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Edited by John Muncie, Gordon Hughes and Eugene McLaughlin.
Sage
£19.99
ISBN 0-7619-4914-3   

This collection is essential reading for anyone studying British criminology and very useful for anyone working in the field of youth justice in the UK.

It brings together material from many who have made a decisive contribution to youth justice issues in the past 30 years.

The book is divided into six sections. The first two provide context by, in turn, highlighting how unifying concepts such as childhood, youth and delinquency have been and are continually constructed and contested rather than fixed, and analysing the origins of the current youth justice system in the early nineteenth century.

Key recent rebates are summarised - welfare and justice approaches to tackling delinquency, and deterrence, risk management and prevention strategies.

The frequency with which welfare versus justice arguments are rehearsed and rerun in these articles is both striking and mildly depressing, leaving one at times to wonder about all this analysis: "Is that it?" On the other hand, since the answer to the question is probably yes, it's as good a book on the subject to have as any.

David Porteous is senior lecturer in applied social studies, University of Luton.