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J ■% * FACTS ABOUT JUVENILE DELINQUENCY ITS PREVENTION AND T R E A T M E N T / * A bbo tt H . T h a y e r . C ourtesy of F reer G allery of A rt Sm ithsonian In stitu tio n jw Publication No. 215 United States Department of Labor ■ k ^ ‘ 1 U ? - .7 https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Children’s Bureau 1932 https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF LABOR W. N. DOAK, Secretary CHILDREN’S BUREAU GRACE ABBOTT. Chief FACTS ABOUT JUVENILE DELINQUENCY ITS PREVENTION AND TREATMENT 3» Bureau Publication No. 215 UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE WASHINGTON : 193 For sa*e by the Superintendent of Documents. Washington. D. C. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Price 10 cents https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis CONTENTS Foreword_______________________________________________________ General statement of the problem___________________________________ Nature and extent of juvenile delinquency____________________________ Extent of juvenile delinquency___________ __________________ __ Trend of juvenile delinquency__________ !_______________________ Nature of juvenile delinquency_________________________________ Causes of juvenile delinquency______________ Preventive programs_______________________________________________ Education of public opinion__________________________ Assistance to parents in dealing with early behavior problems______ Social work in the schools________j ________________________ Community influences and leisure-time activities___________ Spirit of the community_________________________________________ The treatment of delinquency.________________________________ The police_____________ The juvenile court__________________________________________ Agencies and institutions caring for delinquent children____________ National, State, and local cooperation in the development of local re sources___________________________________________________ ra https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Page IV 1 4 4 5 7 7 10 iq 11 17 21 25 28 29 30 37 42 FOREWORD Juvenile delinquency has become the subject of widespread public interest. With the rapidly growing concern about crime and law lessness in general have come recognition of the fact that crime often has its beginnings in the delinquencies of children and a desire for more scientific information on which to base community programs of prevention and treatment. The present publication has been prepared by the Children’s Bureau in response to numerous requests for a nontechnical outline of what the citizen needs to know about the prevention and treatment of juvenile delinquency. Designed to replace the briefer outline formerly issued by the bureau in mimeographed form under the title Community Resources for Dealing with Conduct Problems of Children, the aim of the present bulletin is to present, in easily available form, something of the newer philosophy in regard to the whole problem of delinquency which has grown out of the studies and findings of the delinquency committee of the White House Con ference on Child Health and Protection. Extensive use has been made of the committee’s report, The Delinquent Child, to which grateful acknowledgment is given. IV https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis FACTS ABOUT JUVENILE DELINQUENCY GENERAL STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM Somewhere in the neighborhood of 100 years ago a 12-year-old boy was sentenced to death in London. Inexorable justice, as con ceived in that day, took account of the law and the crime and ignored the age and circumstances of the offender. The sentiment of human pity was not wanting, however, and the reporter indulged in verse to describe the heart-rending scene: When he was sentenced at the bar, The court was drowned in tears, To see a child so soon cut off All in his tender years. Public opinion gradually prevailed against a system which made little or no distinction in the treatment of children and adults when guilty of the same offenses and sought a more constructive method of dealing with young delinquents. The old concept that justice could be done only when all persons committing the same offense were treated alike was abandoned in the treatment of children for the newer idea that justice could be achieved only when all were treated differently. In theory, for the juvenile at least, justice had had her eyes unbandaged. The end of the century which saw young children executed for what would now be regarded as trivial offenses, both in Europe and in the United States, witnessed the advent of the juvenile court, based on the principle of individualized treatment, of saving instead of punishing the child. The attempt to give to each individual the treatment demanded by the particular circumstances involved an attempt to know, to understand the delinquent, and to modify those influences in his environment that were held responsible for his delinquency. Thus there developed, first, resources for social in vestigation and probation, and later the psychiatric or childguidance clinic. The present-day treatment of juvenile delinquency represents great progress over the past, but it is still far from adequate, even with the availability of all the knowledge acquired by modern scien tific research. That practice has not kept pace with theory is indi- https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 2 FACTS ABOUT JUVENILE DELINQUENCY cated by the following description of conditions to-day contained in the report of the delinquency committee of the White House Conference on Child Health and Protection: The aims of the last generation have profoundly influenced the treatment of juvenile delinquency, and the present-day emphasis on scientific study of the child as a basis for understanding and dealing with his problems has received widespread theoretical acceptance. Nevertheless, the treatment of the delinquent child still frequently violates the principles of humanitarianism and is characterized by the “ common-sense ” or “ trial-and-error ” policy, rather than by scientific consideration of the causes of his failure to conform to the requirements of society. There are still widespread, inadequate school pro cedures for dealing with truancy and behavior problems; unnecessary arrests; detention in police stations and ja ils ; juvenile courts, presided over by poorly paid judges not especially prepared or selected for children’s work and with out the services of an adequate number of qualified probation officers; absence of psychiatric services; inadequate facilities for foster-home or institutional care; absence of an effective parole system ; more important than all, lack of a well-rounded and coordinated community program for the development of constructive, wholesome interests and the early study and guidance of children presenting problems of behavior and personality. The knowledge we now have is actually applied in only a few communities and even there to comparatively small numbers of children. Moreover, even under the most favorable conditions, we need far more understanding than we now possess of the causes of delin quency and the conditions under which it may be ameliorated.1 Through its various subcommittees the delinquency committee of the conference studied the delinquent himself and the delinquent in relation to his family, his school, his church, to industry, to com munity agencies, groups, and influences, and to organized legal au thority. In its report the committee sought to present a new point of view toward delinquency rather than detailed discussion of methods of dealing with the delinquent. This new point of view calls upon the general public to abandon the practice of finding fault, of laying blame, and to recognize the fact that the causes of delinquency are natural and universal, that the problems of the delinquent child are the problems of all children, and that his social needs—the need for security in his home life, in the affection of his parents and companions, and the need for recognition, experimenta tion, new experience, and achievement—are as real as his physical needs for food and warmth. The committee classified these needs tentatively as the need for security and the need for growth—needs which are universal not only in children but also in adults and in social institutions such as the family, the school, the church, and the State. In the words of Dr. Janies S. Plant, who had a large share in formulating the report, “ I t is precisely as the individual with his life to lead meets the more rigid, the more fixed, the more 1 The Delinquent Child (report of the delinquency committee of Section IV, The Handicapped: Prevention, Maintenance, Protection), p. 22. White House Conference on Child Health and Protection. Century Co., New York, 1932. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis ^ GENERAL STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM 3 dominant needs of the institutions which surround him that stress arises, that tension arises, maladjustment and delinquency.” The past generation took a great step forward in the treatment of juvenile delinquency, but the present generation faces problems which the simpler civilization of an older day never knew. The machine age, with its emphasis on speed, which has permeated almost every phase of social living, has created a new environment, in which the child faces dangers and temptations that make solution of the problem more difficult. It is more than ever necessary to study the delinquent not only as an individual but as an integral part of his environment: His family, his school, his church, his job, and all the influences of his community. Responsibility must be placed upon the adult and society, and the entire social group must cooperate in the attempt to deal with the delinquent and to surround all children with those influences which will help to build up in them the strength to meet the stress and strain and complexities of modern life. (The problem of delinquency is not a superficial blemish which can be removed with ease. I t is an indication of weakness and malad justment in the whole social organism. We can not hope that it will be eliminated in this generation or the next. Conditions of modern v^|r living may even tend to increase it. But this generation may make important contributions to its solution by continued scientific re search in problems and methods of treatment, by education of the general public in the nature, causes, and extent of delinquency, and by the mobilization and practical utilization of those resources which every community can and should possess not only for the treatment of the delinquent child but for assistance to parents, teachers, and child-welfare organizations in the wholesome training and education of children to the end that much unnecessary delinquency may be prevented^) SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER READING The Child, the Clinic, and the Court (New Republic (Inc.), New York, 1925), pp. 5-16. White House Conference on Child Health and Protection: The Delinquent Child (Century Co., New York, 1932), pp. 3-15. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis NATURE AND EXTENT OF JUVENILE DELINQUENCY The term “ delinquents ” in the past has been generally applied to those children whose misconduct has caused them to be dealt with by the courts. It is, however, largely a matter of chance and of fam ily and social resources whether a child “ gets by ” without coming in contact with legal authority; whether he is dealt with by attend ance officer, visiting teacher, child-guidance clinic, or the police, without reference to the court; and whether, once in court, he is dismissed, placed on probation, or committed to an institution. The definition of the term adopted in the report of the delinquency committee of the White House Conference was that “ delinquency is any such juvenile misconduct as might be dealt with under the law.” EXTENT OF JUVENILE DELINQUENCY Children who come before the courts. The delinquency committee of the White House Conference esti mated, on the basis of the best statistics available, that about 200,000 different children yearly pass before the courts on delinquency charges. In the area for which Children’s Bureau figures are avail able, it is estimated that approximately 1 child in every 100 of juvenile-court age comes before the courts as delinquent in the course of a year. The problem is therefore a serious one numerically. Children who do not come before the courts. Many children whose conduct is such as to bring them into con flict with the law never come to court. Many delinquencies which, if committed in a city, would come to the attention of the authorities are overlooked in rural districts. Although delinquency is consid ered to be primarily a city problem, studies that have been made show that it is a serious problem in rural communities also. It is doubtless true that many children of the well-to-do are saved from coming before the courts because their families have greater re sources and are. often able to obtain special care for their children, whereas children of the poor are more likely to be referred to court or committed to institutions when they develop serious behavior problems. Only a very small proportion of the school children who present problems of personality and behavior come to the juvenile court. For example, in one middle-western city the school-attendance de https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis NATURE AND EXTENT OF JUVENILE DELINQUENCY 5 partment in one year handled 583 special cases, of which only 82 were taken to court. In a western city 1,430 cases involving such problems as truancy, morals, and insubordination were investigated by the school department during a period of four months, and only 116 cases were referred to the juvenile court. In a third city in one .year the attendance department dealt with 2,799 truancy cases and 921 juvenile offenders,” but only 134 children were referred to the juvenile court. The visiting teachers who are now at work in many communities are dealing with numerous problems of behavior and social maladjustment among school children. Many cases handled by police departments are not referred to juvenile courts. The New York City Crime Prevention Bureau dealt with 9,846 cases during 1931. Of that number 4,791 were “ new cases of social treatment.” The number of juveniles referred to court was 128. In Los Angeles during the fiscal year ended June 30, 1931, out of 5,203 juvenile arrests, only 3,477 were turned over to juvenile court, probation officer, or other legal authorities. The boy who is a disturbing element on the street, in playgrounds, and in other public places; who is careless, destructive, noisy, per haps a “ gang ” leader, perhaps a loafer, may get into the juvenile court, but more often he does not, even though his type contributes almost one-third of the boys’ cases handled by the court. TREND OF JUVENILE DELINQUENCY No one can state with certainty whether juvenile delinquency as known to police and courts is increasing or decreasing, because of the absence of reliable and comprehensive data over a period of years. Clearly, however, such statistics as are available show no uniform and alarming tendency to increased juvenile delinquency and youth ful ci ime. Agitation about u youth and the crime wave ” is peren nial but for the most part is without factual foundation. The longest series of figures relate to juvenile delinquents in insti tutions. From 1880 to 1923 these figures were compiled by the Bureau of the Census at intervals of approximately 10 years. Differ ences in methods of taking the census make comparisons of the figures for the earlier and the later years inaccurate, but the statistics for 1910 and 1923 are not seriously affected by such differences. The figures include persons in or committed to institutions for juvenile