Youth and Crime
Student Resources
Explaining Youth Crime II: Radical and Realist Criminologies
Annotated Further Reading
Becker, H. (1963) Outsiders. New York: Free Press.
A classic text on labeling.
Hall, S., Critcher, C., Jefferson, T., Clarke, J. and Roberts, B. (1978) Policing the Crisis: Mugging, the State and Law and Order. London: Macmillan.
Shows how labeling can be developed within a critical paradigm to provide some enlightened understanding of how and why particular ‘youth crimes’ (mugging) are constructed in particular socio-economic conjunctures. The book was reissued in 2013 with a new preface and afterword, to mark its 35th anniversary.
Parker, H. (1974) View from the Boys. Newton Abbot: David & Charles.
One of the best ethnographic studies of it’s period. Or, for a contrary view of how the study of youth crime can be developed by studying young women using theories that transgress criminology, see Cain, M. (ed.) (1989) Growing Up Good. London: Sage.
Messerschmidt, J.W. (1993) Masculinities and Crime. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.
A good introduction to the relevance of gender and masculinity.
Einstadter, W. and Henry, S. (1995) Criminological Theory. Fort Worth, TX: Harcourt Brace.
Chapter 12 provides an accessible summary of the types of issue that would be involved in deconstructing ‘youth crime’ from a postmodern perspective.
Anyone not yet convinced of the fictions of crime and crime control should read Reiman, J. (1979/2007) The Rich Get Richer and the Poor Get Prison, 8th edn. Boston, MA: Pearson.
Weblinks
The critical criminology division of the American Society of Criminology with access to their regular newsletters.
Site of the European Group for the study of deviancy and social control first established as a forum for critical analysis in 1972.
http://home.earthlink.net/~hsbecker/
Howard Becker’s home page.
An important body monitoring state power and civil liberties in Europe. Regularly comments on youth justice policy such as the compulsory fingerprinting of children and the legality of anti-social behaviour initiatives. Retains thousands of articles on its database.
American Enterprise Institute: a highly influential neo-conservative think tank with commentaries on public policy.
European Civil Liberties Network launched in 2005.
Site of the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies dedicated to advancing public understanding of crime and social harm.
Site of the crime and justice research centre based at Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia, including open access to its online journal: The International Journal for Crime, Justice and Social Democracy.