Ages of Anxiety

Six compelling histories of youth crime in the twentieth century Ages of Anxiety presents six case studies of juvenile justice policy in the twentieth century from around the world, adding context to the urgent and international conversation about youth, crime, and justice. By focusing on magistrates, social workers, probation and police officers, and youth themselves, editors William S. Bush and David S. Tanenhaus highlight the role of ordinary people as meaningful and consequential historical actors. After providing an international perspective on the social history of ideas about how children are different from adults, the contributors explain why those differences should matter for the administration of justice. They examine how reformers used the idea of modernization to build and legitimize juvenile justice systems in Europe and Mexico, and present histories of policing and punishing youth crime. Ages of Anxiety introduces a new theoretical model for interpreting historical research to demonstrate the usefulness of social histories of children and youth for policy analysis and decision-making in the twenty-first century. Shedding new light on the substantive aims of the juvenile court, the book is a historically informed perspective on the critical topic of youth, crime, and justice.

This well-integrated book of readings focuses on the development of juvenile justice policy from an international social history perspective … The writing style for most of the chapters is complex but within the grasp of undergraduate students at most universities. The book is well referenced and adequately indexed. Most of the contributors are recognized as well qualified to speak on the material that they present. This book is recommended for libraries serving departments of history, criminology, criminal justice, psychology, social work, or sociology that seek to offer expanded holdings., Focusing on magistrates, social workers, probation and police officers, and youth themselves, contributors to Bush and Tanenhaus’s volume highlight the role of ordinary people as meaningful and consequential historical actors through a presentation of six case studies of juvenile justice policy in the twentieth century from around the world., Ages of Anxiety continues the opening of a field that has woefully neglected comparative questions, both within countries including the United States, and especially worldwide. Moving beyond the U.S. case gives a breath of fresh air to research, teaching, public policy and social practice, and will be vital to addressing the actual and interconnected global crises of juvenile injustice.

William S. Bush is Associate Professor of History at Texas A&M University-San Antonio. He is the author of Who Gets a Childhood?: Race and Juvenile Justice in Twentieth Century Texas and Circuit Riders for Mental Health. David S. Tanenhaus is Professor of History and James E. Rogers Professor of History and Law at the William S. Boyd School of Law, University of Nevada, Las Vegas. He is the author of The Constitutional Rights of Children and Juvenile Justice in the Making. He is also co-editor, with Franklin Zimring, of the series Youth, Crime, and Justice for NYU Press.