delinquents and persons under 18 years of age in or committed to prisons and reformatories, jails, and workhouses. In 1880 the ratio of children 10 to 17 years of age, inclusive, in institutions for juvenile delinquents to 100,000 population of the same age was 143.4. In 1923 it was 154.5, an increase of 8 per cent in 43 years. The increase probably reflects the more adequate provi130062°—32----- 2 https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 6 FACTS ABOUT JUVENILE DELINQUENCY sion of institutions especially adapted to the care of juvenile delin quents in 1923 than in the earlier period. From 1910 to 1923 the number of juvenile delinquents admitted to institutions for every 100,000 of the population 10 to IT years of age dropped from 171.1 to 161. In both counts some nondelinquents admitted to institutions wore included. The 1923 report showed no tendency for the population of penal institutions to decrease in age. The number of males 18 to 20 years of age committed in 1923 for each 100,000 of the same age and sex was 11.7 per cent less than in 1910. Undoubtedly the growth of the probation system during this period contributed to this decrease. Between 1923 and 1926 an increase of 34 per cent in the number of boys 18 to 20 years received by Federal and State penal institutions was shown by census statistics. From 1926 to 1927 the increase was only 1 per cent, and from 1927 to 1928, 8 per cent. The Children’s Bureau has compiled statistics for the years 1915 to 1927, or as much of that period as available data cover, from annual reports of juvenile courts in 13 cities of 100,000 population and over. Lack of uniformity in methods of reporting prevents comparison of the figures of one city with those of another, but the figures show the trend of delinquency in a given city. Most, but not all, of the cities showed a higher juvenile delinquency ratio in 1918 or 1919, followed by a decline in the following years, with slight fluctuations. In 10 cities the ratio was lower at the end of the period than at the beginning, and only 3 showed a higher ratio at the end of the period. A number of juvenile courts throughout the country are now coop erating with the Children’s Bureau in a uniform plan of reporting statistics of delinquency, dependency, and neglect handled by the courts. These statistics are compiled by the bureau, and an annual report has been issued on the subject each year beginning with 1927 under the title Juvenile-Court Statistics. While this system of reporting in accordance with a uniform plan has not yet been adopted by all juvenile courts, the statistics now available indicate, for the years 1927 to 1931 and for an area representing about 22 per cent of the population, whether, from year to year, more or fewer cases are being handled by the reporting courts. As an indication of the trend in delinquency, figures from 19 juvenile courts serving populations of 100,000 and over which have reported comparable figures to the Children’s Bureau during the five years 1927 to 1931 have been used to show the delinquency rate— that is to say, the number of cases of delinquency reported per 1,000 boys and girls of juvenile-court age. Comparison of the average rates for boys shows that from 1927 to 1930 the trend of the rates https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis NATURE AND EXTENT OE JUVENILE DELINQUENCY 7 was upward, but each year of this period the percentage increase was less. In 1931 the rate was 8 per cent lower than in 1930. Anal ysis of offenses, however, showed that the decrease occurred mainly in truancy, charges of being ungovernable, and acts of carelessness and mischief. Stealing cases continued to increase slightly. The general trend in delinquency rates for girls was about the same as for boys. In the delinquency rates for girls the same general tend ency is apparent. There was an upward trend from 1927 to 1929; the 1930 rate was the same as the 1929 rate, and the 1931 rate was . definitely lower than that of 1930. To summarize these various series, it would appear that delin quency was not increasing during the early part of the decade 1920 to 1930, that some indications of increase in the latter part of the decade are apparent, and that the present trend can not be fully determined until more complete figures are available. NATURE OF JUVENILE DELINQUENCY Boys who come before the juvenile courts usually present delin quency problems different from those of girls. Figures reported to the Children’s Bureau by the courts show that the most usual charges in boys’ cases are “ stealing or attempted stealing” and “ acts of carelessness or mischief,” whereas the closely related charges of “ running away,” “ ungovernable or beyond parental control,” and sex offense ” appear more often in girls’ cases. The figures show also that the interests and pursuits of children of different ages are reflected in the types of offenses which they commit. Offenses com mitted by girls under 12 years of age correspond more closely to those committed by boys of those ages than do the offenses of older girls. The percentage charged with “ act of carelessness or mis chief ” decreases as the age of the children increases. An interesting difference is shown in the ages of the boys and girls charged with being ungovernable.. The largest percentage of boys charged with this offense were in the age groups under 10 and between 10 and 12 years of age, whereas'among the girls the age group under 10 showed a smaller percentage than any other. Truancy among boys and running away among girls occurred more often among the children between 14 and 16 years of age than among children, of any other age group. Stealing, the most common charge, appeared in approxi mately the same proportions of boys’ cases in all age groups, although the type of stealing changed as the boys grew older. CAUSES OF JUVENILE DELINQUENCY There is no single cause of juvenile delinquency. The foundations of delinquent behavior are usually laid in very early childhood, the period which students of child life regard as the most significant in https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 8 PACTS ABOUT JUVENILE DELINQUENCY the development of personality and character. Many factors may contribute to produce delinquency, but the central problem in any case is, after all, the delinquent himself. Why do children react in such different ways to the features of their environment? Why are some able to resist the influences of bad companions and the tempta tions provided by unlocked automobiles, easily entered windows, alluring displays of finery, suggestions derived from newspapers and movies, or unhappiness or poverty at home, and countless other fac tors which contribute to make other children delinquent? Why are other children unaffected by the “ temptations to right-doing ” which should serve to immunize them against possible stimuli to bad con duct? Clearly it is only through scientific study of the delinquent himself that we can ever learn how to check delinquent trends as they may become known or how delinquency in general is to be prevented. Among the familiar contributing factors are unhappy home condi tions. Large numbers of children coming to the attention of juvenile courts are from homes broken by the death, desertion, separation, or divorce of the parents, and from homes in which lack of affection and harmony between parents and other serious emotional problems of adults make it impossible to satisfy the child’s fundamental needs for security and development. Another important factor is failure of parents to understand the child, and parental ignorance of methods of child training and character development. “ Naughtiness ” among little children is frequently passed over as something of little im portance except for the inconvenience it causes to those with whom the child comes in contact. Feelings of inferiority, jealousy, fear, anger, temper tantrums, precocious sex interest and bad sex habits, disobedience, lying, and stealing are among the common problems confronting parents of very young children. If not rightly handled, these habits may develop into defects of personality and character which will greatly limit the individual’s usefulness and happiness and may bring him into conflict with the law. A very high percentage of delinquents are school children. Dis satisfaction and maladjustment on the part of the school child often contribute to delinquency. This maladjustment may not always be due to the school itself, but may be due rather to some more funda mental cause to be found in the child or his environment. Other contributing causes of delinquency are to be found in com munity influences—association with “ gangs ” and undesirable companions, lack of wholesome recreational outlets, demoralizing commercialized amusements—and in the lack of a well-rounded com munity program for the prevention and treatment of delinquency. However, as is repeatedly emphasized in the reports of the delin quency committee of the White House Conference, it is perfectly clear that no matter how much delinquency is the result of the https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis NATURE AND EXTENT OF JUVENILE DELINQUENCY 9 delinquent’s social contacts, it is inevitably the delinquent himself and his own mental and behavior patterns that are of predominant importance. In the words of the committee, u The keenest and most sympathetic study of these patterns and impulses should be made. Only through a friendly, abbreviated living of the child’s life over again with him, following the sequence of time and events, can there be any sound understanding of the genesis of his delin quency. The aim is scientific procedure. If such a study of a human being is not worth the utmost scientific effort, then nothing in the world is.” SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER READING 1. Nature and extent of delinquency. Children’s Bureau, United States Department of Labor: Juvenile-Court Statistics. Annual report. Reckless, Walter C., and Mapheus Smith: Juvenile Delinquency (Mc Graw-Hill Book Co., New York, 1932), pp. 18—48; 49-64. White House Conference: The Delinquent Child (Century Co., 1932), pp. 359-361. 2. Causes of delinquency. a. Mental, physical, and emotional factors. Blanchard, Phyllis: The Child and Society (Longmans, Green & Co., New York, 1928), pp. 3-35; 73-95. Burt, Cyril: The Young Delinquent (D. Appleton & Co., New York, 1925), pp. 207-229; 248-259; 291-568. Reckless and Smith: Juvenile Delinquency, pp. 81-116. White House Conference: The Delinquent Child, pp. 59-76. b. Social and community factors. Blanchard, Phyllis: The Child and Society, pp. 36-72. National Education Association: Crime Prevention through Education (Research Bulletin vol. 10, No. 4 ). Washington, 1932. 69 pp. New York State Crime Commission: Crime and the Community (Al bany, 1930), pp. 128-212. Reckless and Smith: Juvenile Delinquency, pp. 117-195. Sayles, Mary B., and Howard W. Nudd: The Problem Child in School. Commonwealth Fund Division of Publications, 41 East Fifty-seventh Street, New York, 1925. 288 pp. Van Waters, Miriam: Youth in Conflict (New Republic (Inc.), New York, 1926), pp. 88-145. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis PREVENTIVE PROGRAMS There is a growing realization that society is paying too much for the care of criminals and too little for the prevention of crime. In its study of the cost of crime the National Commission on Law Observance and Enforcement found it impossible to arrive at any reliable figure for the total ultimate cost of crime to the community, but, as the report points out: It should not require reenforcement from cost figures to emphasize the vital need of repeatedly attacking and reattacking our failure in dealing with the convicted criminal and the still more vital need of steady pressure on the causes that produce the human wreckage with which it seems so insolubly difficult to deal. A complete outline of a preventive program would include refer ence to all movements for the improvement of conditions affecting the family and child life. For example, a basic income within the attainment of every family adequate to insure minimum standards of living and the solution of the problem of unemployment would be important factors in such a program. Better housing, especially the lessening of congestion, is directly related to the prevention of delinquency. Extensive studies have shown that delinquency which comes to the attention of police and courts is concentrated chiefly in certain areas which lack adequate resources for wholesome com munity life. City planning, more careful zoning, and real-estate developments that give due consideration to community environ ment and the provision of such facilities as school sites, playgrounds, and parks, and of organized facilities for the constructive use of leisure time, all have their place in a broad program for the preven tion of delinquency. A practical program, however, must be directed toward a limited number of objectives, those being selected first which seem most closely related to the problem. EDUCATION OF PUBLIC OPINION An enlightened public opinion is one of the most important requi sites in any successful program for the prevention of juvenile delin quency. The public is often inclined to “ view with alarm ” the misdeeds of the younger generation without stopping to consider its own responsibility in the matter and to discriminate unjustly against children going through the courts or receiving specialized institu https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis PREVENTIVE PROGRAMS 11 tional care. This attitude is not constructive. The attitude of the public toward all problem children should be characterized not by irritation, fear, or censure but by understanding of the child’s need for protection, education, and guidance, in the community if pos sible, in a well-managed institution if necessary. I t is important that the public recognize the existence of behavior problems in home, school, and community, and appreciate that home and neighborhood conditions, such as the patience and resourcefulness of parents, rela tives, and friends, the economic condition of the family, the type of neighborhood, more often than the degree of “ badness,” deter mine whether or not a child shall be referred to a juvenile court and, after hearing, whether he shall be sent home or placed in an institution. The public will then better realize how unfair it is that a certain stigma should attach to children dealt with by the courts which other children, whose conduct is equally in conflict with social standards, escape. When the public is brought to an understanding and acceptance of its own responsibilities in the prevention and treatment of delin quency, it will be more willing to give the needed support to that “ well-rounded and coordinated community program for the develop ment of constructive, wholesome interests and the early study and guidance of children presenting problems of behavior and person ality ” which the White House Conference reported as still lacking, and it will insist upon “ the highest type of service, special knowledge, and sympathetic understanding in juvenile court, probation office, and institution throughout the N ation” for the child who violates the law. Distribution of literature, newspaper and maga zine publicity, radio talks, lectures, and study-club work will be found useful in educating public opinion. ASSISTANCE TO PARENTS IN DEALING WITH EARLY BEHAVIOR PROBLEMS 1. Promotion of wholesome home life. There is no substitute for home life and intelligent parenthood in the rearing of children. It is in the home that the child’s needs for affection, security, and opportunities for growth or development, which play so important a part in shaping his personality, are met or thwarted. Even the most affectionate and intelligent parents may not always fully understand the child’s needs for security and growth. Security is founded upon the emotional maturity of par ents, upon justice, truthfulness, regularity, order, and serenity in the home. Opportunities for development can be given the child only by parents who want to see him grow and give him every chance to utilize and enlarge his own powers. