Barry C. Feld: The Evolution of the Juvenile Court: Race, Politics, and the Criminalizing of Juvenile Justice

Excerpt

Barry Feld’s The Evolution of the Juvenile Court; Race, Politics, and the Criminalizing of Juvenile Justice examines how social and political contexts, as well as perspectives on race, class, gender, age, and crime, influenced the evolution of the juvenile court across the 20th century. Feld analyses this evolution across four periods: the Progressive Era, the Due Process Revolution, the Get Tough Era, and the contemporary Kids Are Different Era. Throughout his analysis, the juvenile court is seen as the dependent variable, whose meaning and role changes in response to outside factors. For readers interested in policy, this book highlights how economic and public policy decisions that disproportionately affected minority groups created many of the disparities that are seen in the juvenile justice system today. For secondary schools teachers and staff, the work refutes the effectiveness of heavy surveillance as their main disciplinary measure. Feld believes that this approach is counterproductive, as it fosters an increase in distrust and suspicion in the school environment. For other readers, this book is critical in educating them on the decisions and events that have shaped the juvenile justice system thus far, to ensure that there is a shift to the creation of a more effective justice system for children in the United States. Overall, Feld believes that delinquency is rooted in child poverty. He calls all readers to focus their attention on implementing policies and practices to reduce this inequality so that the juvenile court can fulfill its rehabilitative role in society. …