“This heartbreakingly beautiful book troubles the terrain, unforgettably challenging our stereotypes of ‘bad girls’ who become delinquent. Sprott and Doob persuasively make the case that the justice system treats girls differently, and that the treatment—for those who enter the system—is unfair, damaging, and unsuccessful. But they also present a remarkably hopeful constellation of opportunities to do less harm.”

Bernardine Dohrn, Northwestern University School of Law

“Sprott and Doob use historical data, transnational comparisons, and analysis of differences across age to explode the myth that serious offending has increased among girls and to document the complexities of the last century of status offender reforms in the United States and Canada. The authors painstakingly unearth veins of promising approaches in both countries that should be mined by policymakers and practitioners who are concerned with treating girls fairly and justly.”

Robert G. Schwartz, executive director, Juvenile Law Center

“An impressive piece of work. Comparisons of crime and justice in Canada and the United States are notoriously difficult, but this book makes it look easy. I put it down to the authors’ meticulous analyses of statistics, always alert to their pitfalls, and to their grasp of the larger themes, which transcend national boundaries. I found particularly interesting and enlightening their argument that administrative offenses are the new incarnation of the supposedly abandoned status offenses, and, as such, represent a subtle or not-so-subtle form of discrimination against girls.”--Peter Carrington, University of Waterloo

Peter Carrington