Book Review: Youth Justice

• Date: 01 December 2011
• Published date: 01 December 2011
• DOI: 10.1177/1057567711424315
• Author: Megan C. Kurlychek
• Subject Matter: Book Reviews

sovereignty. Transnational criminal organizations and networks have no such limitations, so an

effective international law and justice apparatus is crucial to breathing life into international efforts

to prosecute and prevent them. This book deserves credit for focusing attention on linking the polit-

ical will behind existing international conventions to making actual progress in practice against

transnational organized crime. As the author concludes, the adoption of the UN Convention against

Transnational Organized Crime ‘‘should be regarded as the expression of a promise’’ by the inter-

national community to take concerted action against organized crime, ‘‘and the time has come for it

to fulfill this promise by promoting a concerted, holistic response.’’

J. Johnstone and M. Burman (Eds.)

Youth Justice Edinburg, Scotland: Dunedin Academic Press, 2010. xxi,

113 pp. $26.95. ISBN 978-903765-91-3

Reviewed by: Megan C. Kurlychek, University at Albany, Suny, NY, USA

DOI: 10.1177/1057567711424315

Youth Justice is the ninth book in the series, Policy and Practice in Health and Social Care (Series

Editors: Joyce Cavaye and Alison Petch). This particular book contains a collection of essays

designed to describe and critically evaluate youth justice policies in Scotland. Individually, each

essay provides a stand-alone look at a particular point in the system or a specific policy initiative.

Combined, the essays provide a more general picture of trends in youth justice policy in Scotland,

their historical president, and their immediate and future impact on children falling within the

jurisdiction of the Scottish youth justice system.

Overall, the editors of this book, Johnstone and Burman, have compiled a well-organized manu-

script that takes the reader on a journey from the original mission and purpose of youth justice in

Scotland, through its current programs, practices, and prospects for the future. As stated by Burman

in the book’s introduction, increased political and media attention to youth crime has set the stage for

a period of great change in the provision of youth justice services. Unfortunately, as has been the

case in so many other nations, much of the youth crime wave is more fiction than fact and the iden-

tification of effective practices in youth justice may be falling to the wayside as policy makers rush

to enact new programs and policies to respond to the perceived crime wave.

Chapter 1 begins the reader’s journey with an overview of the system and its historical roots

which, similar to many other nation’s, are grounded more in child welfare than criminal justice soil.

A flowchart of the system provided early in this chapter is particularly useful to acclimate the reader

to the Scottish youth justice system. This sets the stage nicely for Chapter 2 that brings the reader

into a more detailed examination of the children’s hearing system. This is the system that generally

holds jurisdiction for youth under the age of 16 accused of a crime, and Chapter 3 that details the

type of youth and the crimes for which youth are coming before the system.

Chapters 4 through 6 then venture into more problematic terrain detailing specific efforts and new

policy initiatives undertaken to deal with youthful offenders through the original children’s hearing

system, a new fast track hearing system, and the development of Y outh Courts within the adul t sys-

tem. In particular, this section of the book will sound familiar to readers from other nations that

have experienced similar transformations of their youth justice systems from child welfare agen-

cies working in the best interests of children to more quasi-criminal courts. Also similar to other

nations, remnants of the traditional youth system remain and the thrust to lock up what are seen as

dangerous youth is eventually accompanied by efforts to expand community-based diversionary

Book Reviews 469