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 12 FACTS ABOUT JUVENILE DELINQUENCY In an age when there is one divorce for every six marriages (about one-third of the divorce cases involving children) and when death and desertion play further havoc, it is obvious that many children are being deprived of their fundamental right to normal home life. Not only do many delinquent children come from broken homes but many early behavior problems may be traced to unhappy home con ditions. Assistance to parents in dealing with the conduct problems of children often involves assistance to parents themselves in solv ing problems of their own. To promote the stability and happiness of family life is, therefore, to aid in the prevention of juvenile de linquency. The following are among the means which have been suggested to aid in the promotion of successful home life : (a) Promotion of economic security through establishment of wage levels adequate to maintain wholesome living standards, regu larization of employment, prevention of industrial accidents and disease, workmen’s compensation, and similar measures. In an ad dress on Child Welfare Standards a Test of Democracy at the National Conference of Social Work in 1919, Julia C. Lathrop, first Chief of the Children’s Bureau, said: Children are not safe and happy if their parents are miserable, and parents must be miserable if they can not protect a home against poverty. Let us not deceive ourselves. The power to maintain a decent family living standard is the primary essential of child welfare. This means a living wage and wholesome working life for the man, a good and skillful mother at home to keep the house and comfort all within it. Society can afford no less and can afford no exceptions. This is a universal neeu. (b) Preparental education.—Preparation for marriage and par enthood is urgently needed. The committee on family and parent education of the White House Conference recommended that “ in struction should be provided by schools and colleges to further the satisfactions of intelligent participation in family life and to pre pare for courtship, marriage, and parenthood.” (c) Parent education.—Every community should insure oppor tunities for parental education which will provide instruction in the principles of home making, family relationships, and the educa tion and care of children. (d) Public home relief and mothers1aid.—It is a recognized prin ciple that families should not be broken up for reasons of poverty alone. Yet in periods of stress resulting from such conditions as prolonged illness, irregular employment, or unemployment, the very maintenance of the home itself and the quality of family life are threatened for many people unless the community is organized to afford certain essential protections. Public home relief is a system by which the community may preserve the home and quality of family life. The White House Conference committee on dependency https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis PREVENTIVE PROGRAMS 13 and neglect recommended that legislation establishing systems of re lief and child care be revised to accord with this principle. The committee stated th a t: To bring general public home relief to families in which there are children up to the standards of the best mothers’ aid administration and measurably up to the standards of unofficial family social work, is one of the greatest needs and opportunities in improving the care of dependent children in the immediate future. * * * Whatever forms of workmen’s compensation or social in surance may be devised and put into effect, the poor-law official will remain the residuary legatee of that vast group of families whose particular circum stances do not fit into the requirements of any of the special types and forms of social aid. So far as legislation is concerned, the principle of home care for dependent children has met with more ready response than any other child-welfare measure that has ever been proposed. I t is estimated that under the mothers’ aid laws now on the statute books of 45 States more than 250,000 children each year are kept with their mothers, most of whom but for this aid would be taken from their homes or would suffer from the inefficiency, ill health, and person ality and behavior problems which inevitably follow when a widowed mother without training or resources strives to be both breadwinner and home maker for a family of children. Mothers’ aid should be everywhere available in fact as well as in theory and should be extended to include all mothers suited to rear their children and unable to do so without public aid. 2. General education of parents in child care and training. Parenthood does not automatically bring with it knowledge of the proper methods of rearing children. Official studies long ago showed that parental ignorance of good methods of caring for babies was one of the causes of a high rate of infant deaths, while the educational work that has been done among parents in recent years has helped to save many infant lives. However, many parents who pride themselves on following to the letter the pre scribed rules for the physical hygiene of their children overlook or are entirely ignorant of the value of mental hygiene, and even among those who realize the importance of early control of behavior problems there are many who are deeply concerned when their children lie, steal, or have temper tantrums but attach little or no significance to such unhealthy signs as undue self-consciousness, daydreaming, or jealousy. Still less do they realize that these delinquencies and manifestations of abnormal behavior may be due to their own attitude toward their children. Yet many cases of delinquency in children have been traced to the attempt of parents to make the child’s life compensate for their own failure to reach 130062°—32----- 3 https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 14 FACTS ABOUT JUVENILE DELINQUENCY certain goals of achievement; to the fact that the child has for years been buffeted between the rigid discipline of one parent and the extreme laxity of the other; to the dominating attitude of one member of the family group which leaves the child no opportunity for asserting himself as an individual; and to similar forms of con flict between the needs of the child and the conditions prevailing in his family. Parental attitudes are of fundamental importance. As is pointed out by the delinquency committee of the White House Conference: “ This is a difficult period in which parents are trying to work out their relations of authority with their children.” Parents need more education as to the effect on the development of the child of their own attitudes and their relations to each other and to the child, and attention is being focused increasingly upon developments in the field of parent education. There are no short cuts in dealing with delinquency, and however complete the facilities which the community may provide for the education of parents, it must be recognized that these constitute but one factor in its prevention and treatment. Modern research has made available much material on mental hygiene and habit training as well as on the general aspects of child care; and facilities* both publicly and privately financed, are being developed not only to place theoretical information at the disposal of the average parent but also to furnish practical assistance in dealing with the conduct problems of individual children as they arise. Among these facilities are the following: (a) Literature on child care and training.—The Children’s Bu reau distributes free on request a general bulletin on the care of the child from 1 to 6, and bulletins on child management which include discussions of habits and habit training in general, and of the more common conduct and personality problems of young children, such as jealousy, fear, anger, disobedience, lying, stealing, and bad sex habits. Many State divisions of child hygiene distribute these bulletins and bulletins of their own on child care which include some material on child training. Many of the women’s magazines now publish monthly articles on child training and habit formation. No home within reach of the postman need be without up-to-date scientific advice on this subject. (b) Radio talks on child care.—More and more the radio is being used to carry education into even the most remote districts. The weekly radio talks of the Chief of the Children’s Bureau and the broadcasting program of the Department of Agriculture have car ried information on this subject into many homes, and the maga zines and women’s clubs are making increasing use of the radio for this type of work for the benefit of parents. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis PREVENTIVE PROGRAMS 15 (c) Gorrespondence courses.—Some of the State divisions of child hygiene conduct correspondence courses for mothers in the care of infants and young children. Such information sometimes includes information on child training and habit formation. The funda mental principles of child management should be included in all general courses relating to children of preschool age. (d) Educational 'programs in colleges and schools.—The State universities of Iowa, California, Minnesota, and Ohio; the extension services of the State colleges in New York, Iowa, Minnesota, Illinois, and Georgia; and the State departments of education in New York, Oklahoma, California, and Ohio are among those which have in augurated state-wide programs of education in child care and guid ance. Yassar College has developed a course in preparation for parenthood which is known as the department of euthenics. Courses in child development, stressing the mental hygiene of childhood, are offered to high-school seniors in Los Angeles and Detroit, where nursery schools are utilized as observation stations. In a number of cities local programs have been developed by organizations and public schools to provide facilities for the educa tion of parents. Courses such as those furnished by the schools, universities, and colleges not only aid many parents but furnish trained leaders for local study groups. (e) Study groups and mothers’ classes.—The Child Study Asso ciation of America, the American Association of University Women, and the National Congress of Parents and Teachers are among the national organizations which are stimulating the organization of study groups for an intensive study of child life and are furnishing guidance materials to such groups. The Children’s Bureau fur nishes child-welfare material for study. The leading women’s or ganizations and clubs usually include child welfare in their program of activities. During the period of operation of the maternity and infancy act the Federal Government cooperated in the organization of mothers’ classes in all parts of the country for the instruction of women in child care. Instruction was also given at health conferences and by the public-health nurses who visited mothers in their own homes. In some States these activities were curtailed after expiration of the act, but in many States they are still carried on in connection with mater nity and infancy programs. Although these activities are devoted primarily to instruction in the welfare and hygiene of maternity and infancy, they afford opportunities for instruction and advice on child management and training which should be further developed. (f) Individual instruction.—In addition to instruction of parents carried on in study groups, much instruction is given through direct https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 16 FACTS ABOUT JUVENILE DELINQUENCY contact with individual parents in child-guidance clinics and con sultation centers, and informally through the churches, religious and lay educational organizations, juvenile courts, community centers, visiting teachers, family-welfare workers, and representatives of other social agencies. Massachusetts, for example, has established habit clinics for children which give instruction to hundreds of parents as part of the treatment of behavior problems of children. 3. Early diagnosis of behavior problems. A child has a mental life far more delicate and complex than his physical body, far more difficult to keep in order, and much more easily put out of adjustment. Unfortunately, however, many parents who would insist on the best medical advice available when their child manifests the faintest symptom of illness may overlook bad habits and behavior problems which are symptoms of serious per sonality difficulties. So much depends upon the training and ex perience of children in early life, that parents should look for the best aid available in seeking to understand and solve the behavior prob lems of their children. An early diagnosis may be the means of pre venting cause for more serious trouble and concern later on. Parents should learn to distinguish between problems which they themselves should be able to handle and fundamental difficulties requiring expert service. For the parent who needs expert assistance the following facilities are being developed: (a) Habit clinics.—Habit clinics are clinics which treat preschool children exclusively. They are extremely important, for they reach the child in the most formative period. These clinics deal with habit difficulties such as bed wetting, thumb sucking, food dislikes, jealousy, temper tantrums, and similar problems. The minimum staff of a habit clinic includes a psychiatrist, who may be employed on a part-time basis, a psychologist, who may be employed on a half-time basis, a social worker, full time, and a stenographer, full time. The clinic should be easily accessible to the people who need it. Habit clinics often function in connection with nursery schools and kindergartens, but the clinics must reach beyond them if their work is to be community-wide. It is desirable that such a clinic should be part of a well-organized health service for children, as in Massa chusetts and some other places. (b) Child-guidance clinics.—Clinics for the psychiatric study and treatment of children presenting conduct problems have been estab lished in a number of communities. It was estimated that there were nearly 600 such clinics in the United States in 1931 and that they examined and treated more than 50,000 children during that year. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis PREVENTIVE PROGRAMS 17 Child-guidance clinics emphasize the preventive aspect of their work and deal with large numbers of children who are not court problems but who present difficulties of personality or social adjust ment at home, in school, and in the community. They may function as part of the public-school system or in conjunction with it, or in relationship to social agencies, but they also serve parents since they are concerned with general behavior problems such as tantrums, oversensitiveness, daydreaming, cruelty, restlessness, morbid fears, and the like. The staff of a child-guidance clinic includes psychiatrists, psy chologists, social workers, and clerks. Each child is given a complete physical, psychological, psychi atric, and social examination, and recommendations for treatment are made to cooperating agencies or are carried out by the clinic staff. (c) Instruction in mental hygiene for 'professional workers.