The Child Savers: The Invention of Delinquency (Critical Issues in Crime and Society)

About this book

Hailed as a definitive analytical and historical study of the juvenile justice system this 40th anniversary edition of The Child Savers features a new essay by Anthony M. Platt that highlights recent directions in the field as well as a critique of his original text. Focusing on social reformers of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries Platts principal argument is that the "child savers" movement was not an effort to liberate and dignify youth but instead a punitive and intrusive attempt to control the lives of working-class urban adolescents. This expanded edition provides a renewed and distinguished contribution by placing it in historical context through insightful commentaries from cross-disciplinary academics along with an essay by Miroslava Chvez-Garca examining how Platts influential study has impacted many of the central arguments social scientists and historians face today.