Kimberly Kempf-Leonard – författare

It takes courage to do research on crime and delinquency. Such ideas belittle the contributions of past research and leave us vulnerable to theories, programs, policies, and research agendas that may have only tenuous connections to research of any kind.

The experiences of minority youths in the juvenile justice system are strikingly different from those of their white counterparts. In response to the overrepresentation of minority youths in confinement, Congress amended the Juvenile Justice & Delinquency Prevention Act to require states to investigate the imbalance and develop action plans to fix problem situations. In this carefully edited volume, the contributors note the extent and sources of disparate treatment of youths within juvenile justice and identify the need to respond to this bias. Findings from research and provocative analysis of topics such as racial difference in encounters with police, in urban juvenile court, in confinement and punishment, and among groups within juvenile justice awaken the reader to the variety of racial bias in the system. The authors also offer creative and practical policy recommendations and strategies for overcoming racial inequity in the juvenile justice process. Practitioners and researchers in juvenile justice, criminology, corrections, policing, sociology, and ethnic studies will find the cross-section of information in the volume enlightening. The material presented also ideally fits supplementary text needs for coursework dealing with race and crime. "This volume delivers a full and complete view of one of the most critical issues in juvenile justice. Rousing and informative, the book comes highly recommended." --Barry Krisberg, Ph.D., President, National Council on Crime and Delinquency, San Francisco