Overview
During the last quarter of the twentieth century, a conservative reform movement took hold that quickly came to dominate the national debate over juvenile justice policy. Legislators in virtually every state enacted punitive legislation that challenged foundational principles of the juvenile justice system and, for a time, appeared to threaten its continuation. This entry considers this “Get Tough Era” in juvenile justice – the factors that brought it about, the changes it introduced, and its legacy for the future.
In order to appreciate just how radical a departure the contemporary Get Tough movement represents, it is helpful to recount a bit of history.
Juvenile Court and the Progressive Era: A separate justice system for juveniles took shape over the course of the nineteenth century and came to fruition in 1899 with the founding of the juvenile court in Cook County (Chicago), Illinois. Beginning in about 1820, industrialization, urbanization, and immigration transformed...
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Bishop, D.M., Feld, B.C. (2014). Juvenile Justice in the Get Tough Era. In: Bruinsma, G., Weisburd, D. (eds) Encyclopedia of Criminology and Criminal Justice. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-5690-2_81
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