Grisso, Thomas and Schwartz, Robert G., eds. Youth on trial : a developmental perspective on juvenile justice.  The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation series on mental health and development.) Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 2000.

  Written by seventeen different authors with expertise in psychology and law, nearly every chapter of Youth on Trial begins the same way: by decrying the "tough on kids" policies of the past decade, primarily the parts which facilitate the trial of minors in the criminal courts, as adults.

  The first chapter summarizes what can be concluded about the physical, intellectual, psychological and social development of children and adolescents and how they differ from adults. This summary is notable mainly because of its avoidance of firm, unqualified conclusions. In the second chapter, psychological disorders associated with delinquent or criminal behavior are covered. This chapter notably avoids mentioning that the diagnoses are often based primarily upon the delinquent behavior itself, so that "kids in trouble" may be diagnosed with a mental illness largely by virtue of having gotten in trouble. For all the studies cited, the conclusions are few, but the remainder of the book generally proceeds with the assumption, despite the stated lack of evidence, that underage offenders are a different sort of creature from adult offenders, requiring special treatment.

  The book is repetitious: the same cases and histories are explained in chapter after chapter; author after author cites the same studies and explores the same legal and philosophical issues surrounding the concept of maturity. The book is intended for professional "youth workers", and its use of jargon to classify a subset of human beings is frequently off-putting. Occasionally, it is just plain offensive, as when one author, noting the greater proportion of juvenile offenses which occur in groups, comments that "Adolescents are, for the most part, pack animals" (p. 27).

  Some statements are clearly ill-conceived. One author asserts that if the role of the juvenile court and its dispositions may truly be regarded as rehabilitative and helpful, rather than punitive, then no safeguards would be necessary to protect those who might be incapable of understanding their "offense" or their rights in the system; since the system is only there to serve their "best interests", no protection from the system would be required (p. 275-276). But this is certainly not the currently accepted view regarding the adult mental health or residential nursing care systems, which also define their purpose as "treatment" or "assistance", yet require procedural safeguards to protect the rights of those they are "helping", even when - and especially when - those individuals are incapable of adequately representing their own wishes.

  But the citations are useful, and if one wades through, one can find plenty of quotations worthy of inclusion in a term paper or position paper. The "professionals" who co-wrote this volume are not all so far removed from the experience of youth that they interpret everything kids do and say as the result of "immaturity". Several authors cautiously venture that it may be youths' superior understanding of their own status in society and their own prior experiences with authority that cause them to take a different view than adults. For example, regarding studies which show that children - particularly those of minority races - tend to view a "right" as something one has been given permission to do (rather than an entitlement of law, not requiring permission), and defense attorneys as having authority over (rather than advocating for) their clients - perceived by some as an intellectual deficit which hampers them in their role as a defendant in court - one author offers this explanation (p. 245):

Sadly, children's understanding of their rights
appears to be only further confused by their
actual experience with the criminal justice system
.... particularly in the juvenile justice system
... minors are likely to see rampant rights
violations - counsel that is, at best, ineffective
and, at worst, nonexistent; cases in which judges
find against the accused on thin evidence presented
in a procedurally inappropriate manner; and pleas
induced by pressure from the judge. Even a minor
old enough to grasp the concept of a right as an
absolute and irrevocable entitlement may learn ...
a very different, more contingent message about
rights.

  Regarding the cause of delinquent behavior, another author presents the following theory (p. 300-301):

... adolescents strive for elusive autonomy ...
in a context in which most privileges of adult
status are withheld .... youthful antisocial
risk-taking acts are personal statements of
independence by individuals who are not yet
permitted to assume legitimate adult roles.
Desistance in young adulthood is ... the
adaptive response to changed contingencies as
more legitimate adult roles become available.
Delinquent behavior becomes costly rather than
rewarding, as many young adults perceive that it
threatens now available conventional opportunities
and may forclose future goals. In short, they
come to realize that they have something to lose.

  Some statements which seem to support full legal rights for youth are quickly retracted. After stating that "the biggest remaining difference" between the juvenile and adult court systems - the lack of jury trials for those tried as juveniles - may make the juvenile justice system less fair and more difficult to comprehend than the adult system, the author goes on to assure us that the juvenile court is still more "benign" (p. 252). Another author asks why "persons treated as nonadult for all other purposes are ... held to adult standards upon criminal conviction", but goes on to present arguments in support of "staggered ages of majority" (for driving, voting, etc.), as well as "incrementally" increasing levels of presumed responsibility for one's actions, rather than "making all transitions effective upon a single magic birthday" (p. 285-288).

  Overall, Youth on Trial is a rather timid, vacillating book, consistent and forceful only in its outrage at the punitive policies of the current day. The authors would clearly like to see a return to the paternalistic policies upon which the institution of the juvenile court was created, but they fail to provide the clear evidence to demonstrate the superiority of these policies when dealing with kids in trouble.