—In addition to psychiatrists, psychologists, and psychiatric social workers who specialize in conduct problems it is essential that publichealth nurses, teachers, recreation and club workers, social workers, and others whose work brings them in close contact with children, shall have training in the basic principles of mental hygiene and their practical application. Provision for such instruction, both for persons already in the field and for students preparing for these vocations, is an important part of a practical program for the pre vention and treatment of behavior problems in children and young people. SOCIAL WORK IN THE SCHOOLS When the child enters school, he enters a new world and faces new conditions. Although the modern ideal in education demands that full recognition be given individual differences in children and that emphasis be placed on the person taught rather than the things taught, the fact remains that the school undertakes not only to give the child an academic education but to train him to fit into society. This means that the child must learn to adjust the satisfaction of his own needs to the needs and rights of others and to accept the discipline and regularity which are made necessary by the rules of social living. This process of adjustment is part of the business of growing up. It is perhaps inevitable that friction should occur in the process. The fact that practically all juvenile delinquents are children of school age does not mean that the school itself is responsible for their delinquency. The child’s personality may have been warped in his very early years. His revolt against school authority and dis cipline may be an indication of some deep-seated difficulty which has its roots in his past or in his home environment. I t may be the danger https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 18 FACTS ABOUT JUVENILE DELINQUENCY signal presaging more serious conflict with all authority in the future. Whatever the cause may be, it is usually during his school days that the child’s most serious delinquencies develop, and the school is therefore most intimately involved in the whole problem of delinquency. I t is a matter of common agreement that truancy is often an early symptom of a child’s maladjustment in school and at home. No definite catalogue can be drawn up of the factors leading to dis satisfaction with school. They include individual factors of physi cal and mental make-up of the child, family factors such as parental ambition for or overprotection of the children, and parental indif ference, school factors such as exaggerated emphasis on academic learning, and the many intangible factors which enter into the rela tionship of the child and the teacher. In the words of the delin quency committee of the White House Conference. While nonattendance at school usually breaks a law, it is extremely diffi cult to analyze fairly those factors back of the delinquency. Lack of school facilities in certain rural areas, economic demand in certain agricultural pursuits, parental antagonism to apparently rigorous school demands, par ental indifference, the school’s or teacher’s seeming to discourage and block the development of certain children, the inviting or imperiously demanding call to freedom of gang or comrade—undoubtedly the whole gamut of in dividual and social drives and needs lies back of the problem of attendance. The report of the delinquency committee pointed out that “ before the school lies the promise of a real program for the prevention of delinquency.” Part of this promise lies in the fact that the school must realize increasingly that the child it teaches has a life outside of that which is passed in the classroom and that he must be taught and treated and guided in the light of this fact, that the school must sincerely and vitally interest itself in the environment of the child it tries to teach. In many instances, as the committee points out, « this will involve * * * educating the family, industry, and so forth to their responsibilities rather than seeking to relieve them. However well trained and understanding the teacher may be, the task which this responsibility on the part of the school implies is not one which she can carry on single-handed. The school organi zation must provide for various services to assist in preventing or solving the various problems of school maladjustment and dissatis faction which are fertile sources of delinquency. These services include the following: 1. Health services. Expert help in the physical well-being of the child should be available through physicians, dentists, hygienists, and nurses. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis PREVENTIVE PROGRAMS 19 2. Attendance departments. Every school system should include on its staff attendance officers especially trained in social case work. They should receive com pensation corresponding to the pay of the teaching staff; and, as is the case with the teaching staff, the number appointed should be based on the number of children to be served if effective results are expected. The duties of the attendance officers should include syste matic visiting of schools; conferences at the schools with children, teachers, and parents; visits to homes; and the maintenance of co operative relationships with social agencies and legal authorities, school physicians and nurses, special classes, visiting teachers, and other special services for the school child. 3. Visiting teachers and school counselors. The “ visiting teacher,” as defined by the National Committee of Visiting Teachers, is a social worker, trained in mental hygiene, who studies and treats the maladjusted school child in his home setting, advising with the parents and relatives, with the teacher and the school authorities, and with social agencies, if these are necessary in handling the case. While training for social work is necessary, teach ing experience is often recommended because of the understanding it gives of the school problems and their practical adjustment. In communities in which visiting teachers are an essential part of the school system, they are making an extremely valuable demonstration of the service that should be available for all children having per sonal or family problems that handicap their school adjustment. This service should be closely coordinated with child-study depart ments, administration of school attendance laws, special classes, and vocational guidance. In some schools the person who makes adjustments between home and school in the case of children who are not satisfactory in scholar ship or behavior or both is called a counselor. The title is unimport ant. What is important is that the work be done by a person with training in social case work. 4. Special schools and classes. Many schools are finding that certain truant and delinquent chil dren can be handled effectively in special classes. These are not the “ truant rooms,” “ disciplinary classes,” “ ungraded classes,” and the like that segregate problem children to the relief of the school but often to the detriment of the child, whose hatred and distrust of school may be aggravated by thus being labeled a bad character. As the schools develop more effective social case work, special classes will be organized on the basis of the treatment indicated rather than the offense committed. Schools are recognizing more and more that https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 20 FACTS ABOUT JUVENILE DELINQUENCY when a thorough mental, physical, and pedagogical examination of the child reveals that his needs can not be met in a regular class, he should be placed in a special class equipped to deal scientifically with his particular difficulty. Such classes include classes for children who have physical handicaps (as of vision or hearing) ; classes for children with mental handicaps; classes for retarded children who are not mentally deficient; and classes for gifted children for whom the challenge of a different school curriculum may be the solution of behavior problems caused by lack of interest and satisfaction in their school work. An unusual type of special day school for behavior-problem chil dren has recently been established in Chicago. The first such school was established in September, 1929, and the second in Octo ber, 1930. In these schools complete physical, psychological, and social study of the children has been established, and, wherever needed, psychiatric study as well. Although good results have been reported in attendance, school advancement, conduct, and reduction of court cases, it is too early to judge the achievement of these schools. In the first of these schools to be established, the Montefiore School, the staff includes one teacher for each 20 children, a full time psychologist, a full-time nurse, a half-time dentist, 1 full time and 2 part-time visiting teachers, 1 full-time and 2 part-time attendance officers, 2 full-time recreation teachers, and a psychiatrist 1 day a week. Medical service is supplied by the board of health. The school also has the services of a speech teacher one day a week, and two part-time remedial reading teachers. The boys are in school 6y2 hours, 5 days a week, for 48 weeks in the year. The work of the school is roughly divided into two parts, the boys spending approximately one half of their time in academic work and the other half in activities of various kinds. An individual record folder and a full case history are kept for every boy. The description of this set-up also applies to the second school. 5. Educational and vocational guidance. Provision should be made in the school course for an adequate program of educational and vocational guidance. Such a program would include a sufficient number of well-trained and experienced counselors in the schools to make adjustments for every child that will prevent discouragement and prolong his school life. In some cities bureaus of vocational guidance and placement are organized under the same department as that of school attendance. Teachers and others dealing with children presenting behavior problems should make the fullest use of the vocational service. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis PREVENTIVE PROGRAMS 21 6. Child-study departments and clinics. Many schools refer problem children to child-guidance clinics where these exist. A few have behavior clinics of their own. Child-study divisions and psychological or psychiatric clinics are provided in some school systems to give mental tests to children presenting pedagogical difficulties. Figures reported to the White House Conference indicate a universal school need for help in un derstanding and providing for the needs of the child who finds difficulty in adjusting himself to the demands of the school or who fails to develop normal avenues of self-expression, achievement, and social cooperation. COMMUNITY INFLUENCES AND LEISURE-TIME ACTIVITIES Beyond the walls of home and school lies "another world in which the child will spend more and more of his time as he grows older and which, therefore, helps to shape his personality and to influ ence his conduct and his attitude toward life. This outside world is generally referred to as the community. The street on which he lives, the neighbors whom he sees from day to day, the children with whom he plays are but a few of the influences, tangible and intangible, that affect the child’s daily life and that help to create what might be called the spirit of the neighborhood. As the child seeks to satisfy his budding curiosity, his need for new experiences and his desire for adventure and achievement, the community will have an ever-increasing attraction for him, since these needs can never be fully satisfied by his home, his school, or his church, nor, in the case of the child who may leave school to go to work, by his job. Regardless of the extent to which these agencies afford him security and opportunities for development and achievement, the community will inevitably claim its share of that portion of the child’s life designated as “ leisure time.” Where these agencies fail him, he will all the sooner turn to this outside world for compensation. The community, through its various agencies, may help to strengthen the child, fit him to meet life squarely, or it may help to make him dissatisfied with his environment, to rebel against it, and thus may become one of the causes of juvenile delinquency. Various studies have been made showing that delinquency is most likely to occur where proper community environment is lacking. In a study of the geographical distribution of juvenile delinquents and adult offenders in the city of Chicago, one of the leading con clusions was as follows: This study has indicated that school truancy, juvenile delinquency, and adult crime, rather than being distributed uniformly throughout the city of Chicago, 130062°—32------ i https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 22 FACTS ABOUT JUVENILE DELINQUENCY are largely concentrated in certain areas. The highest rates are found in the areas adjacent to the central business districts and the large industrial cen ters * * *, areas that are in a process of transition from residence to business and industry and are characterized by physical deterioration, decreas ing population, and the disintegration of the conventional neighborhood culture and organization. This study also found that the lowest rates occurred in the outlying residential communities. Even in residential districts, however, the advent of the apartment house means the loss of many backyard playgrounds. Crowded city areas mean that the children of the rich and of the poor spend more of their time in the community outside of the home. Upon whom does responsibility rest for what the community offers the child? That section of the report of the delinquency committee of the White House Conference which deals with the child in relation to community groups, agencies, and influences says: All children, privileged and underprivileged, take what the community to offer. Adults make the community what it is. When it does not satisfy needs of its children or when it thwarts and exploits them, the adults responsible, and no clinics, juvenile courts, or reformatory institutions ever fully adjust the child. has the are can This responsibility has not been fully accepted. The report states further: The community has not yet realized that it is responsible for building to satisfy the fundamental needs of the child, and that it must not only offer opportunity for creative play, companionship, and adventure, but must also protect children and young people from negative, demoralizing recreation. This implies a twofold program on the part of agencies, public and private, that are seeking to make the community safe for chil dren—a program of prevention providing a constructive, whole some, happy use of leisure time and a program of protection against harmful and demoralizing influences. I t suggests also that every community, from the small rural settlement to the large, com plex city neighborhood, needs the cooperation of interested men and women who will help to plan for and promote wholesome neighbor hood life and to win the support of public opinion for the program which conditions in a given community may demand. Community environment can not, of course, be held solely respon sible for juvenile delinquency. Nor, in the effort to prevent delin quency, is it desired to exert rigid control over the child’s leisure time. Children are apt to look with suspicion upon outside organi zation of their play, and it has been pointed out that f in this everincreasing movement to set the child’s life in order there is danger https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis PREVENTIVE PROGRAMS 23 that we may lose sight of his need and inherent right to waste a fair part of his time.” The real purpose is not to work with the possible juvenile delinquent in view so much as to create a network of community influences and forces that will help to make commu nity life as a whole richer, fuller, and more satisfying for adults and children alike, and thus contribute to community stability and progress. In such a plan the responsibility must be shared by public and private agencies alike. Community resources for preventive and protective work should provide: 1. Recreational facilities under public auspices. Play is one of the fundamental needs of the child and a necessary outlet for physical and mental activity. Adults, too, need health ful recreation. Facilities that should be provided under municipal or other public auspices include the following: (a) Public playgrounds.