Glossary
A
abandonment: the permanent desertion of a child; an acceptable practice from the fourth to the thirteenth centuries when a child was an economic burden to a household.
abuse: any nonaccidental infliction of injury that seriously impairs a child’s physical or mental health.
adjudication: the process of determining whether there is enough evidence to find a youth to be a delinquent, a status offender, or a dependent.
affective interventions: an approach to drug use prevention that focuses attention on the individual in order to build self-esteem, self-awareness, and feelings of self-worth.
aftercare: mandatory programming for youths after release from training schools or other placements, similar to parole in adult courts.
apprenticeship: a situation in which one is bound by indenture to serve another for a prescribed period with a view to learning an art or trade.
anomie: Emil Durkheim’s concept of the state of normlessness in society.
atavistic: a term describing ape-like physical qualities of the head and body that were supposed by Cesare Lombroso to be indicative of the individual’s developmental state.
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD): disorder characterized by being persistently disruptive, acting impulsively, easily frustrated, experiencing wide mood swings, and acting inappropriately
avoidance: a common reaction to actual or potential victimization in which an individual stays away from particular locations where or individuals by whom victimization is anticipated.
B
balanced approach: a recent approach in juvenile corrections that places emphasis on the offender, the victim, and community safety. One aim is to restore the victim and the community, as much as possible, to his or her pre-crime status.
behavior modification: a therapeutic approach based on the work of B.F. Skinner and Hans J. Eysenck that entails the use of reinforcements to increase the probability of desired behaviors and a lack of reinforcement, or punishment stimuli, to decrease the probability of undesirable behaviors.
biosociology: also known as sociobiology, the idea that the biological makeup of the organism and the surrounding environment are intimately related.
blended sentencing: a development in juvenile justice in which either the juvenile court or the adult court imposes a sentence that can involve either the juvenile or the adult correctional system or both.
bond to society (also called social bond): in Travis Hirschi’s control theory, the connections an individual has to the social order; the four elements of the bond are attachment, commitment, involvement, and belief.
boot camp: a short-term program that resembles basic military training by emphasizing physical training and discipline; boot camps often include educational and rehabilitative components.
Boston Gun Project: a project that targeted firearms use by gangs by using a “pulling levers” (zero-tolerance) approach.
Breaking the Cycle (BTC) program: a program that seeks to identify offenders with substance abuse problems early in their system processing, assess the appropriate treatment needs of the offender, and establish an integrated set of interventions (sanction, treatment, and rewards) for the individual.
Bridewell Institution: early English institution to handle youthful beggars.
“broken windows” policing: policing strategies based on the belief that signs of urban decay, such as broken windows, in a neighborhood serve to make the neighborhood more conducive to crime and more fear-inducing; police attend to both crime and disorder.
C
capital punishment: the death penalty. The Supreme Court recently ruled that capital punishment is unconstitutional for juveniles.
Chancery Court: a body concerned with property matters in feudal England; responsible for overseeing the financial affairs of orphaned juveniles who were not yet capable of handling their own matters.
Chicago School: a perspective explaining deviance as the natural outgrowth of the location in which it occurs; named for the work performed by social scientists at the University of Chicago.
child maltreatment: a variety of actions in which children are harmed, either intentionally or unintentionally.
child protective services: a state’s method of handling child abuse cases; usually responsible for accepting and investigating reports of abuse and neglect and for removing children from potential or actual abusive situations.
child saver: Anthony Platt’s term for a person involved in the development of the juvenile court during the Progressive Era.
Children’s Advocacy Center (CAC): an umbrella organization, independent of the criminal justice system, that brings together child protective services workers, law enforcement officers, the prosecutor’s office, educators, mental health counselors, and medical personnel in an effort to provide a coordinated response and seamless service delivery to maltreated children
Civil abatement: procedures to control or eliminate locations that gang members frequent or own.
Classicism: a school of thought that sees humankind as having free will, that is, humans calculate the pros and cons of an activity before choosing what to do (compare to Positivism).
collective efficacy: the empowerment of the community to do something about problems (e.g., crime).
common-sense corrections: the use of various types of wilderness programs, ranging from relatively short stays in outdoor settings to long wagon train or ocean ship trips.
community group conferencing (CGC): a strategy involving the community of people most affected by the crime in deciding the resolution of a criminal or delinquent act. It is much like family group conferencing, except that it includes a broader set of support groups and community members; see family group conferencing.
community justice: an approach to justice that focuses on helping community residents manage their own affairs, solve their own problems, and live together effectively and safely.
community policing: problem-oriented policing that relies on input from the public to define problems and establish police policy.
community service: the practice of having offenders perform unpaid work for government or private agencies as payment for crimes without personal victims.
