Degrees
- University of Pennsylvania, B.A.
- University of Minnesota Law School, J.D.
- Harvard University, Ph.D.
Expertise
- Criminal Law
- Criminal Procedure
- Juvenile Justice & Law
- Torts
- Youth & Crime
Professor Barry C. Feld ’69 is a one of the nation's leading scholars of juvenile justice. He currently teaches criminal procedure, juvenile law, torts. In 1990, Professor Feld was named the Law School's first Centennial Professor of Law. He was the Julius E. Davis Professor of Law for 1981-82.
Professor Feld received his B.A. degree from the University of Pennsylvania. He graduated, magna cum laude, from the University of Minnesota Law School, where he was Note and Comment Editor of the Minnesota Law Review and a member of the Order of the Coif. He received his Ph.D. degree in sociology from Harvard University, where he was a Russell Sage Foundation Fellow in Law and the Social Sciences. In 1972, he joined the University of Minnesota Law School faculty. In 1974 and 1978, he served as Assistant Hennepin County Attorney in the Criminal and Juvenile Divisions.
In 1987, Professor Feld was a visiting scholar at the National Center for Juvenile Justice sponsored by the United States Department of Justice Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. He was a Reporter for the American Bar Association-Institute of Judicial Administration Juvenile Justice Standards Project. He has served as a member of the Minnesota Department of Corrections Special Committee on Serious Juvenile Offenders, on the Hennepin County Juvenile Justice Task Force, the Minnesota Supreme Court Advisory Committee on Legal Representation of Juveniles, the Minnesota Juvenile Justice Task Force, as Co-Reporter for the Minnesota Supreme Court's Juvenile Court Rules Advisory Committee, and the American Bar Association's Juvenile Justice Due Process Advisory Board. Professor Feld is a member of the American Law Institute and a Fellow of the American Society of Criminology.
In 2008, he received the American Bar Association's Livingston Hall Award which recognizes "lawyers practicing in the juvenile delinquency field who have demonstrated a high degree of skill, commitment, and professionalism in representing their young clients" (http://www.abanet.org/crimjust/juvjus/livingstonhall.html).
In addition to teaching several times at Uppsala University, Sweden, he has been a Visiting Fellow at the Department of Criminology, University of Melbourne, and the Netherlands Institute for Study of Crime and Law Enforcement (NSCR), Amsterdam, Netherlands.
Books
Juvenile Justice Administration in a Nutshell (West Academic Publishing, 4th ed., 2018; 5th ed., 2023)
Cases and Materials on Juvenile Justice Administration (West Academic Publishing, 5th ed., 2018; 6th ed., 2022)
The Evolution of the Juvenile Court: Race, Politics, and the Criminalizing of Juvenile Justice (New York University Press, 2017)
Juvenile Justice Administration in a Nutshell (Thomson/West Publishing, 1st ed., 2003; 2d ed., 2009; West Academic Publishing, 3d ed., 2014); translated into Chinese (2012)
Cases and Materials on Juvenile Justice Administration (West Group, 2000; 2d ed., 2004; 3d ed., 2009; 4th ed., 2013)
Kids, Cops, and Confessions: Inside the Interrogation Room (New York University Press, 2013) (recipient of the 2015 Outstanding Book Award from the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences)
The Oxford Handbook of Juvenile Crime and Juvenile Justice (Oxford University Press, 2012) (co-editor)
Teacher's Manual to Accompany Cases and Materials on Juvenile Justice Administration (West Publishing, 1st ed., 2000; 2d ed., 2004; 3d ed., 2009)
Bad Kids: Race and the Transformation of the Juvenile Court (Oxford University Press, 1999) (recipient of the 2001 Outstanding Book Award from the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences, and the 2002 Michael J. Hindelang Outstanding Book Award from the American Society of Criminology), reprinted in part in Taking Sides: Clashing Views in Crime and Criminology (Thomas J. Hickey, ed., McGraw-Hill, 9th ed., 2010) and in Principled Sentencing: Readings on Theory and Policy (Andrew von Hirsch, Andrew Ashworth & Julian Roberts, eds., Hart Publishing, 3d ed., 2009)
