This text is one of three books in the Criminal Justice Case Briefs series, each of which provides a summary and analysis of leading cases in a particular area of criminal justice: criminal procedure law, corrections law, or juvenile law. Craig Hemmens is the lead author on all three books; there is a different set of coauthors on each book, all of whom are experts in their respective areas.
Easily accessible to undergraduates, each volume has the same basic outline and format, which is neither exclusively casebook nor textbook. The purely casebook approach is not always appropriate for undergraduates, whose primary focus is learning the law, not how to think like a lawyer. Therefore, these books present briefs (or summaries) of the opinions, along with analyses and explanations, instead of the actual opinions themselves. This allows instructors to use the books as either supplements or as main, stand-alone texts. The volumes also include less background and extraneous material than most textbooks; the cases are presented in a context, with relevant commentary, which allows students to better understand the significance of the legal holdings, explains the Court’s holdings, and places each case in context with the Court’s other decisions.
Criminal Justice Case Briefs: Significant Cases in Juvenile Justice is comprehensive in its treatment of juvenile law, covering all of the major cases in the area. It features a list of cases, in alphabetical order and grouped by topic; briefs of each case, arranged by topic; a short introduction to each topic, intended to put the cases into context and provide some unity; and an index.