Rethinking Juvenile Justice » (Reprint)

Elizabeth S. Scott is Harold R. Medina Professor of Law at Columbia University.

Laurence Steinberg is Distinguished University Professor of Psychology at Temple University.

What should we do with teenagers who commit crimes? Are they children whose offenses are the result of immaturity and circumstances, or are they in fact criminals?

“Adult time for adult crime” has been the justice system’s mantra for the last twenty years. But locking up so many young people puts a strain on state budgets—and ironically, the evidence suggests it ultimately increases crime.

In this bold book, two leading scholars in law and adolescent development offer a comprehensive and pragmatic way forward. They argue that juvenile justice should be grounded in the best available psychological science, which shows that adolescence is a distinctive state of cognitive and emotional development. Although adolescents are not children, they are also not fully responsible adults.

Elizabeth Scott and Laurence Steinberg outline a new developmental model of juvenile justice that recognizes adolescents’ immaturity but also holds them accountable. Developmentally based laws and policies would make it possible for young people who have committed crimes to grow into responsible adults, rather than career criminals, and would lighten the present burden on the legal and prison systems. In the end, this model would better serve the interests of justice, and it would also be less wasteful of money and lives than the harsh and ineffective policies of the last generation.

Lucy S. McGough - Law and Politics Book Review

[Scott and Steinberg] believe that new juvenile justice reforms that publicize available scientific developmental data and empirical data demonstrating savings in recidivism and costs due to keeping kids in the juvenile system will be successful. They believe that we can avoid the demolition of the courts or at least staunch the loss of so many young offenders from the courts' jurisdiction...This book is one of the very few works that provides legal and developmental analyses and offers politically savvy advice about implementing a successful legislative strategy...This is a book that everyone should read.

1 Introduction: The Challenge of Lionel Tate 1

2 The Science of Adolescent Development and Teenagers' Involvement in Crime 28

3 Regulating Children in American Law: The State as Parent and Protector 61

4 Why Crime Is Different 82

5 Immaturity and Mitigation 118

6 Developmental Competence and the Adjudication of Juveniles 149

7 Social Welfare and Juvenile Crime Regulation 181

8 The Developmental Model and Juvenile Justice Policy for the Twenty-First Century 223

9 Is Society Ready for Juvenile Justice Reform? 265

Notes 285

Index 359