The proposition -- The nature of adolescence -- The criminal responsibility of juveniles -- Sentencing children tried in adult courts -- Our hardest to love children -- Interactive justice -- Fridays in the Youth Part / Caroline Joy DeBrovner -- The experiment that failed -- Creation of the Youth Part -- The Youth Part model -- A model juvenile justice system -- Juvenile justice policy reform
Summary
At a time when America's court system increasingly tries juvenile offenders as adults, the author draws directly from his experience as the founding judge of a special juvenile court to propose a new approach to dealing with youthful offenders. Its guiding principles, clearly laid out in this book, are that children are developmentally different from adults and that a judge can be a formidable force in shaping the lives of children who appear in court. This book makes a compelling argument for a better system of justice that recognizes the mental, emotional, and physical abilities of young people and provides them with an opportunity to be rehabilitated as productive members of society instead of being locked up in prisons
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references (pages 184-203) and index
