Serious and Violent Juvenile Offenders: Risk Factors and Successful Interventions

Detailed and comprehensive, Serious and Violent Juvenile Offenders presents authoritative discussions by a select group of leading scholars on issues surrounding serious and violent juvenile offenders. This population is responsible for a disproportionate percentage of all crime and poses the greatest challenge to juvenile justice policymakers. Under the skillful editorship of Rolf Loeber and David P. Farrington, this unique volume integrates knowledge about risk and protective factors with information about intervention and prevention programs so that conclusions from each area can inform the other. Current literature on these two areas does not, for the most part, apply directly to serious and violent juvenile offenders. This volume contends that serious and violent juvenile offenders tend to start displaying behavior problems and delinquency early in life, warranting early intervention. It is the contributors' thesis that prevention is never too early. They also maintain, however, that interventions for serious and violent juvenile offenders can never be too late in that effective interventions exist for known serious and violent juvenile offenders. Augmented by charts, tables, graphs, figures, and an extensive bibliography, Serious and Violent Juvenile Offenders is an excellent reference work and a must read for policy and lawmakers, judges, attorneys, law enforcement personnel, education administrators, researchers, academics, social workers, sociologists, as well as graduate students and interns.

Table of Contents:
Foreword - Rolf Loeber and David P Farrington Preface 1 - James Q Wilson Preface 2 - Lloyd E Ohlin Major Aims of the Book - David P Farrington and Rolf Loeber PART 1: DEVELOPMENTAL COURSE AND RISK FACTORS Serious and Violent Juvenile Offenders - Rolf Loeber, David P Farrington and Daviel A Waschbusch Race and Ethnicity and Serious Juvenil Offenders - Darnell Hawkins, John H Laub and Janet Lauritsen The Contemporaneous Co-Occurrence of Serious and Violent Juvenile Offending and Other Problems - David Huizinga and Cynthia Jakob-Chien Development of Serious and Violent Offending Careers - Patrick H Tolan and Deborah Gorman-Smith Predictors of Violent or Serious Delinquency in Adolescence and Early Adulthood - Mark W Lipsey and James H Derzon A Synthesis of Longitudinal Research A Review of Predictors of Youth Violence - J David Hawkins et al Membership in Youth Gangs and Involvement in Serious and Violent Offenders - Terence P Thornberry Screening of Serious/Violent Juvenile Offenders - Marc Le Blanc Identification, Classification and Prediction PART TWO: PREVENTIVE INTERVENTIONS AND GRADUATED SANCTIONS The Prevention of Serious and Violent Juvenile Offending - Gail A Wasserman and Laurie S Miller Comprehensive Community and School-Based Interventions to Prevent Antisocial Behavior - Richard F Catalano et al Promising Programs for Youth Gang Violence Prevention and Intervention - James C Howell Effective Intervention for Serious Juvenile Offenders - Mark W Lipsey and David B Wilson The Impact of the Juvenile Justice System and Prospects for Graduated Sanctions in a Comprehensive Strategy - Barry Krisberg and James C Howell Intermediate Sanctions and Community Treatment of Serious and Violent Juvenile Offenders - David M Altschuler PART THREE: CONCLUDING OVERVIEW Serious Violent Juvenile Offenders - Nancy G Guerra Gaps in Knowledge and Research Priorities Conclusions and the Way Forward - Rolf Loeber and David P Farrington