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U N ITE D STATES D E P A R T M E N T OF LABOR
C H IL D R E N ’S B U R E A U ......................................... PU B LIC A TIO N No. 201

JUVENILE DELINQUENCY
IN MAINE

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UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF LABOR
JAMES J. DAVIS, Secretary

CHILDREN’S BUREAU
GRACE ABBOTT, Chief

JUVENILE DELINQUENCY
IN MAINE
«

Bureau Publication No. 201

U NITED STATES
GOVERNM ENT PRINTIN G OFFICE
WASHINGTON : 1930

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CONTENTS
•
Letter o f transmittal__________________________________________________________
Purpose and scope of the survey------------------------------------------------------------------State provision for the care of delinquent children--------------------------------------State department of public welfare______________________________________
Courts---------------------------------Jurisdiction and judges___________________________
Probation service----------------------------------------------State institutions______________________________________________
Child study________________________________________________________________
Extent of juvenile delinquency in Maine____________________
Cases reported_____________________________________________________________
Sex and age of children-----------------------------------------------------------------------------Methods of dealing with delinquent children in Maine______________________
Preliminary treatment of juvenile delinquency______ !_________________
Agencies responsible__________________________________________________
Investigation of complaints___________________________________________
Unofficial handling of cases___________________________________________
Case histories illustrating unofficial handling________________
W ork of the courts_________________________________________________________
Court procedure in official cases_____ _______________________________
Detention before and after hearings------------------------------------------------Disposition of cases by municipal courts and trial justices_______
Disposition of cases by superior and supreme courts______________
Case histories illustrating the work of the courts_________________
Probation___________________________________________________________________
Case histories illustrating probation________________________________
Provision for care of delinquent children away from their own homesCare in institutions__________________________________________________
Case histories illustrating commitment to the State training
schools______________________ .__________________________________
Case histories illustrating commitment to the State reforma
tory____________________________
Placement in family homes____________________________ 1______________
Case histories illustrating placement in family homes_______
Situations affecting the delinquency problem_________________________________
Enforcement of school attendance________________________________________
Regulation of employment of minors________
Prosecution of adults contributing to delinquency of children_________
Provision for recreation__________________________________________________
Recommendations___________________________________
Hi

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LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL

U nited S tates D epartm ent of L abor,
C hildren ’ s B ureau ,

W ashington, F ebruary 11,1930.
S ir : There is transmitted herewith a report on juvenile delin

quency in Maine made at the request of the State department of pub
lic welfare. The report consists o f a study o f the extent of juvenile
delinquency in Maine and the methods of dealing with juvenile de
linquents and o f detailed case histories o f a selected group o f children
who had come before the courts in a 6-month period. The survey
was made and the report written by members o f the social-service
division o f the Children’s Bureau.
Acknowledgment is made of the cooperation given the bureau
by the State department of public welfare and other agencies inter
ested in child welfare.
Respectfully submitted.
G race A bbott, C hief.
H o n . J am es J. D avis ,

S ecretary o f Labor .
v

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JUVENILE DELINQUENCY IN MAINE
PURPOSE AND SCOPE OF THE SURVEY
This survey o f juvenile delinquency in Maine was undertaken by
the Children’s Bureau at the request of the Department of Public
Welfare o f Maine, which, in accord with several other groups and
interested individuals, felt the need for more adequate provision for
the care o f juvenile delinquents. The Children’s Bureau was asked
to study the present methods of dealing with juvenile delinquents
and to suggest a program for providing more adequate care adapted
to the needs and conditions in the State.
As no records were kept of children who had come before the courts
in Maine, and as it was important to obtain as much information as
possible in regard to the juvenile-delinquency problem, the first step
in the study was the preparation and distribution o f forms to be
filled out by the courts, trial justices, police, sheriffs, probation
officers, and social workers throughout the State for all cases of
juvenile delinquency coming to their attention during the period
selected for study, February 1, 1928, to July 31, 1928. The informa
tion requested on these forms included name and address o f the child,
parents’ names, date of child’s birth, sex, date on which the child
came to the attention of courts or workers, charge or offense, action
taken, and date o f action. These record forms were distributed by
the State department of public welfare, which took the responsibility
for sending out follow-up letters early in the summer and also for
having the forms returned at the end of the period of study.
The investigation o f methods o f dealing with juvenile offenses
ineluded two aspects: First, a fairly complete study in selected
counties of the community resources for preventing delinquency or
for caring for delinquent children; and, second, detailed case histories
of the actual care given to a selected group of children who had
come before the courts in the 6-month period studied. In the
selection o f cases consideration was given to the various types of
dispositions used by the courts, especially probation and commitment
to the State school for delinquent boys, the State school for de
linquent girls, and the two reformatories. Forty-one cases were
studied. In every case the child was interviewed and his home was
visited. So far as possible interviews were also obtained with his
teacher, school principal, school-attendance officer, probation officer,
judge hearing his case, police, and any other workers having contact
with him. Most o f the cases selected had been under care in the
three counties (Cumberland, Androscoggin, and Penobscot) chosen
for intensive study, but a few cases were from two other counties
(Washington and Aroostook).
Although most of the field work was done in the five counties, a
number of other counties were visited and various persons who had
dealt with juvenile cases were interviewed. The field work was done
during the summer and early fall of 1928.
1

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STATE PROVISION FOR THE CARE OF DELINQUENT
CHILDREN
STATE DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC WELFARE

The State department of public welfare is responsible in large
measure for the care that is given in the State to dependent children.1
This department is authorized to provide for the maintenance and
education of all dependent and neglected children committed to it by
the courts and of dependent children placed in its custody by parents
or other persons. In cooperation with local boards it administers
aid given to dependent children in their own homes, generally known
as mothers’ aid.2 It is also responsible for investigation and super
vision o f all State charitable and correctional institutions and for all
institutions partly or wholly supported by State funds. A large
proportion of the private institutions and agencies in the State caring
for children are included in this last group.
The responsibility of the State department for delinquent children
is less comprehensive. Through its inspecting and supervising
powers the department is concerned with the development of ade
quate standards of care in the State school for boys and the State
school for girls. It is also authorized to provide care for children
who, because of willful neglect or failure of parents, have been found
frequenting places injurious to their morals and have therefore been
committed to the guardianship of the State by the courts.3
At the time o f the study the department had 14 field workers to
carry on its work with children throughout the State.
COURTS
JURISDICTION AND JUDGES

Some jurisdiction over dependent, neglected, or delinquent children
is vested in each of the courts of the State. At the time of this study
jurisdiction over delinquency cases was vested in 154 trial justices,
43 municipal and police courts, 4 superior courts, and the supreme
judicial court.4 Jurisdiction over dependency and neglect cases is
1 Rev. Stat. 1916, ch. 147, secs. 3-6, 9, 11. This department is so designated by Laws
o f 1927, ch. 48.
2 Laws of 1917, ch. 222, as amended by Laws of 1919, ch. 17, and Laws of 1929, ch. 204.
3 Rev. Stat. 1916, ch. 64, secs. 53-54, as amended by Laws of 1919, ch. 171, and Laws
of 1929, ch. 267.
4 Since this survey was made the statutes have been revised and amended by the eightyfourth legislature in an act effective Jan. 1, 1930. (Laws of 1929, ch. 141.) The four
superior courts of Androscoggin, Cumberland, Kennebec, and Penobscot Counties have been
united and consolidated into one court known as the superior court. Provisions have been
made for the appointment of three additional justices and for an extension of the powers,
duties, and jurisdiction of this court to all the counties in the State, trial terms to be held
at times and places designated by law. The jurisdiction of the superior courts, thus con
solidated into one court, is unchanged with respect to their judicial activities discussed in
this study. The powers, duties, and jurisdiction of the supreme court have been corre
spondingly modified so that the State now constitutes but one district within which this
court shall hold eight sessions each year at times and places specified by the chief justice-

