Juvenile Delinquency Causes and Control

Now in its seventh edition, Juvenile Delinquency: Causes and Control offers a clear and concise overview of the latest theories and research on the causes and control of delinquency. The text is organized around three major questions: What is the nature and extent of delinquency? What are the causes of delinquency? What strategies should we employ to control delinquency?

Compared to other textbooks on the market, this book is written in a more conversational style. And compared to other textbooks, this book is more focused. Other textbooks attempt to cover all the major theories and areas of research at the risk of confusing and overwhelming students. In contrast, Juvenile Delinquincy is more student and instructor friendly in its approach. For instance, rather than covering all the major theories (and numerous versions of each theory), Agnew synthesizes the best of current delinquency theories into "generic" theories representing strain, social learning, control, and labeling theories. The book then show how these theories can be used to interpret research on the causes of delinquency. In addition, the book promotes active learning. Agnew poses questions for students throughout the text and encourage them to apply the text materials to their own lives. This emphasis on application dramatically increases the students' understanding of the materials. Finally, Juvenile Delinquincy describes how criminologists know what they know. Students are not asked to accept the findings of criminology on faith, rather they are given a sense of what the research process is like.

Robert Agnew is Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of Sociology Emeritus at Emory University, Fellow of the American Society of Criminology (ASC), recipient of ASC's Edwin H. Sutherland award, and past President of ASC. He is best known for the development of General Strain Theory. He has published over 150 articles and chapters and is author of seven books, including Pressured into Crime: An Overview of General Strain Theory (OUP), Why Do Criminals Offend? A General Theory of Crime and Delinquency (OUP), and Toward a Unified Criminology: Integrating Assumptions about Crime, People, and Society.

Timothy Brezina is Professor of Criminal Justice and Criminology at Georgia State University. His research interests include criminological theory, youth violence, desistance from crime, and human agency. His studies have appeared in Criminology, Justice Quarterly, The Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, and other leading journals.

Part 1: The Nature and Extent of Delinquency

1. What Is Delinquency and How Does It Differ from Adult Crime?
2. How Is Delinquency Measured?
3. How Much Delinquency Is There, and Is Delinquency Increasing?
4. Who Is Most Likely to Engage in Delinquency?

Part 2: The Causes of Delinquency: Theories

5. What Is a Theory and How Do We Test Theories?
6. Strain Theory
7. Social Learning Theory
8. Control Theory
9. Labeling Theory
10. The Life Course
11. Is Delinquency More Likely in Certain Types of Situations?
12. Group Differences in Delinquency

Part 3: The Causes of Delinquency: Research

13. Individual Traits
14. The Family
15. The School
16. Delinquent Peers and Gangs
17. Other Social Influences
18. Pulling It All Together

Part 4: The Control and Prevention of Delinquency

19. Policies and Programs
20. The Police
21. Juvenile Court and Corrections
22. The Juvenile Justice System
23. The Strategies of Deterrence and Incapacitation
24. The Strategies of Prevention and Rehabilitation
25. What Should We Do to Reduce Delinquency?