Contents

Part I. Setting the Agenda

1. Child Well-Being: Toward a Fair and Equitable Public Safety Strategy for the New Century 23

James Bell

Part II. Core Components

2. A Silent Sea Change: The Deinstitutionalization Trend in Juvenile Justice 47

Bart Lubow

3. Starting from a Different Place: The Missouri Model 63

Tim Decker

4. Doing Things Differently: Education as a Vehicle for Youth Transformation and Finland as a Model for Juvenile Justice Reform 86

Peter E. Leone

5. Delinquency, Due Process, and Mental Health: Presuming Youth Incompetency 104

David R. Katner

Part III. Essential Perspectives

6. Why Should We Treat Juvenile Offenders Differently than Adults? It's Not Because the Pie Isn't Fully Baked! 129

Mark R. Fondacaro

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7. Lost in Translation No More: Marketing Evidence-Based Policies for Reducing Juvenile Crime 139

Richard E. Redding

8. Building on Advocacy for Girls and LGBT Youth: A Foundation for Liberatory Laws, Policies, and Services for All Youth in the Juvenile Justice System 156

Barbara Fedders

A New Juvenile Justice System aims at nothing less than a complete reform of the existing system: not minor change or even significant overhaul, but the replacement of the existing system with a different vision. The authors in this volume?academics, activists, researchers, and those who serve in the existing system?all respond in this collection to the question of what the system should be. Uniformly, they agree that an ideal system should be centered around the principle of child well-being and the goal of helping kids to achieve productive lives as citizens and members of their communities.
Rather than the existing system, with its punitive, destructive, undermining effect and uneven application by race and gender, these authors envision a system responsive to the needs of youth as well as to the community's legitimate need for public safety. How, they ask, can the ideals of equality, freedom, liberty, and self-determination transform the system? How can we improve the odds that children who have been labeled as ?delinquent? can make successful transitions to adulthood? And how can we create a system that relies on proven, family-focused interventions and creates opportunities for positive youth development? Drawing upon interdisciplinary work as well as on-the-ground programs and experience, the authors sketch out the broad parameters of such a system.
Providing the principles, goals, and concrete means to achieve them, this volume imagines using our resources wisely and well to invest in all children and their potential to contribute and thrive in our society.