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STATE PROVISION" EOR DELINQUENT CHILDREN

vested in the municipal courts o f cities and towns and in the probate
courts o f counties.5
Trial justices are appointed and commissioned bv the governor for
7-year terms, to act within the county from which they are appointed.
They are not required to be attorneys. Their services are paid for
by fees rather than salaries. Trial justices have original jurisdiction
concurrent with other courts over juvenile offenders.
Municipal and police court judges are required to be members of
the county bar. They are appointed by the governor and council
for 4-year terms.6 As a rule their judicial duties do not occupy
their full time, and most of them are practicing law. Although
provision is made for adjournment from time to time, municipal
courts are considered to be in constant session for the' trial o f
criminal offenses. (In some jurisdictions the judge o f the municipal
court occasionally transfers his juvenile cases to the court recorder
for hearing, although there appears to be no statutory authority for
such procedure.)
Municipal courts and trial justices have original and Concurrent
jurisdiction with certain restrictions as to territory over the followm g: Prosecutions under the child labor law; violation of school
attendance laws; desertion and nonsupport o f families; crimes
against children other than sex offenses; and commitment to State
training schools for boys'and for girls.7 Trial justices and municipal
courts do not have jurisdiction over juvenile cases in which the
offense if committed by an adult would constitute a felony. Such
cases are bound over to the higher courts.
Probate court judges are elected for 4-year terms at the biennial
general election. Their major activity is the administration o f es
tates of deceased persons, trusts created under wills, and wills.
These courts have concurrent jurisdiction*with municipal and police
courts in cases o f dependent or neglected children. They may
grant leave to adopt children, and they appoint guardians for
minors. They have jurisdiction as to persons under guardianship,
proceedings for support of family, and certain cases involving cus
tody o f children.
A superior court presided over by one justice had been established
at the time o f the study in Androscoggin, Cumberland, Kennebec,
and Penobscot Counties. Justices were appointed by the governor
and council for terms o f seven years. These courts had original
and appellate jurisdiction in all criminal matters in the respective
counties, except cases exclusively cognizable by municipal and police
courts or trial justices, and exclusive original jurisdiction in divorce
cases, including the awarding o f custody of children involved, and
illegitimacy cases.8 Children’s cases bound over or appealed from
the lower courts were heard at the quarterly terms o f the court when
criminal business was transacted.
q
1916, cb- 64> sec- 53> as amended by Laws of 1919, ch. 171, and Laws of
cn. 2,o i •
®Laws of 1917, eh. 269 ; Rev. Stat. 1916, Constitution, art. 6, sec. 8.
The supreme judicial and superior courts have concurrent jurisdiction except in schoolattendance cases. Rev. Stat. 1916, ch. 64, sec. 53, as amended by Laws of 1919, ch. 171,
and Laws of 1929, ch. 267 ; ch. 49, sec. 31 ; ch. 16, sec. 71 ; ch. 120, sec. 42, as amended
by Laws of 1923, ch. 157 ; ch. 125, sec. 26 ; ch. 144, sec. 3, as amended by Laws of 1921,
ch. 129 ; sec. 20, as amended by Laws of 1921, ch. 55 ; and sec. 23.
. , ? ev- Stat. 1916, ch. 102, sec. 3 ; ch. 65, sec. 2, as amended by special statutes estab
lishing superior courts, and sec. 14, as amended by Laws of 1917, ch. 175.
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J U V E N IL E DELIN 'Q U EN C Y I N M A IN E

The supreme judicial court, consisting of a chief justice and seven
associate justices appointed by the governor and council for 7-year
terms, has jurisdiction over all felonies and misdemeanors and all
civil actions and general superintendence o f all lower courts.
PROBATION SERVICE

Maine is one o f the few States having a state-wide probation serv
ice.9 According to the law, county probation officers handling both
adult and juvenile cases may be appointed by the governor with the
consent o f the council. At the time of the study such officers had
been appointed in 13 o f the 16 counties in the State.
A special legal provision is in effect in Cumberland County where
by probation officers are appointed by the judge o f the Portland
municipal court with the approval o f the judge o f the superior
court for the county. This law antedated the authorization o f state
wide probation service and was left unchanged. The term of office is
two years for the Cumberland County officers and four years for the
officers in other counties, probation officers being eligible for re
appointment.
Cumberland is the only county in which the probation work is on
a full-time basis. The probation officer has the assistance of a full
time associate probation officer; both are men. Each o f the other
counties may have, if the governor and council consider it necessary,
one or more associates who may be women. At the time o f the study
two women were serving; one as an associate, the other as the only
officer actively engaged in probation work in her county.
The law requires only that a probation officer be a citizen of the
county in which he is appointed and of good moral character. So
far as could be learned, the officers had had little if any special train
ing or experience to fit them for the work. This is illustrated to
some extent by the fact that most of them were devoting the greater
part of their time to such various occupations as chief of police, rail
road detective, insurance agent, clergyman, deputy sheriff, and store
keeper.
The duties o f the county probation officer are definitely prescribed
in the statutes.10 He serves all the courts hearing criminal cases and
supervises adult and juvenile offenders placed on probation by these
courts. He is expected to attend the supreme judicial court or su
perior court during the times when persons convicted o f crimes are
sentenced; and so far as the performance of his duties permits, he
is also expected to attend the sessions of other courts having criminal
jurisdiction in his county. His services on these occasions consist
in giving to the court upon request “ such information with refer
ence to any individual accused or convicted of crime as shall be in
his possession.” 11
In addition to these general duties, probation officers may provide
some special service for children; they may serve as truant officers,
assume custody of children pending trial, and make investigations
o f cases previous to the hearing if called upon by the judge.12
8 Rev. Stat. 1916, ch. 137, sec. 10, as amended by Laws of 1923, ch. 6 ; secs. 11—18;
sec. 19, as amended by Laws of 1919, ch. 76; secs. 20-24.
10 Id.
11 Ibid., sec. 11.
M Ibid., secs. 1 5-18; sec. 19, as amended by Laws of 1919, ch. 76; secs. 20, 21, 23.

