Reinventing juvenile justice /

Krisberg and Austin review the status of juvenile justice and recommend substantial revision of the current approach to the handling of children who are presently defined as wards of the juvenile court. The book offers a sound history, a critical description of current system operations, an examination of existing innovative programs (e.g., the Massachusetts experiment), and specific suggestions for the future. The authors have substantial reputations in the field and are well qualified to make recommendations. This book compares favorably with books offering different assessments and solutions, such as Juvenile Delinquency: A Justice Perspective, ed. by R.A. Weisheit and R.G. Culbertson (1985); Thomas J. Bernard's The Cycle of Juvenile Justice (1992); Richard J. Lundman's Prevention and Control of Juvenile Delinquency (1984); and Jay S. Albanese's Dealing with Delinquency (CH, Sep'85). Overall, references and indexing are adequate. The text is well written and makes good use of a limited number of tables. General; community college; undergraduate; graduate; professional.