—An adequately supported public playground, pro viding at least 100 square feet of play space for each child, should be located within one-quarter of a mile of every city home and should be open for yearround use by both younger and older children. Such playgrounds should be under the management of trained play leaders, who may serve also as u community agents,” seeking out those children who do not come to the playground and sponsoring interesting programs, interplayground tournaments, and similar activities that will provide a challenge to the lure of street play and gang associations. (b) Athletic Helds.—These include baseball diamonds, basket-ball and ten nis courts, municipal golf courses, football fields, and space for all types of athletic sports to serve older children and adults who will come a mile or so to use the facilities. (c) Municipal beaches, swimming pools, and wading ponds. (d) P lay streets.—In areas where sufficient playgrounds are lacking, mu nicipalities should block off from traffic certain streets at specified times for the use of children at play. In Cincinnati a national demonstration of the so-called “ play street ” has been made. (e) Camp sites and parks for picnics, “ hikes,” and nature study. (f) Public-library service.—It has been estimated that 43 per cent of the population of this country live in communities without public-library service. The establishment of municipal and county libraries should be encouraged, and in existing libraries specialized service for children should be improved. State library-extension agencies should be strengthened. All library service should provide guidance in the selection of books. Public schools should have school libraries under the supervision of a person professionally qualified to select books and direct reading. (g) Concerts and musical activities.—Public band concerts, community choruses, and “ sings ” add to the enjoyment and cultural development of the citizenry. Such activities offer a good field for cooperation between public and private agencies and help to promote community spirit. (h) Museums.—Art galleries and special exhibits afford opportunities for .instructive use of leisure time for young people and adults. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 24 FACTS ABOUT JUVENILE DELINQUENCY 2. Leisure-time activities under private auspices. While the municipality must bear a large share of the responsi bility for public recreational facilities, it must be supplemented by private organizations which enjoy greater freedom in initiative and in shaping programs to meet special needs. These private groups do much pioneer work and are influential in shaping public opinion. Organized groups under private auspices include Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, Camp Fire Girls, Girl Reserves, clubs operated in connec tion with churches, young men’s and young women’s associations, boys’ clubs, and the like. Community centers serve small as well as large communities. In crowded city areas settlement houses provide programs of leisure-time activities for various age groups. The young people’s organizations, however, are not organized primarily with the underprivileged or problem child in view. In the reports of the White House Conference particular emphasis was given to the need for “ workers at large ” to win the children who do not voluntarily come to the playgrounds, clubs, or other agencies, especially in districts where gangs and independent street groups of children present a problem. In the words of the report: If a social agency were established on every corner, the spontaneous group of a certain sort would not be won. Therefore, instead of multiplying agencies where a neighborhood is already served by one or more, attention should be given to extending the influence of agencies already in action. They should be urged especially to develop a neighborhood agent who w ill become part of the local situation, even to the extent of being known as a local person, not an outsider, who, while not appearing to guide, can enter and influence the street life of boys and girls by the tactful suggestion of things to do. Many instances of successful work by such neighborhood agents are cited. Emphasis is also placed on the importance of working with small groups so that more individual attention may be given the children. Since municipal and commercial agencies can not so easily adapt their recreational programs to the individual, this is a field in which private agencies can make a valuable contribution. 3. Protective work. I t has been estimated that the average young person 18 years of age has spent about 40 per cent of his time outside his home and school. Leisure-time activities organized under public and private auspices do not claim all this time. In fact, there is evidence to show that since the war the development of publicly and privately supported recreation has not kept pace with the growth of com mercial recreation. Motion pictures, pool rooms, billiard parlors, dance halls, and road houses have appeared in all types of neigh borhoods, even in rural communities, and the automobile makes them more accessible. This type of recreation is often under organized, centralized control and, being commercial, is operated with a view https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis PREVENTIVE PRÔGÏIAMS 25 to box-office receipts rather than to child health and protection. Thus it presents a problem for those interested in community in fluences and measures for the protection of children. A socialized police force will be one of the greatest helps in community protection of children. Not only will a policeman of the right sort be a neighborhood friend, who can talk to children in their own language and inspire respect for law and authority, but by working in cooperation with social agencies he can do much to safeguard the interests of children. Qualified policewomen whose duties include assistance in the enforcement of laws for child pro tection should be on the staff of every police department. Public and private children’s organizations such as child-welfare boards and departments, children’s aid societies, juvenile-protective associations, and societies for the prevention of cruelty to children often make protective work a major function. Valuable coopera tion can be given by men’s and women’s clubs and citizens’ associations. Protective work includes the following: (a) Supervision of commercialized amusements.—The police and other municipal departments, through especially appointed officers, license and inspect certain commercial amusements in many cities. This supervision is generally arranged for by ordinances, which usually set the age limit under which children shall not be admitted to such places. The enforcement of these laws frequently depends upon groups of interested citizens. (b) Control of motion-picture programs.—Some national and local citizens’ organizations have developed committees to work with the motion-picture producers in the interest of better programs, as well as in promoting special “ family programs ” and shows for children. As more than 50 per cent of the theaters are owned by the producers, who control not only production but distribution, local influence is not always possible. (c) Suppression of the distribution or sale of obscene or salacious litera ture.—Indecent post cards, pictures, and magazines are distributed from a few centers, and their control is difficult. Where such matter is sent through the mails, the United States postal authorities should be notified. (d) Enforcement of laws prohibiting the sale of liquor, drugs, and tobacco to minors, the purchase of junk from minors, and similar laws. (e) Prosecution of adults neglecting children, contributing to the delin quency of children, or committing offenses against children.—Child witnesses in such cases should be afforded all possible safeguards against unnecessary publicity and suffering. They should never be detained in jail. SPIRIT OF THE COMMUNITY Even if the home, the church, and the school could claim all the child’s time and surround him with ideal teachings and influences, the spirit of the community would still literally reach in after him through such agencies as the press and the radio which bring the https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 26 FACTS ABOUT JUVENILE DELINQUENCY outside world into the home itself. The daily papers with sensa tional headlines and stories of crime, corruption, and lawlessness reflect conditions utterly at variance with the principles of right living that parents and teachers may strive to inculcate. Public opinion should be educated to demand the right attitude toward enforcement of laws for the protection of children on the part of prosecuting authorities, courts, and juries. In some com munities public opinion can actually prevent the opening of amuse ment places of questionable character by bringing pressure to bear upon property owners who control the leasing of buildings. The commercial interests in some cases can be made to realize that favor able public opinion is a genuine commercial asset and to cooperate in furnishing a wholesome type of amusement. Where it is im possible to commandeer such a powerful united public opinion, however, it is necessary to depend upon officials and departments acting through adequate systems of licensing and supervision. Where laxity exists, private organizations must be prepared to stir up action by obtaining evidence, presenting it to officials, and fol lowing up the cases. SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER READING 1. Assistance to parents. . Blatz, William E., and Helen B o tt: Parents and the Preschool Child. W il liam Morrow & Co., New York, 1929. 340 pp. Brill, Alice C., and May P. Youtz: Your Child and His Parents; a text book for child-study groups. D. Appleton & Co., New York, 1932. 339 pp. Children’s Bureau: Are You Training Your Child to Be Happy? Lesson Material in Child Management, by Blanche C. Weill. Publication No. 202. Washington, 1930. 57 pp. ______: The Child from One to S ix ; his care and training. Publication No. 30 (revised). Washington, 1931. 150 pp. •__ ; Child Management, by D. A. Thom. Publication No. 143 (revised). Washington, 1928. 47 pp. Sayles, Mary B u ell: The Problem Child at Hom e; a study in parent-child relationships. Commonwealth Fund Division of Publications, 41 East Fifty-seventh Street, New York, 1928. 342 pp. Thom, Douglas A.: Everyday Problems of the Everyday Child. D. Appleton & Co., New York, 1927. 350 pp. _____ : Normal Youth and Its Everyday Problems. D. Appleton & Co., New York, 1932. 368 pp. White House Conference: Education for Home and Family Life. Century Co., New York, 1932. 128 pp. ______; Home and the Child. Century Co., New York, 1931. 165 pp. ______; parent Education. Century Co., New York, 1932. 354 pp. 2. Early diagnosis of behavior problems. The Child, the Clinic, and the Court, pp. 75-101. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis PREVENTIVE PROGRAMS 27 2. Early diagnosis of behavior problems—Continued. Children’s Bureau, U. S. Department of Labor: Habit Clinics for the Child of Preschool A ge; their organization and practical value, by D. A. Thom. Publication No. 135. Washington, 1924. 71 pp. The Child Guidance Clinic and the Community; a group of papers written from the viewpoints of the clinic, the juvenile court, the school, the child-welfare agency, and the parent, by Ralph P. Truitt, Lawson G. Lowrey, Charles W. Hoffman, William L. Connor, Ethel Taylor, and Fanny Robson Kendel. Commonwealth Fund Division of Publications, 41 East Fifty-seventh Street, New York, 1928. 106 pp. Free on request. Thomas, William I., and Dorothy Swaine Thomas: The Child in America (Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1928.), pp. 144-165. 3. Preventive work in the schools. Benedict, Agnes E .: Children at the Crossroads. Commonwealth Fund Division of Publications, 41 East Fifty-seventh Street, New York, 1930. 238 pp. Children’s Bureau, U. S. Department of Labor: Vocational Guidance Recommendations of the White House Conference on Child Health and Protection. Leaflet, 1932. Culbert, Jane F .: The Visiting Teacher at Work. Commonwealth Fund Division of Publications, 41 East Fifty-seventh Street, New York, 1929. 235 pp. Thomas: The Child in America, pp. 273-294. White House Conference: Home and School Cooperation. Century Co., New York, 1932. 122 pp. Paper. --------- : Special Education (Century Co., New York, 1931), pp. 491-534. ---------: Vocational Guidance: Principles and Practice. Century Co., New York, 1932. 396 pp. 4. Community influences and leisure time. Additon, H enrietta: City Planning for G irls; a study of the social ma chinery for case work with girls in Philadelphia, with comments on present methods, brief histories of past experiments, and recommended plans for the future. Social Service Monograph No. 5. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1928. 150 pp. Children’s Bureau, U. S. Department of Labor: Leisure-Time Activities of Rural Children in Selected Areas of West Virginia, by Ella Gardner and Caroline E. Legg. Publication No. 208. Washington, 1932. 86 pp. --------- : Public Dance H a lls; their regulation and place in the recreation of adolescents, by Ella Gardner. Publication No. 189. Washington, 1929. 57 pp. Lee, Joseph: Play in Education. Macmillan Co., New York, 1915. 500 pp. New York State Crime Commission: Crime and the Community, pp. 11-18. Police Department, City of New York: Crime Prevention Bureau, Annual report. Rockwood, Edith, and Augusta J. Street: Social Protective Work of Public Agencies with Special Emphasis on the Policewoman. National League of Women Voters, Washington, 1932. 22 pp. Thomas: The Child in America, pp. 166-218. Truxal, Andrew G .: Outdoor Recreation Legislation and Its Effective ness. Columbia University Press, New York, 1929. 218 pp. White House Conference: The Delinquent Child, pp. 200-222. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis THE TREATMENT OF DELINQUENCY At no time is the child more in need of careful study and sympa thetic understanding than when he has come into conflict with the law. I t is largely accidental to-day just which of the children manifesting more or less serious conduct problems are apprehended and brought before the courts. This means that the apprehended delinquent should not be considered inherently bad or different from many other young people of his age. As is pointed out by the delinquency committee of the White House Conference, “ the stresses which bend the delinquent are of precisely the same character as those which bend our lives.” The important thing is to discover just what it was that caused the individual child to break the laws which society enacts to protect its own security, and why this particular child succumbed to temp tations when other children in his own environment were able to resist them. This can be done only by sympathetic as well as scien tific study of the delinquent himself, of his background, environ ment, and associations, mental attitudes, and physical characteris tics. I t means living his life over with him in its own setting. It is only by understanding what lies back of the delinquent act that those agencies especially intrusted by the State and municipality with responsibility for children definitely failing to live in accordance with the laws of organized society can attempt intelligent treatment and deal with children in a way that will strengthen them for social living and safeguard their right to security and development. In other words, since children are, in a sense, wards of the State, the state must deal with those who break its laws as a wise parent deals with children—on the basis of complete and intimate understanding. In the words of the delinquency committee of the White House Conference: Great are such powers of the State acting through its juvenile chancery courts, and great, accordingly, are the responsibilities of such courts both for the child and for the State. Needless to say, these responsibilities to-day are met unevenly, but it seems possible to indicate some of the ways in which they can be more fully met—some of the underlying principles, as we now see them, of fundamental worth. The more fully these are realized and tried out, the more clearly will still more worth-while principles become evident. The agencies upon which the State places responsibility for appre hension and treatment of delinquency are mainly the police, the courts, and the correctional institutions. These agencies will be discussed separately. 