Book Review: The criminalization of Black children: Race, gender, and delinquency in Chicago’s juvenile justice system, 1899–1945

• Author: Adrian H. Huerta
• Date: 01 March 2022
• Published date: 01 March 2022
• DOI: 10.1177/0734016819826633
• Subject Matter: Book Reviews

Book Reviews

Agyepong, T. E. (2018).

The criminalization of Black children: Race, gender, and delinquency in Chicago’s juvenile justice system, 1899–1945.

Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. 197 pp. $24.95, ISBN 978-1-4696-3644-3.

Reviewed by: Adrian H. Huerta, Rossier School of Education, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA,

USA

DOI: 10.1177/0734016819826633

Poor, broken, violent, and criminals. These are some of the adjectives used to describe Black boys

and girls in The Criminalization of Black Children: Race, Gender, and Delinquency in Chicago’s

Juvenile Justice System 1899–1945. This is a timely and necessary read for emerging scholars

from various academic disciplines. Grounded in a historical text that weaves legal, ethnic studies,

and social work that can guide and inform students in education, public policy, and criminal

justice to gain a new perspective on the evolution of the juvenile justice system and it’s current influ-

ence in the lives of children throughout the United States. It is essential to understand the legacy of

policies and practices that lead to the disproportionate rates of Black youth involved in the criminal

justice system as some may believe that these efforts are a new phenomenon, but instead should

know how and why it is grounded in more substantial system-level decision-making that impacted

generations of people and communities throughout Chicago area. In each page and section of

Professor Tera Eva Agyepong book drew me deeper into the development, through vigennetes,

news paper articles, and legal decisions, of the juvenile justice system and provided the foundation

to understand current, and unfortunately, twisted and wrought dialogues about urban Black youth

today. After reading this text and others about Black boys and girls (Ferguson, 2000; Howard,

2014; Laura, 2014; Lopez-Aguado, 2018; Rios, 2011), I am left asking—what has changed

between 1899–1945 and 2019, and honestly, I am not sure if anything has changed about the con-

dition for Black children regardless of their income bracket or geographic location. Black boys and

girls continue to be the victims of a ubiquitous system that aims to control and punish poor children

and shepherd them into the juvenile justice courts, foster systems, or the school-to-prison-pipeline

without little conscious about the long-term effects on their psychosocial development or educational

trajectories. Professor Agyepong’s posits, “Notions of juvenile justice, childhood innocence, and

rehabilitation have always been contested”(p. 68), and these sentiments are very much true today

on who deserves benefit of the doubt about their presumed innocence or deviance. The depth of

Professor Agyepong’s detailed and analytic attention drawn to uncover copious notes, legislation,

newspaper articles, and public testimonies on how and why Black youth were constantly mislabeled

as delinquents and committed to juvenile facilities instead of centers for rehabilitation and needed

therapy, and often tried as adults stands to the testament of the value and impact of this book on

various social science fields. Agyepong provided heartbreaking examples of young Black boys

and girls who were victims of sexual abuse and exploitation at the hands of family members and

others and then wrongly labeled as sexual deviants and delinquents, which removes any thought

of vulnerability or victimhood needed to provide support and healing instead of a heavy hand of

Book Reviews

Criminal Justice Review

2022, Vol. 47(1) 119–128

© 2019 Georgia State University

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