Legal Lexicon, Social Labeling, and Juvenile Justice.

One of 52 theoretical papers on school crime and its relation to poverty, this chapter maintains that social labeling is a pervasive and necessary social phenomenon. However, inaccurate social labeling plagues contemporary juvenile justice systems. Relevant examples include legal adjudication categories such as status offender, persons in need of supervision, children in need of supervision, and juveniles in need of supervision. The only way to make the juvenile justice system effective is to develop accurate social labeling, establish a behaviorally discrete legal lexicon, and provide appropriate social services based on precise, valid, and time-limited social labels. (Author/MLF)