28 https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis TREATMENT OP DELINQUENCY 29 THE POLICE The police have been largely neglected in attempts to modify legal procedure in children’s cases and to build up specialized agencies for dealing with juveniles. Only occasionally do the police deal with children by other than the conventional methods used in deal ing with adults. Proposals to improve police administration include organization which will provide technical direction, establishment of police training schools, and development of specialized bureaus or depart ments for dealing with juvenile problems or for crime prevention. The instruction of all police officers should include information necessary to enable them to deal intelligently with the ordinary problems of child welfare with which they come in contact and to recognize the more serious problems requiring special attention. The preventive work of police departments is a growing activity not to be overlooked. For example, the crime-prevention bureau of the police department of New York City, established as an experi ment in January, 1930, was made permanent in June, 1931. This bureau has demonstrated methods of socialized treatment which may be used by the police in the prevention of crime and delinquency among minors. The effectiveness of cooperation of the police service with community agencies such as schools, boys’ and girls’ clubs, and the like, has been demonstrated in Berkeley, Calif., where the police chief has established a coordinating council composed of the exec utive heads of the several departments and meeting at intervals to discuss special problems and social treatment of individual cases. Such experience shows that it is important for each police depart ment to establish and maintain a department or detail to specialize in work with children. The delinquency committee of the White House Conference has described the form that such a detail should take. It should be an independent detail with rank at least equal to that of a precinct station, and the word “ crime ” should not ap pear in its title. Either the commanding officer or his first assistant should have had executive experience in social work. Both men and women should be assigned to this detail. They should be selected carefully, and only those should be retained who are suited by tem perament and training for this service. The work of such a detail should be directed toward the maintenance of clean community con ditions as well as service to individual children, putting the children in contact with courts or other agencies if need for intensive social treatment exists. The service of such a socialized police force could become an important factor in the prevention as well as in the treat ment of juvenile delinquency. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 30 FACTS ABOUT JUVENILE DELINQUENCY THE JUVENILE COURT Juvenile courts have been established in all States but two, but the full extent of the role they may play in the treatment of delinquency has not yet been fully or generally understood. As stated in the White House Conference report on “ The Delinquent Child,” “ Their primary function hinges on the fact that they are not looking out wardly at the act but, scrutinizing it as a symptom, are looking for ward to what the child is to become.” The question for the court is not one of leniency or mercy; it is one of ascertaining what is needed and acting accordingly with scrupulous justice. The court is con cerned to understand why the particular child is delinquent, and, on the basis of this understanding, to attempt intelligent treatment for proper adjustment toward responsible future living. In many places old theories persist along with the new. The minor delinquencies of children may be treated sympathetically in an effort to guide and adjust the child, while more serious offenses may be treated with severity and with little regard for causes or for what intelligent and understanding treatment may accomplish. A court equipped to deal with children’s cases should be available to every community. In 21 States and parts of 2 others, the jurisdic tion of the juvenile court extends up to the age of 18 years, or, in a few instances, to those over this age, but many exceptions and modifications in juvenile court laws limit the courts’ authority and permit criminal procedure in certain cases. It is fairly well accepted as a goal toward which to strive that juvenile-court jurisdiction should be exclusive at least to the age of 18 years, the juvenile-court judge having power to waive jurisdiction above the age of 16 in his discretion. The fundamental features of juvenile-court organization and the essentials of juvenile-court work have been outlined in the publica tion of the United States Children’s Bureau entitled “ JuvenileCourt Standards,” the work of a committee of experts appointed by the bureau, and in a standard juvenile court act drawn up by a com mittee of the National Probation Association. They have also been stated in the White House Conference report as follows: Qualified judges and probation officers.—The first essential for a juvenile court is to have judges and probation officers duly qualified in equipment and devotion for this exacting work, open-minded and alert, interpreting what has happened, understanding what lies behind, looking and thinking toward what is ahead. With such judges and probation officers seeking to understand the deeper significances presented by the problem, there is prospect of worth while endeavor to bring about whatever training and education is necessary, using to that end the parents and agencies of the community. Intimate procedure.—The second essential is for a court atmosphere of in timateness, where the delinquent and his parents, usually shocked and in dread, https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 31 TEE AT MEN-T OF DELINQ UENC Y may find that each has the right and the opportunity to speak freely with the judge. * * * * * * * Investigation for basic needs.—The probation officer makes a more intelligent social investigation when there is realization of the importance of discovering the basic needs of those involved. No longer is a report limited to making an inventory of the number of rooms and beds, amount of sun and food, the number in the household of the delinquent. Now the nature of the relation ship of one member of a family to another, their respective feelings and atti tudes, the needs of each, and of the family as a whole, become vital matters for inquiry, often disclosing the most significant factors to be dealt with. * * * * * * * The findings of this case-work and clinic study are brought to the judge. They include an analysis of the physical, mental, and emotional make-up of the delinquent himself, and in all his relationships, his needs for development and growth, how far they are met or thwarted, and how it is believed they may be met more fully or dealt with on the basis of compromise with the needs and forces about him. The purpose of all this is that there may be as full an understanding as possible, and that in the light of that understanding worth-while plans may be made for necessary training and education. Experimental attitude toward problem.—Obviously, as the case progresses and greater confidence is established, more accurate understanding is gained and more effective treatment attempted. While all this is going on, forces, or lack of forces, in the delinquent and those about him may result in further acts of delinquency and complicate the problem still more. Whether there are such acts or not, the child is changing from day to day, and the total situation changes. * * * Constructive use of segregation.—Approaching the problem with the keenest and most sympathetic study, the court will now and then find some delinquent who is so defective physically, mentally, or emotionally that segregation from the community in an institution equipped to deal with such an individual is the only proper treatment, both for his own sake and for the sake of the com munity. Epileptics and the low-grade feeble-minded who are a social danger are examples. When segregation is necessary, for such reasons, and only then, should it be, carried out. \Vhen the state, through its courts, so segregates an individual, it has the duty of providing the treatment and training the indi vidual needs for living out his life as completely as possible and for return to the community as a strengthened person, whenever possible, with such super vision as may be fiecessary. Change of environment to meet needs—The particular problem may be one which indicates a change of environment; but it always should be kept in mind that this uprooting, to some degree, often greatly, means abruptly breaking the present sense of security—the essentials of belonging, loyalties, and affec tions. Conscious consideration of the fundamental need of the child for security is necessary in weighing all the reasons for and against the uprooting. * * * In most cases the solution does not require segregation or uprooting. The court can cause the needed training and education to be carried out in other ways. Probation to establish right relationships.—The delinquent may be put on pro bation ; that is, he may be made the center of a cooperative endeavor to supply, so far as possible, what is lacking in his security and developmental needs in his many relations to himself, to his family, his school, his work, his church, https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 32 FACTS ABOUT JU V E N IL E DELINQ UENCY and his community, while at the same time due consideration is given to the basic needs of those about him. The probation officer seeks to bring about the needed, right relations. It is not his task to do this for the child but to make it more possible for the child and those about him to do it for themselves. Special problems in juvenile-court administration. The delinquency committee of the White House Conference col lected some facts and made some recommendations in regard to a few special problems of jurisdiction and administration which have been encountered by juvenile courts. The following is a brief sum mary of some of this material: Treatment of runaway children.—A serious problem is presented by the large number of boys and girls who in the course of a year run away from home and get into difficulties and so into the juvenile courts. Since these children are not members of the com munity in which they are apprehended, the courts are reluctant to accept permanent responsibility for them. The result is that they are frequently released with instructions to return home—a pro cedure often complicated by failure of their parents or of the local authorities to send money for their transportation. Community agencies should cooperate to prevent children from running away from home. Police and railroad officials should be instructed to watch out for children who appear to be strays or^J^. runaways and refer them to travelers aid or other suitable societies or to the juvenile court. Policewomen or police officers assigned to railroad stations and ship docks and agents of travelers aid societies can be of great help in solving this problem. In every community warnings should be broadcast to inform the general public of the harmfulness of giving children “ lifts ” on the road, as running away is often facilitated by unsuspecting motorists who accede to children’s requests and transport them long distances from their homes. As a result of experience certain standards for the treatment of runaway children have been developed which can not be applied in their entirety in times of unusual unemployment. In such periods thousands of young people leave home in search of work, often with the consent of their parents, and local resources are so overtaxed that it is almost impossible to obtain funds for the return of transients. The standards which follow are substantially those recommended by the committee on runaway children of the National Probation Association: 1. The child should be returned to his own home or to the jurisdiction of the juvenile court where he resides unless it be clearly established that it is against the best interest of the child to he returned to the home or community from which he has run away. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis / TREATMENT OF DELINQUENCY 33 2. Transportation for the child to his home should be obtained from the parents or from the home community, if possible; or if this is impossible, from sources in the community in which the child is apprehended. 3. No child should be returned to any locality until it is definitely established that he belongs there. 4. The child should be cared for in a detention home, boarding home, or elsewhere until he can be returned to his home or to the community where he belongs, reimbursement for this care to be obtained from the parents or the home community if possible. 5. The juvenile court in the community from which the child comes, in addition to the parents and guardians, should be notified of the whereabouts of the child. 6. The parents or guardian of the child should be required to come to the court if possible. If this is not possible, a probation officer or other responsible person should accompany the child to his home. If neither of these arrange ments can be made, the cooperation of travelers aid societies or other welfare agencies, railroad officials, or police should be obtained to make certain that the child does return to his home under such conditions as are necessary to insure his safety and welfare. 7. Active cooperation and interest of local authorities and agencies should be obtained to insure proper treatment of such children at the first point of contact rather than allowing them to pass from community to community. Prosecution of adults responsible for juvenile delinquency.—The child’s security and development are frequently thwarted by adults who, by their actions and conduct, become responsible for the delin quency of minors. For example, a great deal of stealing by children is furthered by the purchase of their stolen goods by junk dealers. Adults contribute to the delinquency of children in the cases of men responsible for or guilty of sex offenses with girls, in connection with the frequenting of pool rooms by boys, in the employment of minors contrary to the child labor laws, and in other similar situations. There seems to be great diversity in the provisions of statutes dealing with adults contributing to the delinquency of children. The fol lowing suggestions in regard to jurisdiction in such cases were made by the White House Conference: 1. It is believed that jurisdiction of the offense of contributory delinquency should be in the court which has jurisdiction of children’s cases, whether that court be the juvenile court or a family court with juvenile and domestic-relations jurisdiction. This plan makes for a more effective use of the law and for the protection of the child witness from the atmosphere and procedure of the criminal court, as well as providing means for social investigation and for the continuous treatment frequently necessary in such cases. 