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STATE PROVISION FOR D E L IN Q U E N T C H IL D R E N

Although these services have been given to children in isolated cases,
the juvenile work done by probation officers was found to be pri
marily supervision of children placed on probation by the courts.
In several of the counties visited adult work only was done by these
officers.
STATE INSTITUTIONS

Institutional care is provided for boys 11 to 16 years o f age,
inclusive, in the State school for boys and for girls of 9 to 16 years
in the State school for girls. These two schools are fairly similar
to State training schools elsewhere. Both are built on the cottage
plan. The school for boys has four cottages built on the dormitory
plan, each with a capacity of 35 boys, under the supervision o f a
“ cottage master ” and “ house mother.” The school for girls has five
cottages, accommodating from 12 to 45 girls (total capacity 150);
several of these cottages have 2, 3, 4, and 5 bed dormitories, but the
majority o f the rooms are single; each cottage is under the super
vision of a matron, and each ox the four larger ones also has a resi
dent teacher and a housekeeper.
Boys over 16 years o f age may be committed to the State reforma
tory for men; but, in case of an offense punishable by imprisonment
for less than life, the court may commit boys to the age of 17 to the
State school for boys.18 Girls over 16 may be committed to the State
reformatory for women, but girls under 17 found leading an “ idle or
vicious ” life or in danger of becoming immoral may be committed
by the court to the State school for girls.14 The reformatories make
no attempt to give special care to such offenders but treat them as
if they were adults.
CHILD STUDY

Legal provision has been made in Maine for extension services to
be given by the two State hospitals in the district served by these
institutions to school children who are “ nervous, psychopathic, re
tarded, defective, or incorrigible ” and to “ children referred to the
department o f juvenile courts.” 15 Although there has been no “ de
partment of juvenile courts,” these two institutions have given their
services to children in their immediate neighborhood, when called
upon.
18 Rev. Stfit. 1916, ch. 144, sec. 3, as amended by Laws of 1921, ch. 129; Laws of 1919,
ch. 182, sec. 1, as amended by Laws of 1923, ch. 58.
14 Rev. Stat. i916, ch. 142, sec. 61, as amended by Laws of 1919, ch. 106; and ch. 144,
sec. 20, as amended by Laws of 1921, ch. 55.
13 Laws of 1919, ch. 232, sec. 4.

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EXTENT OF JUVENILE DELINQUENCY IN MAINE
CASES REPORTED

Records of 359 cases of juvenile delinquency occuring in the 6month period of the study were obtained from various agencies
(courts, law-enforcing officers, the department o f public welfare, and
several private agencies doing case work for children) to whom
record forms had been sent to be filled out and from the records of
the State institutions for juvenile delinquents and of two private
institutions caring for delinquent girls needing maternity care.
About half the cases (186) were reported by only one agency; the
rest were reported by two or more.
The 359 cases recorded do not represent the total amount of
juvenile delinquency in Maine dealt with officially or unofficially in
the 6-month period. In addition, several persons reported cases
which they had handled unofficially without having kept any record
of them. Moreover, although many agencies and individuals receiv
ing the record forms had taken great care to enter on them informa
tion in regard to all cases o f delinquent children under 18 years of age
or to report that no such cases had come to their attention, nearly a
third o f the municipal court judges and trial justices and nearly half
o f the police officers made no report whatever.
The reporting o f cases was much more complete in some counties
than in others. No reports of cases were received from any of the
courts or law-enforcing officers in two counties (O xford and
Piscataquis), whereas a fairly complete record o f cases was obtained
from these sources in the three counties (Androscoggin, Cumberland,
and Penobscot) in which the agents of the Children’s Bureau made
an intensive study. The lack of correlation shown in Table 1 be
tween the number of delinquency cases o f children 7 to 17 years of
age reported for each county and the total number o f children of the
same ages in the county would seem to be a further indication of
incomplete reporting.
T able 1.— jPopulation 7 to 17 years of age, inclusive, in 1920 1 and number of
eases of delinquent children reported dealt with by courts and agencies in
counties of Maine during the 6-month period, February 1 to July 31, 1928

County

Kennebec___________
Lincoln______________

Population
7 to 17
years1

Delin
quency
cases

County

Total reported—Contd.

151,573

359

j j g 573

357

Penobscot___________

12,875
21,074
22,314
3,708
5,997
11,796
4, 273
2,890

74
19
103
5
4
24
5
1

Sagadahoc___________
Somerset____________
Waldo..........................
Washington__________
York________________

Population
7 to 17
years 1

Delin
quency
cases

7,478
17,462
3,780
3j 838
7,503
3,762
9,227
13,596

Not reported____________

l Fourteenth Census of the United States, 1920, vol. 3, Population, pp. 411-412. Washington, 1922.

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46
25
7
10
10
22
2

EXTENT OE JUVENILE DELINQUENCY

XUuiijblrjb Ux J.dA4& LIBAAiil

Delinquency ratios based on the number o f delinquent children
dealt with by the courts in a year for each 1,000 estimated popula
tion o f juvenile court age have been calculated for 31 courts serving
a city or a county of an estimated population of 100,000 or more that
reported to the Children’s Bureau in 1928.1 Delinquency ratios for
boys varied in different localities from 2.5 to 53.5, being much higher
than those for girls, which ranged from 0.6 to 10.5. In Utah, the
only State from which reports were received from all courts, the
ratio for boys was 29.6 and for girls 4.1. Some o f the factors that
seem to influence the delinquency ratios in different localities are the
age period over which the juvenile court has jurisdiction, the percent
age of urban population in the area served, and the relation of the
court to the police department and to the schools. I f either o f the
latter is dealing with a large number of problem children without
referring them to the court, the delinquency ratio of the court will
be correspondingly lower.2
The 359 cases reported in Maine included only 214 cases that had
come officially before the courts, the remaining cases having been
dealt with unofficially by some other agency. A ll these would prob
ably have been considered court cases by courts adequately equipped
to deal with juvenile delinquents. Because of incomplete reporting
and the short period during which cases were recorded, no attempt
has been made to calculate delinquency ratios for the Maine coun
ties. The number o f cases reported from the different counties in
Maine for the 6-month period is small, however, compared with the
number of cases reported to the Children’s Bureau by most o f the
courts serving counties of comparable size. The number of cases
reported for the State as a whole is also small compared with the
2,589 delinquency cases reported for the calendar year 1928 by the
juvenile courts or Utah.
SEX AND AGE OF CHILDREN

As 21 o f the children reported had committed two or more offenses
during the 6-month period, the 359 cases involved 335 children—255
boys and 80 girls. The proportion of girls among the delinquent
children in Maine is somewhat higher than the proportion reported
by the juvenile courts which reported to the Children’s Bureau in 1928.
More than half these girls, however, had been reported by agencies
other than courts.
The ages of the children are shown in Table 2. More than a third
o f the boys whose exact age was reported were under 14 years o f age,
but only a fifth of the girls were as young. The number of 14 and
15 year old children was about the same as the number of 16 and 17
year old children. This age distribution o f the children who com
mitted delinquencies in Maine is similar to the age distribution o f
children dealt with either officially or unofficially by the juvenile
courts reporting to the Children’s Bureau having jurisdiction over
children under 18 years o f age.
1 On July 1, 1929, about 150 juvenile courts were reporting to the Children’s Bureau in
connection with a plan for obtaining uniform statistics of delinquency, dependency, and
neglect cases dealt with by juvenile courts. Sixty-five courts reported cases for the entire
calendar year 1928.
2 Juvenile Court Statistics. 1928, p. 6. U. S. Children’s Bureau FubUcation No. 200.
Washington, 1830.