Readings in Juvenile Justice Administration (Oxford University Press, 1999) (editor)
Justice for Children: The Right to Counsel and the Juvenile Court (Northeastern University Press, 1993)
Law and Society: Sociological Perspectives on Criminal Law (Little, Brown & Company, 1983)
Juvenile Justice Standards Relating to Rights of Minors (American Bar Association - Ballinger Publishing Company, 1980)
Neutralizing Inmate Violence: Juvenile Offenders in Institutions (Ballinger Publishing Company, 1977)
Journal Articles
Race, Rights and the Representation of Children, 69 American University Law Review 743 (2020)
Punishing Kids in Juvenile and Criminal Court, 47 Crime and Justice 417 (2018)
Competence and Culpability: Delinquents in Juvenile Courts, Youths in Criminal Courts, 102 Minnesota Law Review 473 (2017)
My Life in Crime: An Intellectual History of the Juvenile Court, 17 Nevada Law Journal 299 (2017)
Adolescentenstrafrecht. Gaat het wat worden?, 2014/10 Sancties 68 (Apr. 2014) (published in Dutch)
Questioning Gender: Police Interrogation of Delinquent Girls, 49 Wake Forest Law Review 1059 (2014)
Adolescent Criminal Responsibility, Proportionality, and Sentencing Policy: Roper, Graham, Miller/Jackson, and the Youth Discount, 31 Law and Inequality 263 (2013)
Behind Closed Doors: What Really Happens When Cops Question Kids, 23 Cornell Journal of Law & Public Policy 395 (2013)
Real Interrogation: What Actually Happens When Cops Question Kids, 47 Law and Society Review 1 (2013)
The Youth Discount: Old Enough to Do the Crime, Too Young to Do the Time, 11 Ohio State Journal of Criminal Law 107 (2013)
T.L.O. and Redding's Unanswered (Misanswered) Fourth Amendment Questions: Few Rights and Fewer Remedies, 80 Mississippi Law Journal 847 (2011)
The Right to Counsel in Juvenile Court: Law Reform to Deliver Legal Services and Reduce Justice by Geography, 9 Criminology & Public Policy 327 (2010)
The Right to Counsel in Juvenile Court: The Conundrum of Attorneys as an Aggravating Factor at Disposition, 27 Justice Quarterly 713 (2010)
Violent Girls or Relabeled Status Offenders? An Alternative Interpretation of the Data, 55 Crime & Delinquency 241 (2009)
A Slower Form of Death: Implications of Roper v. Simmons for Juveniles Sentenced to Life Without Parole, 22 Notre Dame Journal of Law, Ethics & Public Policy 9 (2008) (lead article, Symposium on Youth and Law)
A Century of Juvenile Justice: A Work in Progress or a Revolution that Failed?, 34 Northern Kentucky Law Review 189 (2007)
Unmitigated Punishment: Adolescent Criminal Responsibility and LWOP Sentences, 10 Journal of Law & Family Studies 11 (2007) (Distinguished Lecture, University of Utah S.J. Quinney College of Law)
Juveniles' Competence to Exercise Miranda Rights: An Empirical Study of Policy and Practice, 91 Minnesota Law Review 26 (2006)
Police Interrogation of Juveniles: An Empirical Study of Policy and Practice, 97 Journal of Criminal Law & Criminology 219 (2006)
Competence, Culpability, and Punishment: Implications of Atkins for Executing and Sentencing Adolescents, 32 Hofstra Law Review 463 (2003)
Race, Politics, and Juvenile Justice: The Warren Court and the Conservative "Backlash", 87 Minnesota Law Review 1447 (2003)
The Constitutional Tension between Apprendi and McKeiver: Sentence Enhancements Based on Delinquency Convictions and the Quality of Justice in Juvenile Courts, 38 Wake Forest Law Review 1111 (2003)
The Politics of Race and Juvenile Justice: The "Due Process Revolution" and the Conservative Reaction, 20 Justice Quarterly 765 (2003)
Race, Youth Violence, and the Changing Jurisprudence of Waiver, 19 Behavioral Sciences & the Law 3 (2001)
The Back-Door to Prison: Waiver Reform, "Blended Sentencing," and the Law of Unintended Consequences, 91 Journal of Criminal Law & Criminology 997 (2001)
