The Second Edition of this best-selling text provides a fully revised and up-to-date critical analysis of a wide range of issues surrounding young people, disorder and crime. To develop a comprehensive criminology of youth the book deliberately moves beyond traditional criminological concerns and draws insights from other academic disciplines such as cultural studies, gender studies, media studies, social policy, social work, political science and human geography. Now thoroughly updated, this second edition has been rewritten to include new material on anti-social behaviour, street crime, youth gangs, victimisation, social exclusion, drugs, surveillance, crime prevention, policing and restoration as well as a sustained critical analysis of New Labour's youth, social and criminal justice reforms as they have emerged over the past five years. To make sense of these developments theories of risk management, governance, globalisation and cultural criminology are introduced and assessed. Building on the strengths of the first edition, this highly influential work remains the most integrated and comprehensive analysis of theory, research, policy and politics in this area. It is an essential text for students of criminology, criminal justice, sociology, youth studies, social policy and social work.

This book presents the first comprehensive analysis of the second International Self-Report Delinquency study (ISRD-2). An earlier volume, Juvenile Delinquency in Europe and Beyond (Springer, 2010) focused mainly on the findings with regard to delinquency, victimization and substance use in each of the individual participating ISRD-2 countries. The Many Faces of Youth Crime is based on analysis of the merged data set and has a number of unique features:  The analyses are based on an unusually large number of respondents (about 67,000 7th, 8th and 9th graders) collected by researchers from 31 countries;  It includes reports on the characteristics, experiences and behaviour of first and second generation migrant youth from a variety of cultures;  It is one of the first large-scale international studies asking 12-16 year olds about their victimization experiences (bullying, assault, robbery, theft);  It describes both intriguing differences between young people from different countries and country clusters in the nature and extent of delinquency, victimization and substance use, as well as remarkable cross-national uniformities in delinquency, victimization, and substance use patterns;  A careful comparative analysis of the social responses to offending and victimization adds to our limited knowledge on this important issue;  Detailed chapters on the family, school, neighbourhood, lifestyle and peers provide a rich comparative description of these institutions and their impact on delinquency;  It tests a number of theoretical perspectives (social control, self-control, social disorganization, routine activities/opportunity theory) on a large international sample from a variety of national contexts;  It combines a theoretical focus with a thoughtful consideration of the policy implications of the findings;  An extensive discussion of the ISRD methodology of ‘flexible standardization’ details the challenges of comparative research. The book consists of 12 chapters, which also may be read individually by those interested in particular special topics (for instance, the last chapter should be of special interest to policy makers). The material is presented in such a way that it is accessible to more advanced students, researchers and scholars in a variety of fields, such as criminology, sociology, deviance, social work, comparative methodology, youth studies, substance use studies, and victimology.

This book presents a critique of the traditional responses to youth crime by criminal justice agencies in Australia, UK, New Zealand, USA, Canada, and a vision of how these agencies could respond more effectively. The critique examines the ways in which traditional criminal justice approaches trap young people into, rather than turn them away from, a life of crime. The vision is for criminal justice agencies - police, courts, and corrections - to become more pro-active partners in society's efforts to guide young people towards becoming happy and productive citizens; for these agencies to focus less on the exercise of retributive powers and to embrace restorative approaches; and for agencies to develop a crime prevention role through partnership with community organisations. Author Paul Omaji argues against concentrating resources on the symptom when the underlying causes are within our intellectual grasp and amenable to effective criminal justice responses. Omaji demonstrates the capacity of criminal justice agencies to become constructive partners with community organisations in preventing youth crime and constructs ground rules for high impact partnerships.

`Youth Crime and Justice presents a detailed and comprehensive critical analysis of evidence from leading national and international scholars. As such it provides a powerful antidote to the excesses of contemporary correctionalism' - Professor Andrew Rutherford, University of Southampton `Youth Crime and Justice is the most comprehensive and up-to-date collection on the market today. A must for all researchers, teachers and students of youth justice' - Professor Tim Newburn, London School of Economics and Political Science and President of the British Society of Criminology For the first time, leading national and international scholars have been brought together to engage explicitly with a comprehensive critical assessment of the relation between 'evidence' and contemporary youth justice policy formation. This book, along with its companion volume Comparative Youth Justice (edited by John Muncie and Barry Goldson) , will significantly advance the development of an emerging 'youth criminology'. The book is essential reading for criminology and criminal justice students, researchers and practitioners. Contributors' Affiliations: Tim Bateman is a Senior Policy Development Officer with Nacro, a UK-based crime reduction agency Chris Cunneen is Professor of Criminology and Director of the Institute of Criminology at the University of Sydney Matthew Follett is a Lecturer in Criminology at the University of Leicester Loraine Gelsthorpe is a Reader in Criminology and Criminal Justice at the Institute of Criminology, University of Cambridge Barry Goldson is a Senior Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Liverpool, England. Kevin Haines is Head of Applied Social Sciences at the University of Swansea Lynn Hancock is a Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Liverpool Harry Hendrick is an Associate Professor of History at the University of Southern Denmark Gordon Hughes is Professor of Criminology at the International Centre for Comparative Criminological Research at the Open University Fergus McNeill is a Senior Lecturer at the Glasgow School of Social Work, Universities of Glasgow and Strathclyde Phil Mizen is a Senior Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Warwick John Muncie is Professor of Criminology and Co-Director of the International Centre for Comparative Criminological Research at the Open University David O'Mahony is a Senior Lecturer in Youth Justice at the Institute of Criminology and Criminal Justice, School of Law, Queen's University Belfast Gilly Sharpe is a Doctoral Research Student at the Institute of Criminology, University of Cambridge David Smith is Professor of Criminology at Lancaster University Roger Smith is a Lecturer in Social Work at the University of Leicester Colin Webster is a Senior Lecturer in Criminology at the University of Teesside Rob White is Professor of Sociology and Head of the School of Sociology and Social Work at the University of Tasmania

The 2008 UK government Youth Crime Action Plan emphasises early intervention in work with young people who offend or considered to be 'at risk' of offending. This approach includes targeted work with families and a reduction in the numbers of young people entering the justice system. This report takes a critical look at early intervention policies.

Antisocial and criminal behaviour involving children and young people have been a cause of heightened public concern in England and Wales for more than a quarter of a century. It has been the subject of numerous policy papers, research studies and academic assessments as well as extensive newspaper, radio and television coverage. This has set the context for an ever expanding volume of legislation seeking to amend and improve society's official response. Yet despite a massive injection of resources into the youth justice system the results achieved have been unimpressive, reoffending remains a persistent problem and the general public appears to have little confidence in the youth justice system. The time is ripe therefore for a new look at the problem of youth offending and government and society's response to this. This book accompanies the Report of the Independent Commission on Youth Crime and Antisocial Behaviour, published 2010. In it leading authorities in the field, from a variety of different disciplines, review youth crime and different responses to it, focussing particularly on England and Wales but also analysing for comparative purposes the nature of responses in other parts of the world, especially Canada. It will be essential reading for practitioners, policy makers, students and others with an interest in addressing one of today's most intractable social problems.