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J U V E N IL E D E L IN Q U E N C Y I N

M A IN E

T able 2.— Age and sex o f children dealt w ith ; delinquency cases reported during
the 6-month period, February 1 to July SI, 1928
Children dealt with in delin
quency eases
Age

Total

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Boys

Girls

335

255

292

225

13
35
48
99
97

13
30
39
71
72

5
9
28
25

METHODS OF DEALING WITH DELINQUENT CHILDREN
IN MAINE
PRELIMINARY TREATMENT OF JUVENILE DELINQUENCY
AGENCIES RESPONSIBLE

In Maine no one agency has been made responsible for caring for
juvenile delinquents. Complaints of offenses committed by children
are received by judges, law-enforcing officers,1 school-attendance offi
cers, agents of the State department o f public welfare, and repre
sentatives of private welfare organizations. Frequently several o f
these agencies receive complaints concerning the same child, and
each of them undertakes to do something; but all too often they fail
to coordinate their efforts and, because no one o f them assumes full
responsibility, each depends on the other to do the actual work.2
Consequently, except in communities where an interested judge or
some one of the above-mentioned agencies and individuals has defi
nitely volunteered to do constructive work with young offenders,
law-enforcing officers have assumed the initial responsibility. They
decide whether a child is to be taken into custody, whether he should
be referred to the court, and whether he should be detained pending
court action. The courts rarely assume responsibility for deciding
whether a case should be made official.
Even after a child’s case has been made official3 responsibility is
divided frequently between lower courts and courts o f general juris
diction. A lower court can give only a preliminary hearing to
a child who has committed an offense which, if committed by an
adult, would constitute a felony, and, if the evidence warrants it,
must bind him over to a higher court as if he were an adult offender.
In the 214 cases reported by the courts for the 6-month period, 44
children had been bound over in this way, the responsibility for
them thus being shared by two courts as well as by such agencies
as may have dealt with them before the court hearing.
Under juvenile court procedure the court itself determines through
its judge or probation officer, after careful investigation, whether a
case is to be made an official court case, and what action should be
taken. Its judgment is final and there is no need to bind a child
over to a higher court.
INVESTIGATION OF COMPLAINTS

Investigation of the social background and personality problems of
juvenile delinquents before deciding upon the treatment needed, one
1 Law-enforcing officers include sheriffs, deputy sheriffs, police officers, police matrons
or policewomen, marshals, and constables.
2 For examples of this divided responsibility see the cases of Lucy P „ p. 47 • Ernest and
Norma P., p. 67 and Randolph L., p., 79.
3 A case is considered official if it has been entered upon the court calendar or docket
and a petition or other legal paper for adjudication by the judge has been filed.

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J U V E N IL E D E L IN Q U E N C Y I N

M A IN E

of the most important steps in juvenile-court procedure, is almost
unknown in Maine. Without such an investigation the court or
other agency is not in a position to determine with confidence what
has caused the delinquency and hence how it can best be treated. A
general acquaintance with the child and his family will not answer
such specific questions as whether Johnnie’s adenoids or poor eyesight
may be causing his lack of interest in school work and his conse
quent “ truancy ” ; whether an unusual degree of mechanical skill
without proper means of expression is resulting in his “ automobile
larceny , and whether arduous home duties with lack o f recrea
tional opportunities or family quarrels are leading Johnnie’s sister
into “ danger o f falling into habits of vice and immorality.” Such
questions can be answered only by a study of the child’s mental,
physical, and environmental conditions, of his school and work
history, and of his play activities and companions.
Maine is not without facilities for child study, but the facilities
are limited to certain localities. The State school for the feeble
minded, the State hospital for the insane, the New England Home
for Little Wanderers, one or two private hospitals, and local phy
sicians have shown their willingness to cooperate in providing mental
examinations, but apparently they are called upon in extreme cases
only. O f the 41 children included in the case studies, only 1 had
been examined by a psychiatrist (see the case of Henry B., p. 34);
and, although a large proportion of these children were retarded
in school, none had been studied with a view to discovering whether
mental defect or personality difficulty was involved. In three of
the court hearings attended in the course of the study the mental
retardation of the child was recognized by the court and considered
in making the disposition, but in none of these cases was a mental
examination made or even suggested.
Similarly, local health officers and private physicians are available
for physical examinations, but at present physical examinations are
ordered only when the disposition o f the case depends on proof of
venereal infection. The courts are inclined to believe that for chil
dren committed to the State schools the physical examination given
on admission is sufficient and that for children disposed o f otherwise
no physical examination is necessary.
Schools and social agencies— as, for example, the State depart
ment o f public welfare, New England Home for Little Wanderers,
Children’s Protective Society, and family-welfare and child-caring
agencies and institutions— are all potential sources of information
concerning the history of the child and his family. From school
records and from teachers much valuable information may be ob
tained about the child’s ability, his attendance, his interests, and
something about his behavior in school. In most o f the localities
visited in Maine the lack o f accurate records of transfers between
public and parochial schools increased the difficulty o f obtaining in
formation from the schools. Although agencies not infrequently
volunteer much information about cases appearing before the courts,
and in special cases are called on by the judge to assist in reaching a
decision, their records are not automatically consulted in all cases as
no one is responsible for clearing delinquency cases with these
agencies.

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The lack o f social investigation o f juvenile delinquents in Maine
is not due, therefore, entirely to the absence o f facilities and sources
o f information, but is due partly to the fact that most of the com
munities have designated no one person or agency to be responsible
for this process and the courts have not recognized this as their
duty.
UNOFFICIAL HANDLING OF CASES

Types of cases handled unofficially.

In any community, even though it has a juvenile court, the police
are likely to deal with. children committing minor offenses without
referring them to the court. I f they find a group of boys gambling
in an alley or two girls loitering on the streets after dark, they may
consider a simple warning sufficient to prevent any repetition o f the
offense, and therefore see no need for referring these children to the
court. In Maine, however, this practice has been extended to in
clude offenses more serious than those indicated above. This may
readily be seen from Table 3.
T able 3.— Charge and manner of handling case, and sew of children dealt w ith ;
delinquency cases reported during the 6-month period, February 1 to Julv
SI, 1928
Delinquency cases

Handled officially

Charge
Total

Total.___________________________

Total
cases

Boys’
Cases

Handled unofficially

Girls’
cases

Total
cases

Boys’
cases

Girls*
cases

359

214

179

145

355

213

178

142

Stealing............................................. .......
Automobile stealing_______________
Breaking and entering.......................
Breaking, entering, and larceny
Other stealing____________________

189
18
23
43
105

144
14
18
39
73

141
14
17
39
71

5
4
32

4
30

Truancy______________________
Bunning away_________________
Ungovernable_____________ .
Sex offense___________ ____ _______
Injury to person....................................
Traffic offenses................. .............
Violating liquor or drug law or intoxication________________
Acts of carelessness or mischief
Other_________________

20
29
16
56
3
7

3
32
2
5

2
4
2

1
28

7
21
7

4
7
3

Total reported ...

Not reported............ .....................

