Review of The Evolution of the Juvenile Court: Race, Politics, and the Criminalizing of Juvenile Justice, by Barry C. Feld. New York: New York University Press, 2017. (original) (raw)

A sweeping overview of the evolution of juvenile justice in the United States, Feld's The Evolution of the Juvenile Court reflects years of research and writing. By no means limited to the juvenile court or juvenile justice, as the title might imply, Feld's study examines closely and deftly the influence of the social and political context as well as ideologies about race, class, gender, age, and crime and how they have shaped and reshaped the nature of the court across the 20th century. As he demonstrates, beliefs about childhood, crime control, race, class, and gender are socially constructed and operate through political processes, which ultimately hurt poor children and especially poor children of color, who are more disenfranchised today than in past generations.