Youth and Crime

This textbook is a 'must have' for any course which examines the developments around young people and crime. It is a helpful and insightful read which supports student learning and critical understanding of the key theories, issues, debates and controversies in this area of study. It is written in an engaging way which, along with the helpful summary boxes and study questions, means that it is an accessible companion text for students on a large variety of criminology, sociology and youth focused modules. This new edition makes important links to more recent literature on developments in this field of study, meaning that this textbook remains a key book for anyone studying or teaching in this area.

Long-established as the most authoritative text on young people, crime and criminal justice, the new edition of John Muncie’s Youth and Crime is everything we have come to expect. Historically-informed, theoretically-engaged, full of empirical detail, and with a scholar’s critical eye for the placing major developments within their wider political, social and economic context. And all delivered in a style which neither simplifies nor over-complicates. No other book on the subject comes close.

The 5th edition of John Muncie's Youth and Crime is an important resource for lecturers, students, as well as criminal justice practitioners. The legacy of John Muncie’s work is underpinned by a text that is accessible, informative, and more importantly, relevant for exploring and examining the complex and messy nature of youth crime. In this expanded edition, there are welcome new additions giving the overall feel of the text a fresh appeal, whilst at the same responding to the shifting nature of ‘youth crime’ internationally. John Muncie has proven yet again, that positioned texts such as the 5th edition of Youth and Crime is a key driver that dovetails itself within the understanding of the wider criminal justice system.

John Muncie’s Youth and Crime is an excellent and comprehensive analysis of youth justice. The fifth edition is updated and expanded with a new dedicated section on policing and risk management. This is a theoretically sophisticated and empirically grounded book. It confronts essential issues so often missing in books on youth justice including (to name only a few examples), climate justice, global justice, comparative youth justice, child slavery, trafficking and refugees. This is a cutting-edge work for students, academics and practitioners alike. Chris Cunneen, University of Technology Sydney.

This edition of Youth and Crime includes new material and takes the depth and scope of key debates about the shape and direction of youth justice still further. The book is a tour de force in terms of its coverage of patterns of crime committed by young people, responses to youth crime, theories regarding youth crime, and policy and practice developments both nationally and comparatively, drawing on international developments to highlight some of the fault-lines within conceptions of ‘the youth crime problem’ within the UK and to introduce new visions. Above all, the book prompts critical scrutiny of assumptions and governmental actions. Informed by the latest research in the field, this is an authoritative and accessible book; it is a fantastic teaching and learning resource.

This new edition reaffirms the book’s position as the go-to-text for a critical understanding of all aspects of youth and crime. Professor Muncie covers many perspectives – criminological, cultural, historical, political, and sociological, in an accessible style and comprehensive manner. The extended/new sections on developmental and life course theories, and policing, prevention and risk management, along with other key updates, ensure it remains an essential resource for anyone interested in this important sphere of criminology.

 John Muncie’s text reasserts the core contradictions at the heart of the interconnected issues of youth and crime and does so in an engaging and accessible way. This well-constructed and thoughtful book continues to be the leading text for students, researchers and academics’ alike studying this complex area. This new edition succeeds in the difficult task of improving an already exceptional textbook.

John Muncie is a leading international researcher in the related fields of youth criminology and youth justice studies and Youth and Crime goes a long way towards setting the agenda. The unique balance between authoritative scholarship and accessibility makes the book a vital resource for researcher, teacher and student alike. In fact, it is almost impossible to imagine engaging with the study of young people, crime and criminalisation without reading Muncie’s remarkable text.