Juvenile Delinquency: A Pathfinder

 

            Juvenile delinquency is increasingly dangerous problem in many places in the United States as well as across the globe.  This pathfinder provides resources detailing examples, causes, and possible solutions to the problem of juvenile delinquency, with more emphasis on cases in the United Sates.

 

Advice:

 

Using online databases is the simplest and most efficient way to find credible research on the topic.

 

Dewey/Library of Congress Number: Circulating Works

 

Most relevant books can be found in the 360’s, but I wouldn’t recommend books as the most valuable research material because it’s somewhat difficult to find more recent information.

 

Online Databases:

 

SIRS Knowledge Source-

By visiting the juvenile delinquency section of SIRS “Leading Issues,” numerous useful sources can be accessed.

 

Facts.com-

Provides many in-depth articles, but not quite as many as SIRS.

 

Galenet (Opposing Viewpoints Research Center)-

Provides many in-depth articles as its database counterparts, but provides articles with a strong bias.

 

Some examples of the better articles found on these databases are:            

 

“Both Prevention Programs and Punishment Are Needed to Control Juvenile Crime” by James Alan Fox.

A biased article, but provides many essential facts and viewpoints on the topic.

 

“Robbery Cases in Juvenile Court,” “Detention in Delinquency Cases,” etc.

These Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention fact sheets provide background research on which to back up thoughts on juvenile delinquency.

 

“The Apocalypse of Adolescence” by Ron Powers.

This extensive article provides in-depth analysis into a particular case of delinquency on which the authors shares different insights/viewpoints as well as facts pertaining to juvenile delinquency.

 

I must emphasize these are only a few of the credible and useful articles that can be found at these various databases.

 

Other Electronic Sources:

 

National Criminal Justice Reference Service (http://www.ncjrs.org/) -

This site (which is somewhere between a database and an organization) provides some “.PDF” files of studies from various sources on the topic of juvenile delinquency.

 

Organizations:

 

Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (http://ojjdp.ncjrs.org/) –

This is a government-run organization whose website is not very useful, but does provide some good links.

 

National Center for Juvenile Justice (http://brendan.ncjfcj.unr.edu/homepage/ncjj/ncjj2/main.htm) –

This is a private organization based in Pennsylvania which has published numerous studies on juvenile delinquency.  Many of these publications are available through their website as “.PDF” files.  (Although some of the studies are on topics only pertaining to Pennsylvania.)

 

Keywords for Searches:

-         juvenile delinquency

-         juvenile justice

-         juvenile crime

 

            Once again online databases are the most effective way to gather credible research on the topic of juvenile delinquency, especially for more recent research.  Books are often out of date and searching the free web yields almost nothing.

 

Kurt Gawinowicz.  April, 20 2003.