Community-Wide Approach to Gang Prevention, Intervention, and Suppression Program: a program aimed to initiate a comprehensive set of strategies: mobilizing communities, providing youths with opportunities, suppressing gang violence, providing social intervention (services) and street outreach, and facilitating organizational change and development in community agencies.
concerned adult role: a role assumed by some attorneys in juvenile cases in which the attorney acts as a “concerned adult” rather than a zealous advocate, sometimes encouraging youths to admit to petitions in cases in which an adversarial approach may have resulted in a dismissal of the petition.
concordance: similarity among groups in a study.
conflict resolution programs: programs in which the most important element is teaching youths alternative methods for resolving conflicts before they occur.
consent search: a search in which a defendant voluntarily allows the police to search person or effects without a search warrant.
containment theory: Walter Reckless’s social control theory holding that behavior is controlled through outer containment (influences of family, peers, etc.) and inner containment (strengths within an individual), working in opposition to external pushes, external pressures, and external pulls.
corporal punishment: physical punishment.
cottage system: a training school design that attempts to simulate home life more closely than would a prison-like institution; it divides the larger prison into smaller “cottages” for living.
Court-Appointed Special Advocate (CASA): a voluntary advocate for children in child abuse and neglect cases.
criminalized juvenile court: a suggested reform of juvenile court that advocates providing juveniles with all the procedural protections of adult criminal court and offering reduced penalties for juvenile offenders.
culture conflict: the conflict resulting when one set of cultural or subcultural practices necessitates violating the norms of a coexisting culture.
cycle of violence: the idea that a child who is abused or who witnesses abuse will grow up to be an abuser.
D
dark figure of crime: crimes that are unreported to the police.
day-evening center: a detention alternative in which a center was formed to devote time to formal education and remedial and tutorial work in the day and recreational programs in the evening.
deadly force: police actions that have the potential to cause the death of the offender.
deinstitutionalization: the practice of avoiding any involuntary residential placements of status offenders; also, the general idea of removing any youths from institutional control.
delinquency: in general, conduct that subjects a juvenile individual to the jurisdiction of the juvenile court (for more on the various definitions comprised under this term, see Chapter 1).
detached worker program: a program designed to place system workers into the environment of the gang.
detention decision: the decision whether to keep a juvenile in custody or to allow the youth to go home while awaiting further court action.
determinism: a theory or doctrine holding that acts of the will, occurrences in nature, and social or psychological phenomena are causally determined by preceding events or natural laws.
detoxification: a treatment approach that attempts to remove an individual from an addiction by weaning him or her off drugs.
developmental theories: theories that explain the changes and stability that characterize the trajectory of an individual’s behavior or time.
differential association: Edwin Sutherland’s theory suggesting that criminal behavior is learned when an individual encounters an excess of definitions favoring deviant definitions over those that conform to the law.
differential identification: a concept proposing that personal association is not always necessary for the transmission of behavioral cues; fictional presentations provide information concerning acceptable behavior.
differential reinforcement: a theory that proposes that an individual can learn from a variety of sources, both social and nonsocial, and that the differing levels of reinforcement received will help shape future behavior.
disposition: the process of determining what intervention to give a juvenile offender upon his or her adjudication as a delinquent.
disproportionate minority contact: the fact that minority youths are more likely to be arrested or adjudicated delinquent compared to their proportion of the population.
dispute resolution: bringing together adversarial parties in an attempt to arrive at a mutually agreeable solution.
diversion: attempting to find alternative forms of dealing with problem youths outside of normal system processing.
divestiture: elimination of juvenile court jurisdiction over status offenses.
domestic relations court: a civil court devoted to issues involved in divorce, child support, and related matters.
dopamine: hormone thatacts in the opposite way from serotonin; higher dopamine levels result in greater action and pleasure-seeking behaviors; aggression is similarly enhanced from higher dopamine levels in the body
dowry: the money, goods, or estate that a woman would bring to her husband in marriage.
drift: the concept that individuals are pushed and pulled toward different modes of activity at different times in their lives (that is, a person can “drift” in and out of crime).
Drug Abuse Resistance Education (D.A.R.E.) program: a school-based, police-taught program aimed at elementary students that attempts to reduce drug use by focusing on enhancing the social skills of the individual.
drug courts: specialized courts that attempt to help drug offenders stop using drugs by providing services and judicial supervision.
Due Process Period: period from 1967 to the early 1980s when due process was emphasized in juvenile proceedings.
