Punished

Rios's book is a valuable contribution to the field because it is an interdisciplinary work that addresses fundamental and ongoing concepts of juvenile delinquency and gang participation. ~Madeleine Novich, Criminal Law and Criminal Justice Book Review

This is a well overdue and important contribution to our understanding of urban street youth and gangs. Rios turns the table on traditional gang researchers by showing how the process of criminalization and the youth control complex is biased against young boys of color. ~Diego Vigil,author of The Projects: Gang and Non-Gang Families in East Los Angeles

With Punished, Rios joins an expanding cadre of social scientists who lament the directions that juvenile justice has taken in the United States in recent decades. He argues that in an era when the Unites States has achieved world-record levels of incarceration, of you people as well as adults, the widespread adoption of severe, hastily adopted get-tough-on-crime policies of the 1980s and 1990s has gone hand in hand with the vilification and persecution of black and Latino youths. ~Peter Monaghan, The Chronicle Review

This analysis gives great context to the lives of career criminals.Rios work suggests that people drop out, commit crimes, and adapt themselves to a & fugitive life because they are unable to find an institution that grants them the acknowledgment and dignity that they are systematically denied. ~Du Bois Review

Accessible, engaging and thought provoking,Punishedpresents unique data and compelling analytical insights, opening what should prove to be a fruitful line of research. For this reason and other reasonsthis important book is a worthwhile read for anyone within or outside the academy who is looking to understand the punitive turn in American society from the perspective of those who are most heavily policed, punished and criminalized. ~Social Forces