinguished contribution by placing it in historical context through insightful commentaries from cross-disciplinary academics, along with an essay by Miroslava Chávez-García examining how Platt's influential study has impacted many of the central arguments social scientists and historians face today.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780813545363
Publisher:	Rutgers University Press
Publication date:	04/22/2009
Series:	Critical Issues in Crime and Society
Edition description:	40th Anniversary Edition
Pages:	352
Sales rank:	951,454
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

ANTHONY M. PLATT is a professor emeritus at California State University, Sacramento. He is the author of several books on American history, social policy, and race relations.

Table of Contents

In Retrospect: Anthony M. Platt's The Child Savers: The Invention of Delinquency, by Miroslava Chávez-García
The Child Savers: The Invention of Delinquency
The Child Savers Reconsidered, by Anthony M. Platt
The Child Savers and Three Cycles of Juvenile Justice Reform in Twentieth-Century America, by William Bush
Women and Kids in the Court: Feminist History and Anthony Platt's The Child Savers, by Tamara Myers
"The "Other" Child-Savers: Racial Politics of the Parental State," by Geoff Ward

Editorial Reviews

"The Child Savers deeply influenced me and dozens of other feminist scholars who have studied social policy critically. This reissue is remarkable in allowing us to rethink it, and nowhere more valuable than in Tony Platt's own thoughtful reconsideration."

professor of history, New York University - Linda Gordon

"Like a bracing wind, Platt's brilliant inquiry into the oxymoron of juvenile justice demands again that we upend our ritualized system of punishing, containing and crushing our defiant young."

Northwestern University School of Law - Bernardine Dohrn

"The Child Savers is a classic, and the updated edition is even more relevant today; a must for the informed public and the perceptive student."

Distinguished Professor of Criminal Justice, City University of New York - Jock Young

"The Child Savers, at forty, is a classic. Accompanied by lively contributions that reflect on its impact and outline recent research, this new edition will ensure that the book lives on, its message always challenging, its relevance undiminished."

Professor Emeritus of Social History, University of Kent - Hugh Cunningham

"Like a bracing wind, Platt's brilliant inquiry into the oxymoron of juvenile justice demands again that we upend our ritualized system of punishing, containing and crushing our defiant young."

From the Publisher

"Like a bracing wind, Platt's brilliant inquiry into the oxymoron of juvenile justice demands again that we upend our ritualized system of punishing, containing and crushing our defiant young."

— Bernardine Dohrn

Northwestern University School of Law