Author Description

Why has youth crime been increasing in the developing countries, and how well have their juvenile justice systems coped with this trend? This anthology profiles delinquency rates and juvenile justice systems in China, India, Japan, Macao, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Thailand and Turkey. Each nation's distinctive response to youth crime is described in the contexts of: a) its indigenous culture and customary law, and b) its historical encounters with external legal traditions, including common law, civil law, Islamic law, socialist law, and Asian philosophies. The authors link the growth of juvenile crime in the developing world to the emerging cultural emphases on individualism and materialism, which are viewed as byproducts of modernization. The editors' introduction also highlights commonalities and differences among the profiled juvenile justice systems, including their levels of compliance with international standards for juvenile justice.