Young Blood: Juvenile Justice and the Death Penalty [Hardcover]

Shirley Dicks (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1995

This work features writings by death-row inmates, family members of victims and perpetrators, religious and political figures, journalists, criminologists, and legal experts, along with information on programs designed to help young people who have gone astray. Intimate personal accounts reveal the fear and regret of death-row inmates as well as the horror and anxiety of their loved ones. In one moving chapter, a mother speaks candidly about the murder of her daughter and how she feels toward the murderer. Alternately grief-stricken and angry, she concludes that it is up to every citizen to play a part in helping our troubled children before they grow up to become gun-toting hoodlums. The book advocates rehabilitation programs, a new national emphasis on broken families and the problems of youth, child care for single mothers, and an overhaul of the juvenile-justice system. Dicks calls for a distinction between justice and revenge, and offers a provocative, wrenching, yet realistic look at a problem that threatens the future of our society.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 295 pages
• Publisher: Prometheus Books (December 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0879759534
• ISBN-13: 978-0879759537
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,730,492 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I was born and raised in Concord, NH and moved south back in the 70s, ending up in TN. With four kids, I lived in NC for a few years until moving to middle Tn and began to write.

My first three books were bought by McFarland co, called, Death Row, Victims, and From Vietnam To Hell. Next, I sold Young Blood and Congregation of the Condemned by Prometheus Books and New Horizon Press took They're Going To Kill My Son which was my life story. However they changed things, names and all so eventually I rewrote it, brought it up to date and began to self publish my own books, called, A Mothers Torment, www.amotherstorment.com

I self published The Choice Is Yours, A Long Road Home, The Devil's Playground, and There IS Life After Fifty. McFarland is now republishing my first three books that had gone out of print and now I'm putting them up as ebooks.


Now that I'm in my seventies, I'm trying to learn photography now in order to do some travel articles with photos. Also working on two non fiction books plus a romance.

My oldest son Jeff Dicks was killed in 1999 due to medical neglect and I lost my youngest son Trevor Dicks who spoke out on the death penalty issue with me at schools and colleges, due to a car crash. I adopted Jeff's daughter when she was born and she's now in her thirties with three beautiful children of her own.

I try to keep busy with my writing, my photography, spending time with my three beautiful great grandchildren, crocheting and anything I can do.

Will be adding my books as ebooks in the near future