Comparative and International Youth Justice

Annotated Further Reading

The best introduction to the complexities of crime and crime control in a glo­balized world is

Aas, K.F. (2007) Globalization and Crime. London: Sage.

However, there are few comparative juvenile justice texts which venture far beyond the descriptive.

Tonry, M. and Doob, A. (eds) (2004) Youth Crime and Youth Justice: Comparative and Cross-national Perspectives: Crime and Justice, Vol. 31. Chicago, IL: Chicago University Press. includes chapters on Canada and New Zealand as well as various European coun­tries and discusses the relevance of welfare, age limitations and the emergence of separate systems.

Winterdyk, J. (ed.) (2002) Juvenile Justice Systems: International Perspectives, 2nd edn. Toronto: Canadian Scholar’s Press. covers 18 western and non-western countries. Bala, N., Hornick, J., Snyder, H. and Paetsch, J. (eds) (2002) Juvenile Justice Systems: An International Comparison of Problems and Solutions. Toronto: Thompson. restricts itself to North America, Australasia and the UK.

Junger-Tas, J. and Decker, S. (2006) (eds), International Handbook of Juvenile Justice. Dordrecht: Springer.  covers 19 North American, Western European and Eastern European countries.

It is rare to find com­parative texts that do not have an explicit ‘western’ focus.

Friday, P. and Ren, X. (eds) (2006) Delinquency and Juvenile Justice Systems in the Non- Western World. Monsey, NY: Criminal Justice Press. is an exception, though again this is primarily a collection of descriptive case studies.

An initial attempt to develop a comparative youth justice in the context of globalization was made by Muncie, J. (2005) ‘The globalisation of crime control: the case of youth and juvenile justice’,Theoretical Criminology, 9 (1): 35–64.

 Cavadino, M. and Dignan, J. (2006) Penal Systems: A Comparative Approach. London: Sage provide a useful discussion of differing international penal trajectories in terms of politi­cal economies.

Goldson, B. and Muncie, J. (eds) (2006) Comparative Youth justice. London: SageCompared  12 western jurisdictions by degrees of rights compliance, repenalization, adulteration, tolerance and experiments in restoration and risk management as pertained in the early twenty-first century.

Weblinks

www.un.org/

The main portal for United Nations publications. To initiate more general searches it is of interest that the phrase ‘juvenile justice’ will open more doors than the term ‘youth justice’ currently favoured in England.

www.unicef.org.uk/Documents/Publication-pdfs/UNCRC_PRESS200910web. pdf

A link to the full text of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.

www.un.org/documents/ga/res/45/a45r112.htm

The Riyadh Guidelines.

www.un.org/documents/ga/res/40/a40r033.htm

The Beijing Rules.

www.unodc.org/unodc/en/data-and-analysis/crimedata.html

Portal to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime which provides some comparative data on crime and criminal justice trends worldwide. The 11th survey covers the period 2007–2008.

www.prisonstudies.org/info/worldbrief/

A site run by the International Centre for Prison Studies, a partner of Essex University, which provides regularly updated details of prison populations world­wide, including percentages of juvenile prison populations.

www3.unil.ch/wpmu/space/

The Council of Europe site which publishes annual information on penal and com­munity sanctions – SPACE1 and SPACE2 – including estimates of under-18 and 18–21 year old prison populations.

www.crin.org/

The Child Rights Information Network (CRIN), based in London, is a global network that disseminates information about the Convention on the Rights of the Child and children’s rights amongst non-governmental organizations, United Nations agencies, intergovernmental organizations and educational institutions.

www.campaignforyouthjustice.org/

American pressure group campaigning for abolition of the practices of treating children as adults.

www.hrw.org/topic/childrens-rights

Human Rights Watch section focusing on children’s rights.

www.aecf.org/OurWork/JuvenileJustice.aspx

Section of the American Annie E. Casey Foundation dedicated to juvenile justice with links to its reform agenda and USA statistical (kids count) data.