Securing Our Children's Future: New Approaches to Juvenile Justice and Youth Violence

A Brookings Institution Press and Governance Institute publication A nation of great resources, the United States is confronted all too often with headlines about shootings in schools and with the unsettling reality that homicide rates for juveniles far exceed that of other industrialized nations. The challenge of reducing youth violence has prompted a flurry of commentary, legislative activity, and scholarly studies—much of it skewed by lurid pronouncements, alarmist sentiments, and misleading categorizations. Focusing on the role of institutions in combating youth violence, this volume seeks to reflect its complex and multidimensional character. Copublished by the Governance Institute and the Brookings Institution, the book brings together a wide range of skilled professionals and academics across disciplines to focus on the coordination and implementation of youth anti-violence strategies. The work redefines the way we think institutionally about youth violence and collaborative initiatives, providing a pragmatic roadmap for constructive change. The essays constitute a new framework to guide key players in the juvenile justice system: prosecutors, the defense bar, the courts, correction and probation departments, faith-based institutions, schools, the media, nonprofit institutions, and the private sector.

About the Author :
Gary S. Katzmann is director of the Governance Institute project on juvenile justice and youth violence. He is a fellow at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government and he has been a lecturer at Harvard Law School. Katzmann has been a prosecutor with the Department of Justice, including service as an associate deputy attorney general in Washington, D.C., and as an assistant U.S. attorney in Massachusetts, where he has been chief appellate attorney, deputy chief of the criminal division, and chief legal counsel. He is the author of Inside the Criminal Process (W.W. Norton).

Review :
"...a good addition to a policy course on juvenile justice or to a class studying cross-organization change." —Candice M. Kane, Social Service Review, 12/1/2003 |"This book brings together some of the country's very best thinkers on criminal justice and youth violence issues. It offers most importantly a perfect blend of practice and research: providing practitioners and academics new thoughtful ideas about the next set of challenges. Whether the reader polices, prosecutes, adjudicates, or writes about it, he or she will benefit from this thoughtful analysis." —Stephen Goldsmith, special adviser to the president for faith-based and nonprofit initiatives, 7/1/2002 |"Can we meet the current challenge of youth violence? A group of forward-looking practitioners and academics has come together to say yes. They offer us clear direction and a basis for hope as they lay out the ways in which public institutions and civic enterprises can rethink and reinvent their responses. As importantly, they convince us that we know enough to act and that our actions can make a difference now." —Ellen Schall, Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, New York University |"Gary Katzmann has brought together an outstanding collection of authors representing the critical components of the juvenile justice system from intake through corrections in an effort to provide a comprehensive picture of that system and a glimpse of what has worked best. He has succeeded. Securing Our Children's Future: New Approaches to Juvenile Justice and Youth Violence is a well-researched book packed with creative ideas for all practitioners in the juvenile justice system." —Judge Leonard Edwards, Santa Clara County Superior Court |"Experience teaches us that there is no single solution to the vexing problem of youth violence. By bringing together academics and practitioners from a variety of disciplines, Securing Our Children's Future: New Approaches to Juvenile Justice and Youth Violence has made a critical contribution toward our understanding of what we must do if we are to combat youth violence successfully. All who are truly interested in learning what needs to be done to formulate an effective youth violence and juvenile justice strategy must read this important book. Experience teaches us that there is no single solution to the vexing problem of youth violence. By bringing together academics and practitioners from a variety of disciplines, Securing Our Children's Future: New Approaches to Juvenile Justice and Youth Violence has made a critical contribution toward our understanding of what we must do if we are to combat youth violence successfully. All who are truly interested in learning what needs to be done to formulate an effective youth violence and juvenile justice strategy must read this important book. " —Eliot Spitzer, attorney general, New York State