American juvenile justice /

Zimring (law, Univ. of California, Berkeley), who has very good academic credentials in criminology and criminal justice, appropriately challenges the juvenile justice system by asking what its underlying philosophy is. Though well written, the book does not provide enough detail or cover enough issues to be used as an undergraduate textbook, and the theoretical discussion does not have enough depth for its use as a graduate text. The author's immediate stress on "free choice" comes off as naive, in a sociological sense. Sociological theory would strongly suggest that "free choices" are learned in a sociocultural context and may reasonably lead to choices that are illegal. The volume, also short on social class and gender analysis, seems best placed as a supplementary reader for standard juvenile delinquency and/or juvenile justice texts. Summing Up: Recommended. Undergraduate collections. Lower-division Undergraduates; Upper-division Undergraduates; Two-year Technical Program Students. Reviewed by G. C. Leavitt.