7
29
13
24

5
i

g
23

A ll the cases o f running away, more than half the cases of ungov
ernability and carelessness and mischief, and a large proportion of
the cases o f sex offense and of stealing were handled unofficially; that
is, without court action. The greatest number and largest propor
tion o f cases of stealing handled without court action fall in the
group “ other stealing,” which includes such forms of petty larceny
as the taking o f candy bars, small sums of money, and articles of no
great value, whereas only a small number come under the more
serious types of stealing, such as automobile larceny. The reason
98523°— 30----- 2

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for dealing with these cases unofficially may be that in Maine court
action for children frequently means the same criminal record, and
possibly the same criminal procedure, that is used for adults. Con
sequently many people are anxious to dispose of children’s cases
without court action even when the offense is of a rather serious
nature. This situation is illustrated by the fact that more than half
the girls’ cases were disposed of without court action, the desire
to shield the girls from a criminal record being even greater than the
desire to protect the boys.
The largest number of children dealt with unofficially were re
leased—sometimes with a warning, a reprimand, or a threat, but
seldom with any constructive action having been taken. The run
aways, although returned to their homes or institutions, might also
be considered as released. The cases reported in which definite
action was taken were those of 2 children kept under supervision and
of 11 children, all of whom were girls, placed under the care of other
agencies and institutions.
Some of the unofficial dispositions were made with a true socialwork approach. Several judges and a few law-enforcing officers re
ported that they conferred with the child’s parents before disposing
o f the case, and some reported that they made an effort to keep in
touch with the child after the disposition. But most of them after
disposing of the immediate problem left the child to his own devices,
never giving the parents an opportunity to help with the treatment.
It is not surprising, therefore, that presently these children make a
second and third appearance as offenders and ultimately must be
dealt with officially by the courts.
Persons handling cases unofficially.

In the 27 communities visited in the course o f the study 12 mu
nicipal court judges and 1 trial justice reported that they handled
some cases unofficially. Some of them cited examples of cases so
handled. One judge told of having received a complaint from the
owner of a boathouse which had been forcibly entered by a group
o f boys; the owner wished to have the boys warned but did not
desire official court action; the judge accordingly spoke with the
boys in private and arranged for them to come to his home once a
week to talk over their activities and make an effort to keep out of
mischief. Another judge had received a complaint from a mother
who was having difficulty with her daughter; he spoke to the girl
at length in his office, but took no official court action. Several
similar cases were reported in interviews, but only one was actually
recorded. It is difficult to say, therefore, how many unofficial dis
positions are made by judges. O f the 145 cases reported as disposed
o f unofficially, 116 were disposed o f by law-enforcing officers 4 and
only 29 by other agencies and individuals. Moreover, when these
29 are divided among the 8 agencies responsible for them, the sig
nificance o f the law-enforcing officer becomes even more apparent.
4
Twenty-nine of these dispositions were made by police matrons. Policewomen, or
matrons, were reported as doing unofficial work with children in five Maine communities.
The general duties of these officers varied, but they included the administration of the local
poor-relief fund, doing municipal welfare work, visiting public amusement places, patrol
ling the streets, assisting the police department in making investigations, arrests, and
raids, and conducting women and girls to the State institutions to which they were
committed by the courts.

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These figures bear out the natural presumption that the agencies
assuming the initial responsibility for a child frequently also make
an unofficial disposition.
It is inevitable that when this work is being done by a consider
able number o f persons, representing a wide range o f training and
experience, the policies guiding their decisions will be not only varied
but inconsistent.
In the cases reported to the Children’s Bureau during the 6-month
period o f the study the extent to which cases were disposed of by
agencies other than the courts varied greatly in the different coun
ties. (T ableé.)
T able 4.— Manner of handling case, by counties; delinquency cases reported
during the 6-month period, February 1 to July 31, 1928
Delinquency cases
County
Total

Delinquency cases

Handled Handled
officially unoffi
cially

Total________

359

214

145

Total reported_____

357

214

143

74
19
103
5
4
24
5

29
18
63
5
2
14
1

45
1
40

Androscoggin___
Aroostook........
Cumberland____
Franklin_______
Hancock_______
Kennebec.
Knox__________

2
10
4

County
Total

Handled Handled
officially unoffi
cially

Total reported—Con.
Oxford
Sagadahoc_____

Waldo................

25
7
10

7
7
10

York

2
10
18

In Androscoggin County, where the law-enforcing officers have
adopted a definite policy of dealing with minor and first offenders
without court action, the number o f cases so dealt with exceeds the
number handled by the court; in Penobscot County, on the other
hand, the opposite seems to be true, and the majority of cases are
disposed of by the court.
Unofficial case work is not incompatible with good juvenile court
procedure. On the contrary, under such procedure it is considered
desirable to adjust cases without formal court action whenever
feasible.6 But in a well-organized juvenile court the unofficial as well
as the official work is done by qualified officers who make the child’s
welfare, as determined by information concerning his needs and the
conditions under which he lives, the primary consideration in deter
mining the action to be taken.
Case histories illustrating unofficial handlmg

The principal question to be kept in mind in considering the cases
handled unofficially is whether or not it is to the child’s advantage
to let the police officers or other individuals handle his case without
referring it to the court.
»Juvenile Court Standards, p. 3.
Ington, 192o,

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In the case histories that follow, the patient and kind-hearted
efforts—in the one case by the police, in the other by the city welfare
worker—to keep Tito V. and Alta Z. out of court merely postponed
the moment when the court entered into the situation to inquire into
the reasons for Tito’s automobile larceny and Alta’s apparent way
wardness and to plan to help these children according to their needs
and the resources available. When the court finally did take action,
its attitude was that the children had already been given every chance
and were fit subjects for commitment to the State school.
In the case of Edna C. the social agency recognized Edna as a
“ predelinquent ” child “ in circumstances of manifest danger of
falling into habits o f vice or immorality,” but dropped the case
without taking action.
The stories of Colette Y. and Bertha N., on the other hand, illus
trate apparently successful unofficial adjustment, for the police
matron, by talking with Colette and by sending Bertha to an insti
tution, managed to solve the immediate problems. At the same
time they illustrate a complete lack of constructive planning, as the
police matron did not arrange for better supervision or active recrea
tion for Colette’s after-school hours, nor did she recognize that what
Bertha probably needed was not additional institutional experience
but supervision in a normal family home.
TITO V.

Native w hite; parents born in Italy.
Age at time of offense, 33.
Municipal court, April 12, 1928: Stealing; placed on probation. April 25, 1928:
Stealing; committed to State school for boys.
Family at time of disposition: Parents married and living together; brother 11,
sister 7, at home.
Tito is a handsome lad, slender and well proportioned, with clear eyes and
rather fair complexion. H e is neat and clean (except in the care of his
teeth) and, according to his mother, has always taken so much pride in keeping
his clothes in good condition that his friends have nicknamed him “ the sheik.”
His manner is frank and pleasing, and for a boy of his age he has unusual poise.
The little street on which the Y. family live is directly behind the city’s
main business district. It is untidy, with shabby, dilapidated buildings and
ugly yards. The neatest house on either side is the one owned by Mr. Y.
It is in better repair and has been painted more recently than the rest, and
Mrs. V .’s flower boxes help to make it look cheerful. It has only four rooms—
two bedrooms, a living room, and a kitchen— and a bathroom. Opposite the
house is a laundry garage.
Mr. V. is a skilled cabinetmaker and is a foreman in the factory in which
he is employed. He has worked steadily for 14 years and has in addition
taken orders for work which he has done in his spare time at home. Mrs. V.
is a very motherly woman, devoted to her children and sincerely anxious about
their future welfare. She takes in dressmaking from time to time in an
effort to help her husband save so that they may give their children every
advantage and, as soon as possible, move into a better neighborhood. Both
Mr. and Mrs. V. attend church regularly. At one time they also attended
English classes and social activities in a settlement house that has since gone
out of existence. The two boys have been members of a well-conducted boys’
club.
Last spring Tito was in the eighth grade of a private school. Because of a
chauge in teachers no record of his work could be found, but he liked school.
He used to play basket ball once a week with his classmates. He enjoyed read
ing and took books from the library.
For a while he also took drawing
lessons. He usually went to the “ movies ” two or three times a week, and
during the winter spent some of his evenings reading or playing games at the
boys’ club.
During the summer preceding his delinquency he worked as an errand and
stock boy in a grocery store. He earned $5 a week, giving it all to his mother,
who returned some of it for spending money.

