Boy With a Knife

June 15, 2016

This riveting account of youthful crime and punishment evolves into an unlikely success story. In 1993, 16-year-old Karter Kane Reed killed a student in a Massachusetts high school and was sentenced to life in an adult prison. Details of his offense, background, and 20-year flow through the criminal justice system, including a prison stint with his own father, are recounted chronologically. A stern critique of the transfer process, whereby juvenile offenders are treated as adults, underlies the narrative. Trounstine, a teacher and writer (Shakespeare Behind Bars), argues that the "superpredator" idea of radical criminality spawned in the 1990s encouraged the spread of this practice, which endangers young offenders and hampers rehabilitation without making society safer. The book relies on letters between Trounstine and Reed as well as court information and personal encounters. Relevant research findings, legal decisions, and statistics skillfully support the case study materials. Reed's own moving epilog and status update concludes the well-crafted volume. Like Damien Echols's Life After Death, this book will appeal to readers drawn to the drama and complexity of the criminal justice system. VERDICT A timely examination of American juvenile justice as exemplified in the "scared straight" story of one youth's survival and redemption.--Antoinette Brinkman, formerly with Southwest Indiana Mental Health Ctr. Lib., Evansville

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