A Year In The Life Of Juvenile Court

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Critical Book Review of No Matter How Loud I Shout by Edward Humes: A Year in the Life of

Juvenile Court

This book portrays the account of seven children who had their involvement with the

juvenile system. These children are; Elias Elizondo, George, Geri Vance, Ronald Duncan, Carla

James, and Andre. Carla, John, and Andre endured the system and ended up joining college. The

rest are not exceptionally fruitful as the get detained. Judge Don is a judge in the juvenile court

system and had all the earmarks of being agreeable to keeping the adolescent framework. He had

enormous arrangements for improving the framework. He saw that the reason for this framework

was to connect with children who carry out a wrongdoing before they get the chance to the final

turning point. Peggy was a deputy district attorney. He had no confidence in the juvenile system

as she saw it as an exceptionally merciful framework that empowered people to get away with

juvenile delinquency (Humes 12). The paper below discusses the contribution of the book to the

existing knowledge about juvenile delinquency and juvenile justice system. It discusses the main

theme of the author, the problem he is responding to, the purpose, and the audience of the book.

The paper also discussed the similarities and distinctions of the topics discussed in class with those

discussed in the book and the strengths and weaknesses of the book and provides an opinion of the

book.

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The book exposes the weaknesses of the juvenile system that include lack of enough

funding, bureaucracy, and conflict. We also know that the staff at the juvenile system above had

different opinions and hence they were not corporative in carrying out justice for the juveniles.

They book also enables the Americans, stakeholders and anyone else concerned for the welfare of

the justice system to weigh down options on its viability and usefulness towards making the

juveniles become better youth with great futures as well as reducing crime in America. The options

are based on ideologies of the three different members of the juvenile system (Morgan et al., 112).

The book provides us with the necessary information and possible solutions to be used when

making changes or abolishing the juvenile justice system.

The main theme of the author is the presence of dysfunctional juvenile justice system. The

whole purpose of No Matter How Loud I Shout is to show the degree of dysfunction in the juvenile

justice system. The juvenile justice system is underfunded, structures are incapacitated, and the

workplaces of the public defenders, judges, and lead prosecutors are all understaffed. The quantity

of juvenile delinquents continually expanded in the system that would not grow. There are

insufficient correctional facilities, insufficient detention facilities, foster families, insufficient cops

and group homes. Everybody has their thoughts regarding how to settle the mess in the system and

they often conflict. Unreasonable cases wind up plainly open shock, government officials exploit

the unpopularity of the system, and afterward, laws are passed that do no great and regularly

compound the situation. There is the lack of cooperation in solving the cases for the juveniles.

The author is responding to the challenge of poor leadership. Poor leadership has led to the

fall of so many leaders and systems such as the juvenile justice system. The author believes that if

this issue is resolved, then the challenges facing the juvenile justice system will be solved. There

are poor leaders in the justice system such as the judge's office, DA office, and public defender’s

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office were rigid and ought to be more flexible and coherent to solve challenges in the system. He

also felt that there was poor leadership from the government in making laws that are more

accommodative and flexible in different cases. Also, he felt the government exhibited poor

leadership by failing to allocate proper funding for the judicial system.

The purpose of the book is to alert the public of the mess in the juvenile justice system.

The author believes that this mess has led to the loss of relevance of the system as it does not serve

the actual purpose it was intended to- correct juvenile delinquents to make their future lives better

and to prevent crime in the society. The author also wants to point out the sources of failures in

the system that include insufficient funding from the government, unnecessary bureaucracy in the

system and conflict within the system. Finally, the book provides alternative opinions that would

be useful in making a decision on the viability of the system by its intended purposes.

The author wrote the book to expose the rot in the system and to create public awareness

on the challenges of delivering justice for the delinquents who have committed wrongs in the

society. The author exposes the mess in the system such as poor justice delivered to the juveniles,

and it significantly affects their lives. The author feels that justice in the system is not delivered

right because some suffer from the consequence of poor judgments in it is evident the case of

Duncan who killed two people days before his sixteenth birthday but was only tried in the juvenile

court instead of a criminal court and feels he got away with a crime. It is also evident in the cases

of George, Geri, and Elias whom he feels that the law was a bit harsh on them and the punishments

were more than necessary (Lacey 77). The author exposes challenges facing the system and the

causes of these challenges.

The larger audience of the author is the general public. He feels that the American people

need to know the challenges and state of the juvenile justice system and determine its viability of

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the justice system. It should also know the state of the justice systems and its impacts to the

performances of the staff and the effectiveness to the society (Ford et al. 31). The author also

targets the government as an audience and wants to know how it has contributed to the fall of the

justice system and the initiation of possible measures to assess the viability of the juvenile justice

system about its intended purposes and measures to be taken by the government to ensure justice

reigns.

The author discusses the topics of leadership in the book, a topic discussed earlier in class.

He also discusses new subjects such as justice, fairness, delinquency, and adjudication. In the

books, there is ideal leadership and management of the system whereas in the book he talks about

a dysfunctional justice system (Lacey 78). In class, we discussed the fairness of the adjudication

process, but the book discusses the topic as a lacking fairness. In class, we discussed the methods

of rehabilitating of those juveniles found delinquent whereas in the book they face many

challenges and lack rehabilitation facilities for effective rehabilitation. In class, the process of

adjudication follows some strict rules and procedures whereas in the paper it does not follow

standard measures. The book has its strengths in the fact that can express the weaknesses of the

juvenile justice system in the country, create public awareness of the juvenile justice system and

promote integrity in the system.

This book has changed my opinion on juvenile delinquency where I feel the system serves

less important purposes to the society. The standards that are followed in declaring a juvenile

delinquent. I always thought the standards followed in delivering justice were right but I realized

that they do not apply to several special cases of crime committed such as murder as in the case of

Duncan where he evades justice whereas in some cases such as George they were victims of the

harsh law. My reservations are that the juvenile justice system should be abolished as it does not

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serve the initial purpose intended for –rehabilitate juveniles to make them better citizens and

reduce the crime rate in the society.

In conclusion, the book reviews the lives of seven children who are found delinquent by

the juvenile justice system with some being adjudicated by the adult court. The book focuses on

the mess in the juvenile justice system in the USA. The book exposes the weaknesses of the system

and suggests the possible failure of the system being bureaucracy, conflict and insufficient funding.

The main theme discussed by the author is a dysfunctional juvenile justice system and relates the

topics and subjects discussed in class in relation to those discussed in the book. The author wrote

the books to expose the rot in the juvenile justice system and create awareness to the public and

the government on the viability of the juvenile courts and system. In my opinion, I feel that juvenile

courts should be abolished as they no longer fulfill their duties.

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Work Cited

Ford, Julian D., et al. "Psychosocial interventions for traumatized youth in the juvenile justice

system: Research, evidence base, and clinical/legal challenges." Journal of Juvenile

Justice 5.1 (2016): 31.

Humes, Edward. No matter how loud I shout: A year in the life of juvenile court. Simon and

Schuster, 2015.

Lacey, Clinton. "Racial disparities and the juvenile justice system: A legacy of trauma." Los

Angeles, CA, and Durham, NC: National Center for Child Traumatic Stress (2013).

Morgan, Emily, et al. "The school discipline consensus report: Strategies from the field to keep

students engaged in school and out of the juvenile justice system." The Council of State

Governments Justice Center: June 4 (2014): 112.

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