NO MATTER HOW LOUD I SHOUT : A Year in the Life of Juvenile Court (Paperback)

~ (Author) "THE first thing you learn about this place," Deputy District Attorney Peggy Beckstrand says as she conducts a brief tour of the battered juvenile courthouse..." (more)
Key Phrases: fitness motion, fitness hearing, fitness law, Los Angeles, Peggy Beckstrand, Ronald Duncan (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

This is one powerful book: it will grab you with vivid stories about individual kids, draw you in with honesty and compassion, and amaze you with alarming details about how the juvenile justice system works (or rather, doesn't work) in America. Anyone interested in the problem of crime should read Edward Humes's gripping account of how future criminals are shaped in youth, and how the system misses its chance to help them before they're lost for good. As Richard Bernstein writes in the New York Times, "There are many admirable things about Mr. Humes's book, which, despite its grim subject matter, has a narrative power that keeps you reading right to the end. One of them is that Mr. Humes is a shrewd and perceptive observer of his young subjects ... [and he] allows himself to feel sympathy for the young people whose lives and crimes he describes.... At the same time, Mr. Humes never exonerates bad children for their badness." No Matter How Loud I Shout was a finalist for the 1997 Edgar Award in Fact Crime.

From Publishers Weekly

After being granted access by court order to a system that is usually closed to the public, Pulitzer prize-winning journalist Humes (Buried Secrets) spent 1994 surveying the largely futile attempts of Los Angeles to deal with its juvenile crime. He concentrates here on a few who have not let themselves be overwhelmed by the deluge of defendants-80,000 cases are pending at any given time: Judge Roosevelt Dorn, who is also a clergyman; Deputy DA Peggy Beckstrand, who finally leaves the system to work on adult cases; Probation Officer Sharon Stegall, who tries to cope with the insurmountable burden of supervising 200 juveniles; Shery Gold, a public defender who also wants to move to adult courts. Humes follows closely the cases of seven young people who were caught up in the system, three of whom have been saved by it?maybe. First serial to Glamour and L.A. Magazine.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster (May 7, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0684811952
• ISBN-13: 978-0684811956
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (27 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #77,570 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars there has to be a better way, January 19, 2001

By A Customer

This is the quintessential book for me. All I can say is that everyone and no one is responsible for the plight of kids like "George Trevino". His impossible situation haunted me, surfacing raw emotions. Why do we turn our backs on kids like this? We need to find an answer fast before we transform conscientious orphans into delinquents whose only dominant emotion is hate. Where is George now? Has he given up on the system yet? I hope not. Every time I think of his disadvantaged life I need an easy culprit to lay the blame on, when in reality I should be holding the person in the mirror accountable...

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Powerful, haunting, and illuminating, June 21, 2001

By	julia bulkowski (Morgan Hill, CA USA) - See all my reviews

I read this book for a history of child welfare class and found it impossible to put down. Humes clearly illustrates the problems with the U.S. Juvenile Justice system in Los Angeles. He follows several teen-agers through their trials, mis-trials, time in the California Youth Authority, and rehabilitation. Even though these children are often convicted, you have a chance to see that they really are just children. This book inspired me to pursue a career in juvenile justice.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the best I've read, February 1, 2001

By	"jrkirk0" (Down In the Park) - See all my reviews

I read this book for my sociology class. It was the best I've read. The stories of these kids are so involving and twisted that you wonder if this is book is fiction. This gives such insight to the problems of todays juveniles and how the court system fails them repeatedly and how the kids fail themself. Truly sad and yet reminding us how cold life can be and how fortunate some of us actually are relative to these kids. Although you can read this book in a few hours, it's still worth having on your shelf. This book is part indictment of the system and part spotlight on the troubles ahead for us all if it's not corrected.