Introduction

This is a book about current debates and issues in juvenile delinquency that takes a critical issues approach. It is aimed at senior undergraduates in criminology, criminal justice and sociology, and encourages readers to adopt an analytical understanding that encompasses not only juvenile crime but also the broader context within which the conditions of juvenile criminality occur. In articulating the connections between social, political, economic and cultural conditions and juvenile crime, this book goes beyond the conventional approaches to juvenile delinquency commonly found in such texts. Also, and rarely found in this field, the book makes significant use of appropriate qualitative studies to contextualize, provide explanations and meaning, and to convey a powerful sense of the experience of juvenile justice.