Prevent, Repent, Reform, Revenge: A Study in Adolescent Moral Development, Vol. 30

Prevent, Repent, Reform, Revenge is a study of the aims that people intend to achieve by the sanctions and treatments they recommend for wrongdoers. The book is designed to answer two main questions: What kind of analytical scheme can profitably reveal the nature of people's reasoning about the aims of sanctions they propose for perpetrators of crimes and misdeeds? In the aims that people express what changes in overt moral reasoning patterns appear between later childhood and the early adult years? The authors conducted interviews with 136 youths between the ages of 9 and 21 to find out what sanctions and aims they felt were appropriate in three cases of wrongdoing. The resulting information provides an important insight into adolescent moral development.

Prevent, Repent, Reform, Revenge is a study of the aims that people intend to achieve by the sanctions and treatments they recommend for wrongdoers. The book is designed to answer two main questions: What kind of analytical scheme can profitably reveal the nature of people's reasoning about the aims of sanctions they propose for perpetrators of crimes and misdeeds? In the aims that people express what changes in overt moral reasoning patterns appear between later childhood and the early adult years? The authors conducted interviews with 136 youths between the ages of 9 and 21 to find out what sanctions and aims they felt were appropriate in three cases of wrongdoing. The resulting information provides an important insight into adolescent moral development.

Booknews

Reports on a study to investigate what people between the ages of nine and 21 hope to accomplish by the specific sanctions they would impose on wrongdoers and how their reasoning changes over the course of adolescence. Analyzes videotaped interviews in which 136 young people were asked about what should be done with people who commit three kinds of misdeeds and what they intended to accomplish thereby. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

ANN C. DIVER-STAMNES is an Assistant Professor in the Teacher Preparation Program at Humboldt State University in Arcata, California.

R. MURRAY THOMAS served as a Professor of Educational Psychology for 30 years at the University of California, Santa Barbara, before retiring in 1991.