Book Review: Penn, E. B., Greene, H. T., & Gabbidon, S. L. (Eds.). (2006). Race and Juvenile Justice. Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press. 266 pp

• Author: James L. Williams
• DOI: 10.1177/0734016808325625
• Published date: 01 June 2009
• Date: 01 June 2009
• Subject Matter: Articles

Book Reviews 295
Penn, E. B., Greene, H. T., & Gabbidon, S. L. (Eds.). (2006). Race and Juvenile Justice.
Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press. 266 pp.
DOI: 10.1177/0734016808325625
Along with class and gender, race and ethnicity remain central to our understanding of the
operation of the American juvenile justice system. The complex and troubled history of racial
and ethnic relations in the United States is reflected in such issues as the disproportionate
representation of racial and ethnic minorities in the juvenile justice system. Although many
studies have addressed such issues as the role of race and ethnicity in juvenile justice decision
making, the number of book-length collections of research on minorities and juvenile justice
remains somewhat limited. Featuring contributions from a variety of specialists, the goals of
this edited collection are to summarize knowledge concerning the involvement of major racial
and ethnic groups with the juvenile justice system and to present current research on a number
of issues concerning minorities and the juvenile justice system.
The book is divided into two parts. Part 1 reviews recent research on five major racial
and ethnic groups with regard to the juvenile justice system. Each of the chapters includes
an overview of data on that group’s involvement in delinquency—an effort at contextualizing
their delinquency theoretically, historically, and/or culturally—and a review of related
research on the experiences of this group with the juvenile system. Part 1 covers Whites,
Hispanics, African Americans, Native Americans, and Asian Americans. Part 2 focuses on
the impact of domestic violence on delinquency among African Americans, reducing
minority youth gang involvement, race/ethnicity and the application of the death penalty to
juveniles, an analysis of the Disproportionate Minority Confinement initiative, and the politics
of race and juvenile justice. The final chapter focuses on reducing juvenile...