Explores values, ideas and structures promoting justice for children and families, under the headings of fairness, protection and autonomy.

Children and youth become involved with the juvenile justice system at a significant rate. While some children move just as quickly out of the system and go on to live productive lives as adults, other children become enmeshed in the system, developing deeper problems and or transferring into the adult criminal justice system. Justice for Kids is a volume of work by leading academics and activists that focuses on ways to intervene at the earliest possible point to rehabilitate and redirect—to keep kids out of the system—rather than to punish and drive kids deeper. Justice for Kids presents a compelling argument for rethinking and restructuring the juvenile justice system as we know it. This unique collection explores the system’s fault lines with respect to all children, and focuses in particular on issues of race, gender, and sexual orientation that skew the system. Most importantly, it provides specific program initiatives that offer alternatives to our thinking about prevention and deterrence, with an ultimate focus on keeping kids out of the system altogether.

Children come into the world completely helpless, and require well-functioning families and schools to meet their needs, protect their interests and nurture their potential. This book argues that healthy child-development depends on values, ideas and structures that promote justice for children and families; in particular, checks and balances that favour: • Fairness: allowing fair distribution of resources, so that every child and family have the best possible chance to reach their potential. • Protection: resources for families, neighbourhoods and schools to help protect and encourage their children, alongside the means to intervene, should this protection fail. • Autonomy: encouraging children's voice and participation in decision-making at a level commensurate with their maturity. Authored by leading experts in the field, the book is comprised of short, highly readable chapters with an interdisciplinary appeal, for practitioners of social science, law, social work, psychology, paediatrics, psychotherapy, psychiatry and public health alike.

Family Life Education with Diverse Populations is a T2 for courses in Family Life Education. Family Studies and Social Work students often go through the additional certification of becoming Family Life Educators (FLEs). As a family life educator, the student will help educate families in and outside the traditional classroom environment on how to strengthen relationships in the home and foster positive individual, couple and family development. Such education comprises many topics, including marriage education, parenting skills, anger management, to strategies in adjusting to divorce. This book takes the content delivered in courses on FLE a step further by examining and presenting key strategies for working with diverse populations. Diverse is defined broadly in terms of race and ethnicity, but also by setting, such as military families, rural families, families with loved ones in prison, and more. The book is unique in defining the group and presenting their strengths, and then prescribing treatments and strategies for working with each group. In addition, the book takes an evidence based practice approach and demonstrates proven strategies in working with the populations listed above. Sharon M. Ballard, Ph.D., CFLE, CFCS: is an Associate Professor in the Department of Child Development and Family Relations at East Carolina University. Alan C. Taylor, Ph.D. CFLE: is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Child Development and Family Relations at East Carolina University.

This book provides a comprehensive, cutting-edge look at the problems that impact the way we conduct intervention and treatment for youth in crisis today—an indispensable resource for practitioners, students, researchers, policymakers, and faculty working in the area of juvenile justice. Understanding Juvenile Justice and Delinquency provides a concise overview of the most compelling issues in juvenile delinquency today. It covers not only the range of offenses but also the offenders themselves as well as those impacted by crime and delinquency. All of the chapters contain up-to-date research, laws, and data that accurately frame discussions on youth violence, detention, and treatment; related issues such as gangs and drugs; the consequences for scholars, teachers, and students; and best practices in intervention methods. The book's organization guides readers logically from the broader definitions and parameters of the study of juveniles to the more specific. The volume leads with an explanation of the relationship between victimization and juvenile behavior and sets up boundaries of the arenas of delinquency—from the family to the streets to cyberspace. The book then focuses on more specific populations of offenders and offenses, including recent, emerging issues, offering the most accurate information available and cutting-edge insight into the issues that affect youth in custody and in our communities.

This book aims to make clear the interconnections between social policy and criminal justice practice, bringing together key social policy concepts within a framework for reducing reoffending rates. The book focuses on the key social policy issues of employment, health and mental health, low income and poverty, housing and family. It shows how understanding and treating these as issues interconnected to criminal justice outcomes can and does lead to improvements in criminal justice practice. This book enables students and criminal justice practitioners to understand how a social policy focus can better inform practice with those involved in the criminal justice system. It features: • a 10 point summary of key points for learning; • chapter heading questions to support independent learning; • tables and graphs to illustrate the text.