Delinquency and Juvenile Justice:
An International Bibliography

Edited by Clayton A. Hartjen and S. Priyadarsini
Westport, Connecticut: Praeger Publishers, 2004

Delinquency and Juvenile Justice is an annotated international bibliography, which features a compilation of works, published from 1975 to 2001, on the subjects of youth crime, delinquency, official responses to youth crime, and juvenile justice. The collection of pieces is mainly comprised of scholarly research, literature from academic journals, and government reports.

The bibliography is divided into two themes: “Behavior” and “Justice”. Hartjen and Priyadarsini explain why the bibliography was separated into two broad categories. They write, the categories correspond to the “two dominant concerns of the discipline – the study of criminal/delinquent behavior and the study of the administration and effects of criminal/juvenile justice” (2004:2). References are listed in alphabetical order by country and subsequently alphabetically by author. There are a variety of countries represented in both categories of the bibliography. The countries that produce an extensive amount of literature, such as Australia, Canada, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and the United States are more heavily represented than others.

At the end of each section, there is an alphabetical listing of multi-national literature on behaviour or youth justice. For each piece of literature there is a brief annotation which explains the content and focus of the reference. Hartjen and Priyadarsini describe the annotations, “they are not meant to be fully descriptive of the publication and should only be used as guides for locating publications of particular interest to users” (2004:2). As a result, the annotations are not extensive abstracts of the literature; however, they can be used as a reference guide in deciding whether one chooses to obtain the full abstract and/or article.

While Delinquency and Juvenile Justice is an international bibliography, it would be beyond the capabilities of this author to accurately assess and critique the literature included in each listing by country. It is, however, valuable to evaluate the Canadian content included in the bibliography. Hartjen and Priyadarsini include an extensive list of references by Canadian authors, which also includes literature that appeared in Canadian journals but were not necessarily written by Canadian authors (e.g. David P. Farrington (1989), “Implications Of Longitudinal Studies For Social Prevention” which was published in the Canadian Journal of Criminology). Unfortunately, the criterion to include a piece is not made clear to the reader. Are works included based on the country of origin where the study or country-identifiable theoretical argument takes place? Or is it based on the journal’s national affiliation?

I also found it difficult to search for a reference on a specific topic because the bibliography has been separated into the two themes of “Behavior” and “Justice”. It may have been more practical for readers had Hartjen and Priyadarsini further broken down each theme. For example, the category “Justice” could be separated into the following categories: corrections, the police, the courts, probation, gender, race, etc.. Finally, the list of references does not extend beyond anything published after 2001, and as a result key pieces of literature published after this year are not included.

The compilation of works included in Delinquency and Juvenile Justice is a useful reference guide for anyone interested in research on youth crime/delinquency and juvenile justice. This bibliography is not only useful for those looking to examine research done in Canada but also for those who want to examine research that has been done in other countries for over a quarter-century. The annotations are far from detailed but they are not intended to provide an in-depth abstract of every included piece. The annotations Hartjen and Priyadarsini have created are, however, functional for acquiring the main focus of the publication and for further research or inquiry. I would especially recommend this international annotated bibliography to students and to those who desire to know more about what research has been done in other countries.