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Centennary: Social Structure, Race, and the Transformation of the Juvenile Court, 1 Punishment & Society 187 (1999)
The Honest Politician's Guide to Juvenile Justice in the Twenty-First Century, 564 Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 10 (1999)
The Transformation of the Juvenile Court--Part II: Social Structure, Race, and the "Crack Down" on Youth Crime, 84 Minnesota Law Review 327 (1999)
Juvenile and Criminal Justice Systems' Responses to Youth Violence, 24 Crime and Justice 189 (1998), reprinted in Essential Readings in Juvenile Justice (David Parry, ed., Pearson/Prentice Hall, 2005)
Abolish the Juvenile Court: Youthfulness, Criminal Responsibility, and Sentencing Policy, 88 Journal of Criminal Law & Criminology 68 (1997)
The End of the Line: An Empirical Study of Judicial Waiver, 86 Journal of Criminal Law & Criminology 449 (1996), reprinted in Readings in Juvenile Justice Administration (Barry Feld, ed., Oxford University Press, 1999)
Judicial Waiver Policy and Practice: Persistence, Seriousness and Race, 14 Law and Inequality 73 (1995)
Violent Youth and Public Policy: A Case Study of Juvenile Justice Law Reform, 79 Minnesota Law Review 965 (1995)
Juvenile Justice Swedish-Style: A Rose by Another Name?, 11 Justice Quarterly 625 (1994)
Criminalizing the American Juvenile Court, 17 Crime and Justice 197 (1993), reprinted in Readings in Juvenile Justice Administration (Barry Feld, ed., Oxford University Press, 1999)
Juvenile (In) Justice and the Criminal Court Alternative, 39 Crime & Delinquency 403 (1993), reprinted in The Juvenile Court: Dynamic, Dysfunctional, or Dead? (Center for the Study of Youth Policy, 1993), in Juvenile Delinquency: A Justice Perspective (Ralph Weisheit & Robert Culbertson, eds., Waveland, 4th ed., 2000), in Criminal Courts for the 21st Century (Lisa Stolzenberg & Stewart D'Alessio, eds., Prentice Hall, 1st ed., 1999; 2d ed., 2002), and in Essential Readings in Juvenile Justice (David Parry, ed., Pearson/Prentice Hall, 2005)
Justice by Geography: Urban, Suburban, and Rural Variations in Juvenile Justice Administration, 82 Journal of Criminal Law & Criminology 156 (1991), reprinted in Readings in Juvenile Justice Administration (Barry Feld, ed., Oxford University Press, 1999) and in Essential Readings in Juvenile Justice (David Parry, ed., Pearson/Prentice Hall, 2005)
The Transformation of the Juvenile Court, 75 Minnesota Law Review 691 (1991)
Just Deserts for Juveniles: Punishment v. Treatment and the Difference It Makes, 39-40 International Review of Criminal Policy 81 (1990)
The Punitive Juvenile Court and the Quality of Procedural Justice: Disjunctions Between Rhetoric and Reality, 36 Crime & Delinquency 443 (1990)
Bad Law Makes Hard Cases: Reflections on Teen-Aged Axe-Murderers, Judicial Activism, and Legislative Default, 8 Law and Inequality 1 (1989)
The Right to Counsel in Juvenile Court: An Empirical Study of When Lawyers Appear and the Difference They Make, 79 Journal of Criminal Law & Criminology 1185 (1989), reprinted in Readings in Juvenile Justice Administration (Barry Feld, ed., Oxford University Press, 1999)
In re: Gault Revisited: A Cross-State Comparison of the Right to Counsel in Juvenile Court, 34 Crime & Delinquency 393 (1988), reprinted in Exploring Delinquency: Causes and Control (Dean Rojek & Gary Jensen, eds., Roxbury Publishing Company, 1995) and in Readings in Juvenile Justice Administration (Barry Feld, ed., Oxford University Press, 1999)
The Juvenile Court Meets the Principle of Offense: Punishment, Treatment, and the Difference It Makes, 68 Boston University Law Review 821 (1988), reprinted in Readings in Juvenile Justice Administration (Barry Feld, ed., Oxford University Press, 1999)
The Juvenile Court Meets the Principle of the Offense: Legislative Changes in Juvenile Waiver Statutes, 78 Journal of Criminal Law & Criminology 471 (1987)