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Both mother and father were emphatic in praising Tito’s conduct. They
were willing to grant that Leo, the younger boy, was not always faultless, but
they considered Tito exceptionally well behaved.
Last winter Tito found a new friend, a little orphan who had been brought
up in a shiftless and undisciplined way. He used to bring the boy home with
him, asking his mother to give him food and clothing. Together the two would
go to the garage across the street and watch the drivers clean and repair
trucks. Tito was quick at learning the mechanics of automobiles and was soon
eager to try driving.
One day the two boys entered a parked car and took a ride. They were
picked up by the police, reprimanded, and sent hom e; but as neither the police
nor the boys reported the incident to the parents, the latter remained in ig
norance of it.
No record was kept of the offenses committed by Tito or of the action taken,
but from various accounts it appears that Tito repeated the offense. The police,
still being reluctant to give the boy a “ criminal record,” placed him on
unofficial probation, and the boy, in a daring spirit, reported for probation in
a “ borrowed ” automobile. Once again he drove off in a stranger’s auto
mobile, and then the patience of the police was at an end and he was
brought to court. In order that the municipal court might retain jurisdic
tion, the county attorney nol-prossed so much of the charge as was in excess
of $50 in value. Tito was found guilty of automobile larceny and was placed
on probation for two years.
The secretary, of a children’s agency, knowing Mr. and Mrs. V . from the
days of their settlement classes, was deeply concerned when she heard of
Tito’s court experience and at once arranged to see the boy. She learned
his whole story, discussed the situation with the parish priest, and tried
to get Tito into a Boy Scout troop. Thinking that his craving for excitement
might be due to an adolescent conflict, she suggested to Mr. V. that he talk
to him about his problems, and when Mr. V. confessed his inability to do so,
she herself talked to Tito.
Meanwhile the parents were also making efforts to keep the boy out of
difficulty. Mr. V. appealed to his employer, who gave Tito a job as janitor
for after-school hours and Saturdays. Mrs. V. opened a savings account for
Tito in the hope that by depositing a little each week he would have enough
to buy an automobile of his own on reaching his sixteenth birthday.
About two weeks after the court hearing, however, Tito, on his way to a
Boy Scout meeting, saw an automobile parked on the street. He had no sooner
entered it than he was arrested.
This time the patience of the court as well as of the police was at an end.
Tito was committed to the State school for boys in spite of the pleas of his
parents, of a lawyer who offered to find a private boarding school, and of the
secretary of the children’s agency, who wanted to give the boy another chance.
Tito’s conduct at the State school for boys is highly satisfactory. His
institutional duties are in the laundry, where in the opinion of the laundry
matron he does very well. He is still doing eighth-grade work.8 For recreation
he takes part in the baseball games, beadwork, and similar occupations pro
vided by the institution. He is not resentful of the treatment accorded him,
but thinks he deserved commitment and will profit by the experience.
ALTA z .

Native white of illegitimate birth ; father white, nativity not reported; mother
native white.
Age at time of offense, 14 or 15.
Municipal court, July 23, 1928: Sex offense; committed to State school for girls.
Family at time of disposition : Father unknown; no home maintained by mother;
child living with maternal uncle and aunt and their boy 13, girl 9.
Alta appears to be a bright and healthy girl. She has dark hair and is neat
and rather pretty. She seemed at ease during the interview and answered
questions readily. There has been some question as to her mental capacity, but
she has never been given a mental examination.
Mrs. Z. is said to be mentally deficient and barely able to support herself.
After her daughter’s birth Mrs. Z. married, but left her husband after a short
time without obtaining a divorce. She has since married another man, whom
she also left after a few weeks. From time to time, she works as a domestic,
usually living at her place of employment.
8 See p. 51 for discussion of school facilities in State school for boys.

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Alta lived with her maternal grandmother until she was about 13 years
of age, her mother occasionally living with them. She seems to have given
no trouble at this time. One day a city welfare worker received a report to
the effect that the grandmother was ill and that Alta was being neglected.
The welfare worker visited the home and found that Alta was not being
cared for, that her mother was “ no good,” and that the grandmother was indeed
ill, and so she arranged to place Alta and the grandmother with the girl’s
maternal uncle and aunt.
A lta’s uncle is a railroad clerk and apparently a steady, reliable man. Her
aunt is a very active church woman and belongs to several church organizations.
They have two children, a boy of 13 and a girl of 9 years. Their home is
considered good and the neighborhood superior.
Alta had completed the eighth grade of the public school in June. 1926,
but when she came to live with her aunt she was transferred to a parochial
school and obliged to repeat the grade. She was a good student and attended
school regularly, as, at her aunt’s request, she was closely watched by the
superior, who reported any absence immediately.
According to her aunt, Alta “ behaved very w e ll” when she first came, but
after a while she became difficult to control. She began to loiter about on the
streets instead of coming directly home after school; when her uncle and
aunt took her to church socials she would slip a w a y; she was “ boy crazy ”
and wanted to run the streets; and she was untruthful and stubborn and
seemed to have no mental stability. Her attitude toward her cousins had
also changed and she began to be rough with them. Soon no one seemed able to
do a thing with her, and when she finally stayed with some sailors for several
days the aunt felt that she simply could not take her back.
A lta ’s version of the story is that she was expected to prepare the family
breakfast and pack her uncle’s lunch each morning, and, even when her grand
mother tried to help her, she seldom had more than 15 minutes left in which
to tidy herself and get to school. Because of crowded school conditions the
pupils were divided into two sections and she was placed in the morning
section. She was expected to spend the afternoon at home doing housework,
which she considered an injustice. (During her second year with her uncle
and aunt, while she was attending high school, the aunt began to work as
a saleswoman in a department store and thus A lta’s home duties were probably
increased.) In general she considered herself badly treated and unhappy,
and she finally ran away because she was afraid of being sent to the State
school.
In July, 1928, the aunt reported to the welfare worker that Alta’s disobedi
ence and her habit of staying out nights made it impossible for her to keep the
girl longer. The worker was of the opinion that possibly the uncle and aunt
had been too severe with A l t a ; that they had constantly reminded her that she
was unfortunate and that her mother was unfit; and that the aunt especially
had “ rubbed in ” that the fam ily was being disgraced by her presence in the
home. But, concluding that the uncle and aunt had done all they could to
help the girl, she decided to try placing her at work in a family home.
Alta did rather well in her new place at first. She helped to take care of
the children, earning $4 a week and her room and board. A new maid proved
to be a bad influence on Alta, however, and shortly after her arrival they
both left.
Another placement was tried, but this also failed. Alta went off with some
sailors and was found in “ one of the lowest houses in the city.” After that
further placements seemed futile.
The welfare worker conferred with the chief of police, and together they
signed the complaint for court action. Alta was referred to the city health
department for an examination, but was reported free from disease. On a
charge of “ being found in manifest danger of falling into habits of vice or
im m orality” she was committed to the State school for girls.
On first coming to the State school she was rather belligerent, but when
visited she seemed to have adjusted herself to the institutional life. She is not
considered a good worker by the cottage matron, but otherwise she has been
getting along fairly well.
The story which Alta told on being admitted to the State school coincides
neither with the accounts of her aunt and the welfare worker nor with her
own subsequent account to the agent of the Children’s Bureau. In fact, in
the latter she denied a previously confessed trip with a relative to Canada,

