Includes bibliographical references and index

Reforming juvenile justice / Barry Krisberg -- Juvenile offenders must be granted due process rights under the Fourteenth Amendment : the Supreme Court's decision / Abe Fortas -- Juvenile criminal proceedings should restore focus on minors' due process rights by returning to standards set in In re Gault / Benjamin E. Friedman -- Neither the Sixth nor Fourteenth Amendment guarantees a juvenile offender the right to a trial by jury : the Supreme Court's decision / Harry Blackman -- The withholding of jury trials from juvenile offenders is outdated in a more punitive juvenile justice system / Katherine Hunt Federle -- Juveniles should be tried as adults when they have committed violent crimes / Linda J. Collier -- Juveniles should not be tried or sentenced as adults / Patrick T. McCormick -- The mother of a son incarcerated in an adult prison tells why the system fails young people : personal narrative / Tracey McClard -- Rates of juvenile incarceration should be reduced / Richard A. Mendel -- A woman who spent time in a youth detention facility recounts the poor treatment she received there : personal narrative / Rachel Carrin -- Juveniles should not be exempted from the death penalty as a group, but judged on an individual basis / Dan Cutrer -- Sentencing a juvenile offender to the death penalty violates the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments : the Supreme Court's decision / Anthony Kennedy -- Minors should be sentenced to life in prison without parole under certain circumstances / Scott D. Makar -- It Is unconstitutional to sentence minors to life in prison without parole for crimes less than homicide : the Supreme Court's decision / Anthony Kennedy -- A prisoner explains how he has grown to understand the significance of crime : personal narrative / James Earl Jackson -- A mother of a murder victim argues that minors should not be sentenced to life without parole : personal narrative / Linda L. White -- The sister of a murder victim urges legislators not to abolish the life without parole sentence for juvenile murderers : personal narrative / Bobbi Jamriska.

Examines the laws and working of the justice system in relationship to juvenile offenders.