Criminalizing Juvenile Justice: Rules of Procedure for the Juvenile Court, 69 Minnesota Law Review 141 (1984), reprinted in Criminal Justice Policy Making: Federal Roles and Processes (Barbara Ann Stolz, ed., Praeger, 2002)
The Decision to Seek Criminal Charges: Just Deserts and the Waiver Decision, 3 Criminal Justice Ethics 27 (1984)
Delinquent Careers and Criminal Policy: Just Deserts and the Waiver Decision, 21 Criminology 195 (1983)
A Comparative Analysis of Organizational Structure and Inmate Subcultures in Institutions for Juvenile Offenders, 27 Crime & Delinquency 336 (1981), reprinted in The Sociology of Juvenile Delinquency (Ronald J. Berger, ed., Nelson-Hall Publishers, 1991) and in Readings in Juvenile Justice Administration (Barry Feld, ed., Oxford University Press, 1999)
Juvenile Court Legislative Reform and the Serious Young Offender: Dismantling the "Rehabilitative Ideal", 65 Minnesota Law Review 167 (1981)
Legislative Policies Toward the Serious Juvenile Offender: On the Virtues of Automatic Adulthood, 27 Crime & Delinquency 497 (1981)
Reference of Juvenile Offenders for Adult Prosecution: The Legislative Alternative to Asking Unanswerable Questions, 62 Minnesota Law Review 515 (1978)
Police Violence and Protest, 55 Minnesota Law Review 731 (1971)
Reasonable Rules, Reasonably Enforced: Guidelines for University Disciplinary Proceedings, 53 Minnesota Law Review 301 (1968) (note)
Book Chapters
Race, Politics, and the Criminalizing of Juvenile Justice: Changing Conceptions of Adolescents’ Competence and Culpability, in Criminal Justice Theory: Explanation and Effects (Cecilia Chouhy, Joshua C. Cochran & Cheryl Lero Jonson, eds., Routledge, 2020)Â
Juvenile Justice, in Reforming Criminal Justice—Introduction and Criminalization (Erik Luna, ed., Academy for Justice, 2017)
"The Worst of Both Worlds": Adolescent Competence and the Quality of Justice in Juvenile Courts as a Prescription for Wrongful Convictions, in Examining Wrongful Convictions: Stepping Back, Moving Forward (Allison D. Redlich, James R. Acker, Robert J. Norris & Catherine L. Bonventure, eds., Carolina Academic Press, 2014)
Cops and Kids in the Interrogation Room, in Investigative Interviewing (Ray Bull, ed., Springer, 2014)
Juveniles' Competence and Procedural Rights in Juvenile Court, in Juvenile Justice Sourcebook (Wesley T. Church II, David W. Springer & Albert R. Roberts, eds., Oxford University Press, 2d ed., 2014)
Adolescent Competence and Culpability: Implications of Neuroscience for Juvenile Justice Administration, in A Primer on Criminal Law and Neuroscience: A Contribution of the Law and Neuroscience Project, Supported by the MacArthur Foundation (Stephen J. Morse & Adina L. Roskies, eds., Oxford University Press, 2013)
Procedural Rights in Juvenile Courts: Competence and Consequences, in The Oxford Handbook of Juvenile Crime and Juvenile Justice (Barry C. Feld & Donna M. Bishop, eds., Oxford University Press, 2012)
Transfer of Juveniles to Criminal Court, in The Oxford Handbook of Juvenile Crime and Juvenile Justice (Barry C. Feld & Donna M. Bishop, eds., Oxford University Press, 2012)
Trends in Juvenile Justice Policy and Practice, in The Oxford Handbook of Juvenile Crime and Juvenile Justice (Barry C. Feld & Donna M. Bishop, eds., Oxford University Press, 2012)
Young Offenders and an Effective Justice System Response: What Happens, What Should Happen, and What We Need to Know, in From Juvenile Delinquency to Adult Crime: Criminal Careers, Justice Policy, and Prevention (Rolf Loeber & David P. Farrington, eds., Oxford University Press, 2012)
The Juvenile Court: Competing Images of Adolescents' Competence and Culpability, in The Oxford Handbook of Crime and Criminal Justice (Michael Tonry, ed., Oxford University Press, 2011)
In Defense of Waiver and Youthfulness as a Mitigating Factor in Sentencing, in Contemporary Issues in Criminal Justice Policy: Policy Proposals from the American Society of Criminology Conference (Natasha A. Frost, Joshua D. Freilich & Todd R. Clear, eds., Wadsworth, Cengage Learning, 2010.
Girls in the Juvenile Justice System, in The Delinquent Girl 225 (Margaret A. Zahn, ed., Temple University Press, 2009)
The Inherent Tension of Social Welfare and Criminal Social Control: Policy Lessons From the American Juvenile Court Experience, in Juvenile Law Violators, Human Rights, and the Development of New Juvenile Justice Systems (Eric Jensen & Jørgen Jepsen, eds., Hart Publishing, 2006)
Race and the Changing Jurisprudence of Juvenile Justice: A Tale in Two Parts, 1950-2000, in Our Children, Their Children: Confronting Racial and Ethnic Differences in American Juvenile Justice (Darnell Hawkins & Kimberly Kempf-Leonard, eds., University of Chicago Press, 2005)
Juveniles' Waiver of Legal Rights: Confessions, Miranda, and the Right to Counsel, in Youth on Trial: A Developmental Perspective on Juvenile Justice (Thomas Grisso & Robert Schwartz, eds., University of Chicago Press, 2000)
Legislative Exclusion of Offenses from Juvenile Court Jurisdiction: A History and Critique, in The Changing Borders of Juvenile Justice: Transfer of Adolescents to the Criminal Court 83 (Jeffrey Fagan & Franklin Zimring, eds., University of Chicago Press, 2000)
The Juvenile Court, in Handbook of Justice Research in Law (Joseph Sanders & V. Lee Hamilton, eds., Kluwer Academic / Plenum Publishers, 2000)
Rehabilitation, Retribution, and Restorative Justice: Alternative Conceptions of the Juvenile Court, in Restorative Juvenile Justice: Repairing the Harm of Youth Crime (Lode Walgrave & Gordon Bazemore, eds., Criminal Justice Press, 1999)
The Juvenile Court, in The Handbook of Crime & Punishment (Michael Tonry, ed., Oxford University Press, 1998)
The Social Context of Juvenile Justice Administration: Racial Disparities in an Urban Juvenile Court, in Minorities in Juvenile Justice (Kimberly Kempf-Leonard, Carl Pope & William Feyerherm, eds., Sage Publications, 1995)
Criminalizing the Juvenile Court: A Juvenile Justice Research Agenda for the 1990's, in Juvenile Justice and Public Policy: Toward a National Agenda (Ira Schwartz, ed., Maxwell Macmillan International, 1992)
Documents and Reports
Causes and Correlates of Girls' Delinquency (U.S. Dept. of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, 2010)
Violence by Teenage Girls: Trends and Context (U.S. Dept. of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, 2008), edited, excerpted and augmented version published in Gangs: Violence, Crime and Antigang Initiatives (Jay T. Soordhas, ed., Nova Science Publishers, 2009)
The Right to Counsel in Juvenile Court:
Fulfilling Gault's Promise (Center for the Study of Youth Policy, University of Michigan, School of Social Work; Center for the Study of Youth Policy, Florida Atlantic University, 1989)
Book Reviews
Book Review, 23 Contemporary Sociology 710 (1994) (reviewing Barry Krisberg & James S. Austin, Reinventing Juvenile Justice (Sage Publications, 1993))
Book Review, 26 Sociology 91 (1988) (reviewing Victor L. Streib, Death Penalty for Juveniles (Indiana University Press, 1987))
Entries in Reference Works
Juvenile Justice, in Encyclopedia of the Supreme Court of the United States (David Tannehaus, editor in chief, MacMillan Reference USA, 2008)
Juveniles in the Adult System, in Encyclopedia of Crime & Justice (Joshua Dressler, editor in chief, Macmillan Reference USA, 2d ed., 2002)
The Juvenile Court: History and Philosophy, in Encyclopedia of Crime & Justice (Joshua Dressler, editor in chief, Macmillan Reference USA, 2d ed., 2002)
Other Publications
Juvenile Transfer, 3 Criminology & Public Policy 599 (2004) (editorial introduction)
Abolish the Juvenile Court: Affirming Personal Responsibility, 2 Juvenile Justice Update 1 (1996)
Youth Crime and Juvenile Justice Policy, Minnesota Law Alumni News 16 (1996)
Violent Youth and Public Policy: Minnesota Juvenile Justice Task Force and 1994 Legislative Reform, 64 Hennepin Lawyer 20 (1994)
The Legal Responses to the "Hard-core" Juvenile--The Offender or the Offense?, in The Serious Juvenile Offender: Proceedings of a National Symposium Held in Minneapolis, Minnesota on September 19 and 20, 1977 (National Office of Social Responsibility, ed., Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, Law Enforcement Assistance Administration, U.S. Dept. of Justice, 1978)