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where a man “ took advantage of her,” and she d scredited her aunt’s version
of her mother’s past history. As the various stories were all told with con
siderable feeling, it has been impossible to determine which of the accounts
is accurate.
EDNA c.
Native w hite; parents native white.
Age at time of offense, not reported.
School-attendance officer, March, 1928: Truancy; talked with parents.
Family at time of disposition: Parents separated, mother seeking divorce j
Mother, brothers 16, 6, 3, sisters 15, 7, 4, 1 at hom e; father and one child
away.
Edna is a rather pretty girl. At the time of the interview she was neatly
and tastefully dressed and made a good appearance. She talked freely and
without self-consciousness.
Mrs. C. and her children live on a country road in a small frame house
having two rooms upstairs and two downstairs. The rooms seen were clean
and orderly and looked well kept. The house belongs to Pete M., who lives
with the C.’s.
The significance of Edna’s story depends as yet not so much on her own
history as on the recent history of her family, and for this the records of
the private social agency interested in the family are the best source. The
family was first referred to the social agency by a public-health nurse in April,
1925', when Mr. C., Edna’s father, was sentenced to six months in jail for boot
legging. The agency worker made a home visit but decided not to take any
action, as the family were receiving town aid and were in fair circumstances.
In February, 1926, Mr. C. was again sentenced to jail for bootlegging. On
this occasion the police requested the social agency to make another home
visit, as they suspected Mrs. 0 . not only of being implicated in the bootlegging
but of entertaining men in her husband’s absence. The social agency, the
judge, and the priest then made a plan for sending Mrs. C. to the State reforma
tory for women and committing the children to the custody of the State
department of public welfare for placement. The State department of public
welfare accordingly proceeded to make arrangements for placement: Helen,
the oldest sister, who was suffering from “ St. Vitus’s dance,” was to be sent
to a hospital; the four youngest children were to be sent to an aunt, who
already had the second ch ild; the remaining two were to go to their grand
father. But when the hearing was held, in March, 1926, the evidence against
Mrs. 0 . was insufficient to justify committing her to the reformatory, and the
plans for placement had to be abandoned.
Meanwhile the selectman decided that as the town was giving the family $8
a week in aid, he could move them to a small house on the town farm, where
they would be under the supervision of the overseers of the poor. Rather
than acquiesce in such a plan, Mrs. O. relinquished the town aid and took her
family to the home of Pete M., a former visitor at the 0 . home.
In June, 1926, the worker of the private agency, still hoping to provide spe
cial care for Helen, again visited the home. She found the family to be living
comfortably. Since Helen’s health had improved and her mother was unwilling
to have her leave, the agency withdrew entirely.
Its withdrawal at this
time seems rather strange, as the record contains a note questioning the sleep
ing arrangements of Helen and her older brother, and a report (still in June,
1926) from the county health officer that Helen was four months pregnant and
was being sent to the State school for girls. There was also some question as
to Pete M.’s relation to the family. He was known as a steady, hard-working
man who had been granted a divorce from his wife and seemed to be living
with the O.’s.
Last winter the school-attendance officer was notified that Edna was not
attending school regularly.
On investigation she found that the girl was
living with her father in a boarding house where she was not only lacking
proper supervision but being exposed to undesirable conditions. The officer
wished to remove Edna and place her in a convent, but Mr. C. would not
hear of such a plan. The officer secured Edna’s return to school and referred
the case once more to the soc'al agency.
The agency worker visited the school and learned from the fourth-grade
teacher that Edna looked dirty and neglected and that she was too irregular
in her attendance to be graded. She decided to place her with her paternal
grandmother, but, finding that the poor health of the latter made such a plan

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impossible, the agency apparently again dropped the case.
Mr. C. finally
Questioned his ability to manage Edna and left her free to go to her mother.
A t the time of the interview Edna seemed to be getting along rather well.
She had been “ picking potatoes ” and had earned $55, some of which she had
used to purchase clothes. She said she was planning to return to school. Her
opportunities for recreation seem limited to the motion pictures in town.
She goes to these with a young man who is a relative of Pete M. and in whom
Mrs. C. has great confidence. Mrs. C. said that she was trying to watch
Edna carefully.
COLETTE Y .

Native w hite; father French-Canadian; mother native white.
Age at time of offense, 10.
Police matron, July 1, 1928: Stealing; dismissed with reprimand and advice.
Family at time of disposition: Parents married and living together; brother 13,
sister 10 at home.
Colette was washing dishes at the time of the interview and was neat and
clean in her little pinafore. Although she did not act tired, her pallor and the
circles under her eyes indicated that she was not in the best of health, and,
in contrast to her sister, she seemed decidedly lacking in vitality. Colette had
a severe attack of appendicitis last year, necessitating an operation, and per
haps she has not yet regained her strength.
The family live in a laborer’s residential district made up of small tenement
houses and stores, within five minutes’ walk of the mills. They rent a five-room,
second-floor flat for $4 a week. The rooms are small, but fairly light and fairly
well ventilated. Mr. Y. is a lumberjack, but as this work is seasonal he also
works irregularly in a shoe factory. Mrs. Y. has been employed as a spinner
in a cotton mill for the last six years. Except for the periods when work has
been slack, she has worked regularly five days a week.
Mrs. Y. realizes that she is not in close touch with her children and is not
well informed as to their activities. She sees them for a few minutes at noon
and again after work, but during the rest of the day she trusts them to the
supervision of her sister-in-law, who lives on the first floor and who is busy
with the demands of her own household. Moreover, at noon she is hurried,
and in the evening she is busy with washing, ironing, and the other housework
which, because of her job, she can not do during the day. So she gets into
the habit of letting the children look after themselves.
This does not mean that the children are free to do as they please; on the
contrary, their activities are very much restricted. They may not play out
of doors after d ark ; they are never allowed to go to the “movies ” ; and they
are not permitted to bring other children upstairs with them.
Colette appears to be a very docile child. She does not do things for her
mother without being told, and she needs to be “ kept a fte r ” when there are
dishes to be washed, but she is not independently disobedient. Her life is
quiet and simple; she is in the third grade of a parochial school and likes to
attend; she plays with her sister and embroiders in her leisure.
Colette used to go over to a neighborhood store after school to talk with the
clerks. She was well liked in the store and encouraged to come. After a
while one of the clerks began missing small sums of money from her purse
which she kept in a drawer behind the counter, and presently she suspected
Colette. Without accusing the child, she watched her, and, after catching her
in the act, she reported the incident to the store manager.
About the same time Colette’s teacher noticed that the child was bringing
money to school and questioned her about it, because spending money was
scarce among the pupils. Colette explained that she had received the money
from her fa th er; and as shortly thereafter she ceased to bring any, the teacher
said no more about it.
Meantime the store manager asked the police matron whether she could not
do something to warn Colette without referring her to the court. The police
matron summoned Colette and Mrs. Y . to her office and asked the chief of
police to talk the matter over with them. Colette’s mother was ill with worry
but made no attempt to excuse her child’s offense. Later the police matron
visited the home to see how the child was getting on and asked Mrs. Y. to
notify her if she had further trouble with her daughter.
Colette was evidently badly frightened by the effects of her offense and has
never repeated it. Mrs. Y . is grateful to the police matron for handling the
situation as she did and is watching the girl more carefully.