2. A statute dealing with contributory delinquency should allow a large range of methods of dealing with the offender because the situations involved vary so greatly. The range of penalties in the statute should vary from a small fine up to $500 or even $1,000 or a jail sentence of 1 day to 12 months, or both, with provision for the suspension of sentence and probation in the discretion of the court. Mere arrest and continuance of the matter on the docket without a sentence or fine is in some instances sufficient to secure the desired result. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 34 FACTS ABOUT JUVENILE DELINQUENCY 3. Even If the court has jurisdiction over juvenile cases only, it is believed generally desirable in dealing with contributory delinquency for the court to have jurisdiction over adults for this purpose and to this extent, both because it is often difficult to handle such cases effectively in the ordinary criminal court and because the court that deals with the child involved can best deal with the adult also. 4. In the case of serious offenses against children, such as rape, and certain crimes against boys, heavier penalties are required. Whether these offenses should be prosecuted in the juvenile court is a difficult question. The children involved need the safeguards which juvenile-court procedure affords, but the accused is charged with a most serious crime and is entitled to all the safe guards provided by the criminal law. Possibly concurrent jurisdiction should be given the juvenile court and the criminal court. In cases in which the criminal court takes jurisdiction, close cooperation should be maintained be tween this court and the juvenile court. Treatment of minors over juvenile-court age.—The principle has been generally accepted that offenders under 16 years of age should be dealt with by courts as wards of the State rather than as criminals. The committee on juvenile-court standards appointed by the Chil dren’s Bureau recommended an age limit for exclusive original juris diction in all children’s cases, not lower than 18 years. Twenty-six States and parts of three others meet or exceed this standard with regard to girls. Twenty-one States and parts of two others meet or exceed the standard for boys. Four States have made provision for specialized treatment of minors over juvenile-court age by courts other than juvenile courts, and in some cities certain cases of minors are heard in specialized branches of the municipal courts. In Chi cago a specialized branch of the municipal court is called the boys’ court. The Children’s Bureau made a study of this court and of certain cases dealt with by it in the years 1924 and 1925. On the basis of facts assembled in this study the bureau concluded that the same need for individual study and scientific treatment exists in the cases of boys between 17 and 21 years of age as in the cases of children within the jurisdiction of juvenile courts. Opinion is growing that it would be in the interest of law enforce ment and crime prevention if the State adopted a scientific approach to the problem of treatment of all offenders. Though this point of view is now influencing to some extent the treatment of adult offenders, the State apparently is not yet ready to adopt for them the theory which it has adopted for juveniles. I t should be possible, however, to include at least all minors in a program based on social readjustment rather than punishment. Federal juvenile offenders. In the last six months of 1930, 2,243 boys and girls under the age"of 18 years were held in jail on Federal charges. The problem of providing satisfactory care for children who have violated Federal laws is complicated by a dual judicial system whereby children are https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis TREATM ENT OF DELINQ UENC Y 35 subject to both State and Federal laws. Except in Federal territory the Federal Government has never made provision for special treat ment of juvenile offenders in the courts. They are subject to arrest, jail detention, and public trial in accordance with criminal proce dure, just as though they were adults. The Federal Government maintains the national training schools for boys and girls in the District of Columbia and vicinity to receive delinquent children com mitted by Federal courts throughout the country and from the Dis trict of Columbia Juvenile Court. Arrangements are made with certain State and local institutions by the Federal Government for the care of juvenile offenders. I t was not until 1925 that Federal courts had authority to place children or adults on probation, and it was not until 1930 that definite steps were taken to provide pro bation officers sufficient even to begin to meet the demands made upon them. The passage in 1919 of the national motor vehicle theft act, com monly known as the Dyer Act, brought within the jurisdiction of Federal courts boys who steal motor vehicles and take them from one State to another. A study made by the Children’s Bureau in 1918-19 showed that at that time more than half the commitments to the National Training School for Boys were for violations of postal laws. Information supplementary to this study, obtained for the White House Conference on Child Health and Protection, showed that in 1928 more than half the commitments were for violations of interstate commerce laws, notably the Dyer Act, and that slightly more than one-third were for violations of postal laws. Summariz ing the changes of the 10 years that elapsed between the two studies, the Children’s Bureau found that there has been a marked decrease in the number of children arrested for violation of postal laws, a decrease in the proportion of children under 10 years of age arrested, a tendency toward increased use of juvenile courts, increased use of probation, and decrease in institutional commitments by United States district courts. Commitments for violation of postal laws have decreased still further since 1928. A comprehensive study of methods of dealing with juvenile Fed eral offenders was made by Dr. Miriam Van Waters for the National Commission on Law Observance and Enforcement, under the joint auspices of that organization and the White House Conference. The principal recommendation was as follows: It is recommended that the Federal Government recognize the concept of juvenile delinquency and withdraw the child offender from the ordinary opera tion of Federal penal justice save in cases in which the local processes for deal ing with delinquent children prove to be or plainly are inadequate. The precise nature of legislation required to accomplish this result will have to be deter mined by expert legal research. The Federal law should have the same oppor tunity for the protection of childhood that States have achieved. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 36 FACTS ABOUT JU V E N IL E DELINQ UENCY A circular issued by the Attorney General, August 14, 1931, to all United States attorneys, commissioners, marshals, bureau of investi gation agents in charge, and prohibition administrators, stated that the policy established u is that, wherever practicable and consistent with the due enforcement of Federal statutes, juvenile delinquents who come into Federal custody will promptly be returned to the communities from which they come, for care and supervision or punishment by the State authorities.” “ You are requested,” the circular states, u to execute this policy in dealing with cases coming under your supervision until legislation is passed authorizing it.” A short time before the issuance of this circular the Attorney Gen eral requested the Children’s Bureau to cooperate with the Bureau of Prisons of the Department of Justice in developing a program of State and local cooperation with Federal authorities in the treatment of juvenile cases. With the approval of the Secretary of Labor, this work has been undertaken by the Children’s Bureau. The Bureau of Prisons has added to its staff an assistant supervisor of probation who will give major attention to juvenile cases. Through the co operation of the two bureaus, steps are being taken to develop a Federal-State working relation, that will insure the utilization of lo cal resources and special provisions for Federal offenders in the areas in which adequate local care can not be secured. On June 11,1932, President Hoover issued the following statement at the White House: I have to-day signed the bill authorizing the transfer of the cases of juvenile delinquents from the Federal system of criminal justice to juvenile courts in their home communities, provided these juvenile courts are willing to accept them. This measure is an important step forward in that it sets an example through its recognition by the Federal Government of the principle that even the relatively small number of juveniles in the Federal system should be handled on a modern scientific basis. It is also a recognition by the Federal Govern ment of the juvenile court as the proper place for the handling of the cases of all juveniles, and is an acceptance of the principle that juvenile offenders are the product of and the responsibility of their home communities. This step was recommended in one of the reports of the National Commission on Law Observance and Enforcement, was included in the recommendations in the President’s message to Congress, and has had the active interest and ap proval of social workers all over the country. The act authorizes the United States attorney of the district in which any person under 21 years of age has been arrested for a Fed eral offense to forego prosecution in a Federal court and to surrender him to State jurisdiction under the following conditions: (1) If after investigation by the Department of Justice it appears that he has committed a criminal offense or is a delinquent under the laws of any State that can and will assume jurisdiction over him and will take him into custody and deal with him according to its laws, and (2) if such surrender will be to the best interest of the United States https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis TREATMENT OP DELINQUENCY 37 and of the juvenile offender. The bill further provides that the juvenile offender must signify his willingness to be returned or his return must be demanded by the executive authority of the State. Expenses incident to the transportation are to be paid from the appropriations for salaries, fees, and expenses of United States marshals. AGENCIES AND INSTITUTIONS CARING FOR DELINQUENT CHILDREN With the development of community resources for dealing with problem children, increasing effort is being made to adjust the delin quent child in his own community, through social work in the schools, child-guidance clinics, probation, and other forms of public and pri vate social service. As a result, the tendency is to leave only the more difficult cases of juvenile delinquency for commitment to cor rectional institutions or for placement in foster homes. Care of the child in his own home under the supervision of welltrained and competent probation officers offers many possibilities for the education and guidance of parents as well as for treatment of the child. A child’s first right is to his home, and education in the family is a better preparation for life in the community than train ing in an institution. In some cases the child’s needs for security and development can not be met adequately in his own home, and the best possible sub stitute for normal home life in a foster home or in an institution must then be provided. Whichever type of care is chosen, the under lying purpose must always be to provide for the child’s needs for security and development which have been seriously thwarted before his removal from his own home, and in either case social agencies should cooperate to make his home environment suitable for his return. Institutional and foster-home care have been provided, in part, by the public, through State and local agencies and institutions, and in part by privately financed organizations. The appropriate depart ments of State government should exercise authoritative and com plete supervision over all State-supported institutions and agencies dealing with delinquent children and supervisory control over all other institutions and agencies with the object of assisting them to develop adequate personnel, facilities for care and training, and treatment based on knowledge of the particular needs and capacities of each child under care. Foster-home care of delinquent children. Placement of children in foster homes has been shown to be a successful method of treatment in many cases, especially when the https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 38 FACTS ABOUT JU V E N IL E DELINQ UENCY child has no serious mental or personality defects, and the practice should be extended. For most problem children of school age boarding-home care offers far greater possibilities than care in free homes, where the service the child can render in return for board and lodging is likely to be a major consideration. Many juvenile courts place with relatives children who can not be provided for satisfactorily in their own homes. Because placement with relatives maintains family ties and the sense of “ belonging,” that is, the security needs of the child, it often is preferable to place ment with strangers. I t should be used, however, only after careful study to determine whether or not the relatives will cooperate whole heartedly in the treatment and will be able to provide a home adapted to the child’s needs. I t has been found, as a result of experience, that the following considerations should be observed in the placement of children in foster homes: 1. As a rule, such service should be rendered by a public or private child placing agency working in close cooperation with the juvenile court. 2. The decision to place a child in a foster home should be made only after thorough study of the child, including social investigation and physical and mental examination. 3. The foster home should be selected with a view to the special needs of the child and the ability of the foster parents to give him the time, unselfish, effort and attention, training, and firm discipline that he needs for proper adjustment and development. 4. Supervision of children placed in foster homes should include frequent visits by properly qualified visitors who understand the child’s problems and are able to interpret them to the foster parents and guide the latter in helping the children to overcome their difficulties, and who can help the children them selves to make the necessary adjustments. Institutions for the care of delinquent children. The original purpose of institutional care of delinquents was to protect society by confining those who endangered its security. Now, however, it is gradually being recognized that the fundamental pur pose of such care is to adjust those children who, for one reason or another, can not obtain through any other agency the needed oppor tunity for development during the formative period of youth. The newer purpose of the institution is to deal with the child on the basis of careful, scientific, and understanding training and education and prepare him to return to the community as soon as there is assurance that he can fit into community life again. In other words, the institution is viewed as a place of first choice for treatment of certain types of children, notably those with inherent defects in will power and responsibility, and not as a place of last resort for children who have failed to respond to other types of treat ment. No institution, however good or understanding, can ever be made a satisfactory substitute for a child’s own family in the gen https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis TREATM ENT OF DELINQ UENC Y 39 eral social scheme. Nevertheless, placement in an institution should be advocated when study of definite, positive psychological needs in dicates that institutional treatment citn do more for a particular child than can be done by his own family or by some other type of treatment. Institutions in existence to-day represent almost every stage in the development of principles and methods of treatment for delin quent children. Their status is being affected by changing condi tions and newer developments in the field of child welfare which tend to reserve for the institution the most difficult problems, and to place upon the institution the obligation to utilize all that is now known of the scientific methods of treatment of the individual de linquent. This implies a constant process of education and reeduca tion of the personnel in charge of an institution, and a close relation ship between the institution and the communities which it serves. The following very general principles should be widely applied: 1. Institutions for delinquent children should be conducted as educational institutions and should be entirely free from the atmosphere or practices of penal institutions. They should not be subject to political control or interference. 