E
ecological fallacy: the fallacy of attributing results based on grouped data to the individual level.
ecological perspective: an approach that seeks to explain deviance as a natural outgrowth of the location in which it occurs.
effectiveness: whether interventions have an impact on any measure of the crime problem.
ego: in Freudian theory, the social identity of an individual; actual behavior; conscious activity.
elaboration model: a perspective that takes components of various theories in order to construct a single explanation that incorporates the best parts of the individual theories.
emphasis on status offenses: a focus on status offenses such as truancy; see status offense.
enhancement model: a model of the delinquency–gang relationship that strikes a middle ground in which gangs recruit delinquency-prone youths and enhance their deviance.
epinephrine: hormone that increases adrenaline; influences fight or flight reactions
exchange theory: a theory that proceeds from the assumption that equal reciprocity is a cornerstone of social interaction. Parties to a confrontation (such as an offense and subsequent restorative justice program) seek to establish a balance in the relationship.
external pressures: poverty, unemployment, inequality
external pulls: deviant peers, subcultures, media
F
family court: a court designated to deal with family matters.
family group conferencing (FGC): a strategy involving the community of people most affected by the crime in deciding the resolution of a criminal or delinquent act.
focal concerns: the concerns designated by Walter Miller to represent the cultural values of the lower class; they include, trouble, toughness, smartness, excitement, fate, and autonomy.
foray: an attack, usually by two or three youths, upon one or more rival gang members (e.g., a drive-by shooting).
free will: the tenet that people choose to act the way that they do after calculating the pros and cons of an activity.
freedom of speech: the right to speak freely without censorship or limitation; for students, the Supreme Court has ruled that the right of free speech is to be balanced with the school’s interest in education and discipline.
G
gang: in general, a group that exhibits characteristics that set them apart from other affiliations of juveniles, often involved in deviant activity (for more on the various definitions comprised under this term, see Chapter 5).
Gang Resistance Education and Training (G.R.E.A.T.) Program: a program operated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives in which local police officers present a curriculum to middle-school children designed to induce them to resist the pressure to join a gang.
ganging: the process of developing gangs.
gatekeeper role: means that police officers exercise considerable discretion with juveniles and are often the ones who decide whether a juvenile is processed in the juvenile justice system or not.
general strain theory: Robert Agnew’s theory positing that the removal of valued stimuli or the presentation of negative stimuli can lead to strain and, perhaps, deviance.
generic control theory: a theory that proposes that control can come from several sources that vary over time and situation; four categories of control mechanisms are bonding, unfolding, modeling, and constraining.
goal confusion: the state of affairs in which judges, probation and aftercare officers, probation directors, state legislators, juvenile justice experts, and others in the system disagree about the objectives of juvenile court and community supervision.
graduated licensing: a strategy in which young drivers acquire on-the-road driving experience in lower-risk settings, then learning time is increased and drivers are gradually introduced to more difficult driving situations; they “graduate” to greater driving responsibility as they master the previous steps.
group hazard hypothesis: a contention that delinquency committed in groups has a greater chance of being detected and acted upon by the juvenile and criminal justice systems.
guardian ad litem: an individual appointed by the court to serve as an advocate for a child in a child abuse or neglect case (also see Court-Appointed Special Advocate).
H
hedonistic calculus: the belief that individuals seek to maximize pleasure.
home detention: programs that supervise juveniles at home instead of in custody while they are awaiting further court action.
houses of refuge: early institutions for children that were designed to separate the youths from the detrimental environment of the city.
hybrid gangs: gangs that are mixed racially or ethnically or gangs whose members may belong to more than one gang.
I
I-levels: See interpersonal maturity levels.
in camera testimony: testimony given outside the courtroom, often used for the testimony of children in abuse and neglect cases.
id: in Freudian theory, unconscious desires, drives, instincts.
incidence: how many times something (e.g., a drug) was used.
Index crime: an offense included in Part I of the Uniform Crime Reports. The eight crimes included are murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny, motor vehicle theft, and arson.
infanticide: the deliberate killing of young children, a common practice prior to the fourth century when a child was an economic burden to a household.
informal adjustment: informal handling of an offense without the filing of a petition (e.g., a probation intake officer orders the payment of restitution).
inmate code: a group of peer norms or a code of behavior among inmates that may or may not conflict with the norms expected by treatment professionals and correctional staff.
inner containment: direct control over the individual from inside sources.
institutional life: refers to the demands of daily life in institutions such as detention centers and state training schools where all aspects of life are regulated. Inmates typically make adjustments to such institutions that often work against the objectives of staff.
intake decision: the decision whether to file a court petition of delinquent, status offense, abuse or dependency.
intelligence quotient (IQ): a test, developed by Alfred Binet, that provides a numerical representation of the mental ability of an individual [the formula is IQ=(mental age/chronological age) x 100].
internal pushes: restlessness, discontent, anxiety
Interpersonal Maturity Levels (I-levels): developed by Sullivan et al., the seven levels that reflect the progressive development of social and interpersonal skills.
interstitial areas: areas that are deteriorating and in a state of disorganization.
intraindividual theory: in explanations of child maltreatment, a theory that views child maltreatment as an internal defect of the abuser.
involuntary servitude: selling or trading a youth to another for service.
J
jurisdiction over status offenders: the juvenile court’s prerogative to exercise control over juveniles who have committed status offenses (e.g., disobedient, runaway, and truant adolescents); see status offense.