An American Travesty is the first scholarly book in half a century to analyze the justice system's response to sexual misconduct by children and adolescents in the United States. Writing with a refreshing dose of common sense, Franklin E. Zimring discusses the "American travesty" noted in title--our society's failure to consider the developmental status of adolescent sex offenders. Too often, he argues, the American legal system ignores age and developmental status when adjudicating young sexual offenders, in many cases responding as they would to an adult.

This book is a summary of what we know about adolescent sex offenders, and a much-needed indictment of the legal system's ability to make appropriate decisions concerning young sexual offenders, and a call for specific reforms. Zimring shows that current policy toward young sex offenders is rarely based on facts and is often the result of and false judgments. Assumptions about juvenile sex offenders in current legislation and debate are often based only on the motives and inclinations of adult offenders. But seventy-five years' worth of empirical data show that such assumptions are wrong. After surveying the facts and outlining the additional information needed for rational policy, this book proposes a series of reforms in juvenile and criminal courts as well as sex offender registration laws. As such, An American Travesty's compelling argument will inform policymakers, lawyers, criminologists, psychologist, psychiatrists, social workers, and others trying to address the problem of the young sexual offender.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Foreword
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Part I - The Juvenile Sex Offender
1. Three Case Studies
2. Continuity and Change in American Sex-Crime Policy
3. The Juvenile Sex Offender
4. The Emergence of Juvenile Sex-Offender Treatment
Part II - Principles and Policies
5. The Sex Offender in Juvenile Court
6. Reform in Juvenile Court
7. Registration, Community Notification, and Juvenile Sex Offenders: Resolving Policy Conflicts
Appendix A Statutory Provisions Concerning Indecent Sexual Contact with Minors
Appendix B Topics in Sex-Offender Treatment
Appendix C Research on Sex-Offender Recidivism
References
Index