DESCRIPTION: This upper-level undergraduate course examines the experiences of African Americans in U.S. juvenile justice systems, both as subjects and agents of juvenile social control, from the mid-19th century to the present. The focus of the seminar is juvenile justice administration, with an emphasis on delinquency case processing, not delinquent behavior. Major emphasis is given to the conceptual and institutional evolution of "juvenile justice," and their application in the handling of black children and within black community contexts. Key developments explored in the course are: the early “child-saving” movement and exclusion of black children from its rehabilitative initiatives, the role of African Americans in the development and transformation of U.S. juvenile justice systems, and the radical reorganization of juvenile justice in the last half of the 20th century.

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