Additional readings are available on-line and from the library's reserve desk.
This course is intended to introduce students to the complexity of many issues involved in the treatment of children as both victims and offenders in the criminal justice system. Students are expected to gain detailed knowledge about the various components of both the adult and juvenile justice systems and develop a better understanding of the individuals who are the clients of the system through ethnographic accounts based on observational studies. Students will be asked to think critically about current justice policies related to children and ways in which those policies could be improved. This course will provide an in-depth exploration of several topics related to the way the justice system addresses issues that have an impact on children, including the victimization of children and the treatment of juveniles who enter the system after committing an offense. The course will first provide an overview of the structure and philosophy of the juvenile justice system and compare that to the adult system.