| Review | Journal of Social History, 40.3

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| Review | Journal of Social History, 40.3 | The History Cooperative

REVIEWS

Juvenile Justice in the Making. By David S. Tanenhaus (New York: Oxford University Press, 2004. xxx plus 231 pp.).
For decades juvenile justice historians have searched for the long-lost case files of the Cook County Juvenile Court in Chicago, hoping the confidential records would reveal some of the secrets of this complex institution. Scholars have been able to examine America's first juvenile court from most every angle except that of the clients, the putative subject of social and legal historians. Now David Tanenhaus has completed the history of Chicago juvenile justice. In addition to explaining the motives of reformers, the drafting of the law, and the jostling among city agencies, Tanenhaus uses case file information to show the innovative nature of the juvenile court in order to take us back to a time when the court's future was uncertain.	1
In Juvenile Justice in the Making, David Tanenhaus argues that, although the problems of the juvenile justice system may look entrenched now, the reforms at the turn of the last century resulted from a series of compromises between many organizations. He counters the belief that inherent contradictions between the social justice and coercive goals of juvenile court advocates doomed this (or indeed, any) attempt at doing good for kids through the justice system. Instead, says Tanenhaus, reformers were aware of these contradictions at the inception of their project, but were forced to make compromises within existing social networks and institutions, thereby diluting their original intent.	. . .

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