"My husband and I always joked a lot about our sons. One of our sons was easily influenced by the threat of punishment. He would pretty much do anything to not receive a time-out. He is still our gentle giant. Our other son was unconcerned by punishment, or maybe it is better to say that punishment never changed his behavior, he hated to be punished, but he also didn't shy away from it. I loved to watch these two kids and wonder what their futures would hold. Would they be into theater? And sports? Would they love school, like I did? Or rather spend all day outside talking each other into jumping off the roof of the house like my husband and his brother did? Would they come out the other side of their teenage years happy and healthy, with a strong dose of empathy for their fellow human beings? One of the things I wondered most about my kids was whether they would engage in delinquency- or actually, more to the point, whether they would be caught and end up in the juvenile justice system. As you will see (and as you know, if you have ever been a teenager), almost everyone engages in some form of juvenile delinquency, or status offense, or ends up being a victim of it. As the mother of two amazing children, this scares the heck out of me and at the same time makes me certain that the study of juvenile delinquency and our societal responses to it is one of the most important academic endeavors a sociologist, a criminologist, or you, an undergraduate student, faces. I have taught juvenile delinquency for over 2 decades. I never tire of the opportunity to explore this topic with undergraduates, but I have always wished that there were a text more dedicated to diversity that made central discussions of race, class, gender, and sexuality issues (or, in many instances, an acknowledgment of the lack of research in these areas). Enter my colleague and friend, Richelle Swan. The two of us wrote this book. And throughout the text you will see examples and stories that come from our lives and scenarios based on the lives of others. This textbook is written from a critical perspective. It offers several innovative features that set it apart from other textbooks on the market. First, it offers a systematic critical understanding of juvenile delinquency, focusing on issues of race, class, and gender. Second, it substantively links theories of delinquency not only to existing public policies but also to existing community programs that focus on a critical response to juvenile delinquency and social control. And, finally, it guides you, the student, to explore the diversity in your own community and what this means for juvenile delinquency and social control where you live"--