2. The superintendent and staff of the institution should be selected on the basis of their special qualifications for the work. They should receive ade quate compensation, comparable to that provided for other public services in ■he educational and social fields, and no discrimination on the basis of sex should be made. Comfortable living quarters should be provided. Working hours should not be so long as to deaden initiative and interest through monot ony and fatigue, and reasonable provision should be made for vacations. Staff morale should be built up and maintained through constant effort on the part of the superintendent and the heads of departments. Every individ ual employee should understand the principal objectives of the school program, and should see clearly his own place and his own importance in the working machinery for carrying out that program. This is being most effectively done in those institutions where staff conferences are regularly held and intelli gently programmed. 3. The institution should provide an environment in which the child may lead a regular, fully occupied, wholesome life, with schooling, work, and play properly balanced. Every effort should be made to provide situations such as the child would meet in well-rounded community life, in home, school, and neighborhood. The institution must not lose sight of the fact that its task is not to adjust the child to its own routine but to prepare him for the more difficult adjustment to be made upon his return to his home community. The successful institution is the one which teaches the child to appreciate the difference between a citizen who is useful and one who is useless or destruc tive, which instills in the child a desire to become an independent, productive citizen, and which gives him confidence in his own capacity to achieve this goal. 4. The institution should give each child special study and . assistance in meeting his own personal and social problems. Such individualized treatment is exceedingly difficult to provide when cottage units house more than 25 or 30 children. The most progressive schools for delinquents have demonstrated not only that corporal punishment and other forms of physical restraint are https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 40 PACTS ABOUT JU V E N IL E DELINQ UENC Y unnecessary and in conflict with the whole objective of the institution but that better results can be obtained by other methods. The newer type of school has substituted individualized study and social treatment for mass repression and punishment. It has eliminated the “ disciplinarian ” who wielded the strap or the paddle and has installed in his stead the mentalhygiene expert. In the schools that have made the greatest progress the psy chiatric clinic has become the focal point for action. Clinic workers seek to discover the basic reasons for the child’s conflicts with community agencies prior to his commitment and with institutional authorities during his stay there. Having brought the difficulties to light, these clinic workers, in consul tation with other staff members, agree upon a plan for constructive treatment of that particular child. This type of treatment requires the closest and most sympathetic cooperation among those who are in direct contact with the child. The cottage father and mother, the classroom teacher, the shop supervisor, the work-squad instructor, the chaplain, the playground leader, the physician, the psychologist, the psychiatrist—all must work in harmony in each individual case. 5. Academic work in institutions is generally patterned after that in the local public schools. As many children committed to correctional institutions are seriously retarded in school, a challenge exists to improve upon methods that have failed to meet their needs. Careful classification and grading are needed to discover special aptitudes or handicaps, and modifications of teaching methods is necessary to serve types of children to whom ordinary methods of instruction are not adapted, and to permit progress on the basis of individual rather than class achievement. These, combined with instruction in small groups, not only are possible but are now being undertaken. In some institu». tions educators with imagination and initiative are modifying methods angi curricula in such a way as to arouse and hold the active interest of children who had formerly been rebellious truants. 6. Vocational training may be of considerable value to the older boys and girls. Almost without exception they must face the problem of earning a livelihood upon leaving the institution. The routine work of the institution is usually performed by the boys and girls themselves. When this work is so organized as to bring out all possible training aspects, it is not devoid of training value. But care should be taken to make sure that labor-saving devices and machinery are utilized to the fullest extent to save children from drudgery which develops no abilities and gives no new experience or sense of achievement. In assignments to work that has little or no training value, duties should be changed frequently, and the health and vocational needs of the child should always be given first consideration. Maintenance work should not usurp time needed for academic or vocational training and should be planned so as to observe both the spirit and the letter of State child-labor and school-attendance requirements. Many institutions are now developing courses which aim to provide prac tical trade training. In developing such courses the institution needs to bear in mind several things: The opportunities for employment in the various trades which w ill be open to the children upon their return to their home communities; the necessity of careful assignment of children on the basis of interests, aptitudes, school standing, and future placement; the requirement that instructors, to be successful, must be exceptionally well qualified by' temperament, training, and experience, and must be willing to keep constantly in touch with technical changes and developments in their particular fields. 7. While a child remains in the institution, a parole officer or other social worker should study home conditions and should seek in every way to prepare https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis TREATM ENT OF DELINQ UENCY 41 the home and the family for the child’s return. Since the home conditions have frequently been responsible in part for the child’s delinquencies, this will often mean the enlistment of a family case-work agency to carry on a vigorous family rehabilitation program during the period of the child’s com mitment. No child should be paroled or discharged from an institution until suitable arrangements have been made for his care in the community to which he is sent. 8. Paroled children should be given adequate supervision and assistance in making home, school, and vocational adjustments by properly qualified parole officers. No parole officer should be so burdened with cases that he is unable to give to each child the intensive friendly care that he may need during the first difficult weeks after his return. SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER READING 1. The court. Abbott, Grace: Case-Work Responsibility of Juvenile Courts. Social Serv ice Review, vol. 3, No. 3 (September, 1929), pp. 395-404. The Child, the Clinic, and the Court, pp. 217-330. Children’s Bureau, U. S. Department of Labor: The Child, the Family, and the Court; a study of the administration of justice in the field of do mestic relations, part 1, by Bernard Flexner, Reuben Oppenheimer, and Katharine F. Lenroot. Publication No. 193. Washington, 1929. 87 pp. ---------: Juvenile-Court Standards. Publication No. 121. Washington, 1923. 10 pp. ' • Youth and Crime; a study of the prevalence and treatment of delinquency among boys over juvenile-court age in Chicago, by Dorothy W\ Williams Burke. Publication No. 196. Washington, 1930. 205 pp. Cooley, Edwin J .: Probation and Delinquency; the study and treatment of the individual delinquent. Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of New York, 477 Madison Avenue, New York, 1927. 544 pp. Johnson, Fred R .: Probation for Juveniles and Adults; a study of princi ples and methods. Century Co., New York, 1928. 242 pp. Lou, Herbert H .: Juvenile Courts in the United States; their law and practice. University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, N. C., 1927 277 pp. U. S. National Commission on Law Observance and Enforcement: Report on the Child Offender in the Federal System of Justice, by Miriam Van Waters. Washington, 1931. 175 pp. White House Conference: The Delinquent Child, pp. 256-291. 2. Agencies and institutions caring for delinquent children. Child Welfare League of America (Inc.) : Detailed Standards of Children’s Aid Organizations and Outlines of Standards of Children’s Protective Societies and Institutions. New York, 1929. 22 pp. ---------: Standards for Institutions Caring for Dependent Children. New York, 1932. 39 pp. Children’s Bureau, U. S. Department of Labor: Child Placing; a handbook for child-placing societies, children’s homes, and other agencies and officials who place children for permanent or temporary care. In preparation. ---------: Handbook for the Use of Boards of Directors, Superintendents, and Staffs of Institutions for Dependent Children. Publication No. 170. Washington, 1927. 129 pp. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 42 FACTS ABOUT JU V E N IL E DELINQ UENCY 2. Agencies and institutions caring for delinquent children.—Continued. Healy, William, Augusta F. Bronner, Edith M. H. Baylor, and J. Prentice Murphy: Reconstructing Behavior in Youth; a study of problem chil dren in foster families. Judge Baker Foundation Publication No. 5. Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1929. 325 pp. Owings, Chloe: Women Police; a study of the development and status of the women police movement. Frederick H. Hitchcock, New York, 1925. 337 pp. Reckless and Sm ith: Juvenile Delinquency, pp. 253-284. Reeves, Margaret: Training Schools for Delinquent Girls. Russell Sage Foundation, New York, 1929. 455 pp. White House Conference: The Delinquent Child, pp. 291-325. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis NATIONAL, STATE, AND LOCAL COOPERATION IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF LOCAL RESOURCES The small extent to which resources for the prevention and treat ment of juvenile delinquency have been developed in rural com munities and small cities, and the generally inadequate facilities which exist even in the larger cities, indicate the need for effective leadership by a State agency. In rural communities some form of county organization which will afford skilled service in school-at tendance, juvenile-court, family-welfare, and child-protective work is needed. No State has as yet developed a complete State program for dealing with delinquency. If facilities are to be developed on a truly state-wide basis, State encouragement and guidance, and probably State financial aid, must be supplied for local communities. The service provided by the State should include at least the following: 1. Education of the public as to the meaning of juvenile delinquency, the Renditions contributing to it, and the resources that should be developed for its prevention and treatment. 2. Assistance in local organization through consultation service with reference to the kind of facilities needed, development of standards for the selection of personnel, provision of training facilities for prospective employees and persons already in the service, and advice in selection of workers. 3. Consultation service to local workers in problems encountered in work with individual cases or the correction of destructive community conditions. 4. Provision of specialized services and demonstrations such as psychiatric and psychological service, expert leadership in developing recreational re sources, and demonstrations of the value of social work in the schools and of probation work. 5. Assistance in developing adequate record keeping, and statistical service in assembling and interpreting the facts as to the extent and character of the delinquency problems of the State. 6. Provision of financial aid that will enable the poorer as well as the richer counties to develop more adequate programs. In States which have successfully developed cooperative plans of State and local welfare organization an excellent foundation has already been laid for more intensive, specialized service in dealing with delinquency problems. The Federal Government, through its research, fact-finding, and educational services and through its direct work with Federal juve nile offenders, can assist in nation-wide development of such a program. 43 https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 44 COOPERATION IN DEVELOPM ENT OF LOCAL RESOURCES SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER READING Children’s Bureau, United States Department of Labor: Public Child-Caring Work in Certain Counties of Minnesota, North Carolina, and New York, by H. Ida Curry. Publication No. 173. Washington, 1927. 96 pp. White House Conference: The Delinquent Child, p. 328-337. ---------: Organizations for the Care of Handicapped Children, National, State, and Local. Century Co., New York, 1932. 365 pp. ---------: The Children’s Charter. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis National Organizations from Which Bulletins and Suggestions May Be Obtained Children’s Bureau, United States Department of Labor, Washington, D. C. ( Single copies of bulletins may be obtained free of charge. ) National Probation Association, 450 Seventh Avenue, New York, N. Y. National Committee for Mental Hygiene, division on community clinics, 450 Seventh Avenue, New York, N. Y. National Committee on Visiting Teachers, affiliated with Public Education Asso ciation of the City of New York, 8 West Fortieth Street, New York, N. Y. Child Welfare League of America, 130 East Twenty-second Street, New York, N. Y. American Association of University Women, 1634 I Street, NW., Washington, D. C. Child Study Association of America, 221 West Fifty-seventh Street, New York, N. Y. National Recreation Association, 315 Fourth Avenue, New York, N. Y. Russell Sage Foundation, department of recreation, 130 East Twenty-second Street, New York, N. Y. Boy Scouts of America, 2 Park Avenue, New York, N. Y. tfirl Scouts, 670 Lexington Avenue, New York, N. Y. TOmp Fire Girls, 41 Union Square, New York, N. Y. Big Brother and Big Sister Federation, 425 Fourth Avenue, New York, N. Y. American Social Hygiene Association, 450 Seventh Avenue, New York, N. Y. O https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 45 https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis