Juvenile delinquency and young offender: Bibliographical and bibliometric review of two perspectives of study

Nowadays, interest in dissocial and criminal behavior among young people keeps high. However, this interest dates back to over 60 years before the inclusion of Juvenile Delinquency (JD) in American Psychological Association's Thesaurus. The present review recovers journal articles included in the database PsycINFO and provides a descriptive analysis of the production over a century. An analysis of contents was developed using three different criteria: reviewing articles written by the most prolific authors; using the major descriptors assigned by PsycINFO to these publications; and classificating ad hoc articles by several judges. Comparing the periods 1947-57 and 1997-2007 we confirmed the progression from theoretical approaches to empirical studies as well as the change in focus from social class to contexts of intervention (school, family and community). However, those outcomes showed clearly the need to develop new initiatives which allow the classification of the enormous amount of information related to JD issued each year. We discuss the suitability of the term JD in the Spanish social and legal context, proposing as a possible substitute Menor Infractor (Young Offender).