Monica Barry is a senior research fellow at the Glasgow School of Social Work, and an honorary senior research fellow at the Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Research. She is author of Youth Offending in Transition: The Search for Social Recognition and editor of Youth Policy and Social Inclusion: Critical Debates with Young People, both published by Routledge. Fergus McNeill is Professor of Criminology & Social Work at the Glasgow School of Social Work, a joint initiative of the Universities of Glasgow and Strathclyde, and Network Leader at the Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Research at the University of Glasgow. He is co-author of Reducing Reoffending: Social Work and Community Justice in Scotland, published by Willan.

• Part One: Youth Offending and Youth Justice in Context. Chapter 1. Introduction. Monica Barry and Fergus McNeill, both of the Universities of Glasgow and Strathclyde, UK. Chapter 2. The Changing Landscape of Youth and Youth Crime. Sheila Brown, University of Plymouth, UK. Chapter 3. Criminal Careers and Young People. Susan McVie, University of Edinburgh, UK. Chapter 4. Children and Young People: Criminalisation and Punishment. Rod Morgan, University of Bristol, UK. Chapter 5. Youth Justice Policy and its Influence on Desistance From Crime. Monica Barry. Chapter 6. Youth, Crime and Punitive Public Opinion: Hopes and Fears for the Next Generation. Shadd Maruna, Queens University Belfast, UK and Anna King, Rutgers University, USA. Part Two: Youth Offending and Youth Justice in Practice. Chapter 7. Beyond Risk Assessment: The Return of Repressive Welfarism? Jo Phoenix, University of Durham, UK. Chapter 8. Supervising Young Offenders: What Works and What's Right? Fergus McNeill. Chapter 9. Incarcerating Young People: The Impact of Custodial 'Care'. Mark Halsey, Flinders University, Adelaide, Australia and James Armitage, Attorney-General's Department, Australian Government. Chapter 10. Doing Youth Justice: Beyond Boundaries? Anna Souhami, University of Edinburgh, UK. Chapter 11. Conclusions. Monica Barry and Fergus McNeill. The Contributors. Subject index. Author index.

This is an excellent text in every possible regard... The editors gave little in the way of guidance as to what they were expecting - a brave (or foolish) course of action that could have led to a unfocused piece (or a great deal of re-writting) but has resulted in an excellent, coherent, insightful addition to the growing body of critical literature surrounding youth offending and youth justice. This slim volume is up there with the best works in this field.