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M E T H O D S OF D E A LIN G W I T H

D E L IN Q U E N T C H IL D R E N

BERTHA N.

Native w hite; father Canadian; mother native white.
Age at time of offense, 14.
Police matron, April 14, 1928: Sex offense; sent to private institution in another
State.
Family at time of disposition: Widowed mother and sister 13 at home.
Bertha’s sallow, rash-covered complexion detracts somewhat from her comeli
ness, but she is a neat, clean girl and has an abundant mass of dark brown
curls. Her mature and womanly appearance seems to contradict her almost
childish lack of responsibility for her own statements and actions.
Bertha’s father was killed in an accident seven years ago when the family
was living in Massachusetts. Following his death Bertha and Margaret, the
younger child, were placed in a Massachusetts orphanage; and later, when
Mrs. N. decided to move to her mother’s home in Maine, they were transferred
to a Maine orphanage. Altogether they were in institutions about five years
before Mrs. N. again began to keep house for them.
The family now rents five light and pleasant rooms on the second floor of a
store building on a business street. These rooms are meagerly furnished but
the floors and curtains are immaculate.
Mrs. N. has been working in a factory from 6.45 a. m. to 12 m. and 1 to 5
p. m. on three to five days a week, according to the work available. Her
earnings average $11 a week.
Bertha’s transfers from orphanages to French parochial schools and public
schools have left her grade classification rather doubtful. On entering the
public school last year she was demoted to the fifth grade. She likes school
but finds English reading difficult.
Neither of the girls has had many “ good times.” Mrs. N. admits that she
has not permitted them to bring their friends up to play and has never allowed
them to go to the “ movies.” They have been taken for occasional visits to
their aunt and grandmother and have played with their neighbors in the tene
ment halls and in a neighboring vacant lot, but in all these activities they
seemed to be lacking the necessary freedom for real enjoyment. They have
attended church.
Last winter Mrs. N .’s neighbors began to report that Bertha was running
around the streets with “ bad company ” during after-school hours on the days
when her mother was at work. Mrs. N. became greatly worried, especially
when she found herself unable to keep Bertha away from these undesirable
companions, and she began to wonder whether, after all, the girl would not
be better off in an institution under constant supervision. She had seen sev
eral newspaper accounts of girls .being taken to a private institution in another
State by the police matron and decided to ask the latter for advice.
In the meantime, the police matron had heard rumors from other sources
that in her mother’s absence Bertha was inviting some of the young men
hanging around the neighborhood pool room to come upstairs with her. So,
when Mrs. N. came to her for advice, the police matron urged that Bertha be
sent at once to the private institution lest it become necessary to send her to
the State school for girls. She promised that for $30 (to cover railroad and
hotel expenses for herself and the child) she would take Bertha to the insti
tution. When Mrs. N. complained that she could not possibly pay her $30, she
made the price $25 and advised her to borrow the money from her pastor,
which Mrs. N. did. (A t the time of the interview, five and a half months
later, Mrs. N. still owed $9.50 on the $25 which she was paying off in weekly
installments; she was planning, by the same method, to raise enough money
for Bertha’s return trip.)
Except on one occasion, when Bertha spoke during a silence period and had
to stand in the corner, she has been a model institutional inmate and has
earned for herself an enviable reputation for obedience. She does whatever is
expected of her, no more, no le ss; she takes part in all prescribed group activi
ties— school, assembly singing, assembly “ movies,” group games— but during
the voluntary recreation hour, when the girls are supposedly free to romp about
and play as they choose, she seems to do nothing.
Bertha has not been given a mental examination, and the interview with
the agent of the Children’s Bureau was too brief to justify any conclusion as
to whether her school retardation, her susceptibility to the influence of “ bad
companions,” and her ready conformity to institutional routine are due to actual
meutgl deficiency or to the lack of freedom and opportunity for self-expreg-

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JUVENILE DELINQUENCY IN M AINE

sion— both in her own home and in her previous institutional experiences—
which may have arrested the natural development of initiative and a sense of
responsibility.

WORK OF THE COURTS
COURT PROCEDURE IN OFFICIAL CASES

It is generally conceded that court procedure in children’s cases
should be equity and not criminal in nature. In criminal procedure
the offender may be arrested on warrant, indicted by grand jury,
and tried on specific charges in accordance with the rules o f legal
evidence; he must plead “ gu ilty” or “ not gu ilty” be subject to
criminal record and sentence, and to penalties provided by statute.7
In equity procedure, on the other hand, the rigidity and limitations
o f statutory procedure are waived and the offender is judged pri
marily not according to the nature of his offense but according to
the circumstances and conditions giving rise to the offense.
Although the Maine statutes do not provide specifically for equity
or “ noncriminal ” procedure in children’s cases, they do permit the
judge to exercise his discretion in disposing of certain cases without
trial, as follows:
When any child under the age of 16 years is brought before any court or
magistrate for trial charged with any offense other than an offense punishable
by imprisonment for life, the court may in its discretion continue such cause
without trial from time to time, not exceeding 30 days at any one time, and
release such child into the custody and control of the probation officer, who
shall have authority to permit such child to remain in the home o f such child
if the same seems to him proper, or he may retain such child in his own
custody, if the same can be done without expense to the county or the State.
I f at any time it seems to the court just and proper to discharge any such
respondent without trial, the same may be done, and no child so discharged,
nor any other person, shall have any right of action against any officer or other
person on account of any of the proceedings in such case.8

Since 1919 the statutes have also provided for private hearings and
special records in certain boys’ cases as follow s:
When a boy between the ages of 8 and 16 years (changed to between 11
and 17 in 1921) is convicted before any court or trial justice having juris
diction of the offense, of an offense punishable by imprisonment in the State
prison, not for life, or in the county jail, or in the house of correction, such
court or justice may order his commitment to the State school for boys or
sentence him to the punishment provided by law for the same offense. * * *
The record in the event of conviction in all such cases shall be that the
accused was convicted of juvenile delinquency, and the court shall have
power at the hearing of any such case to exclude the general public other
than persons having a direct interest in the case. The records of any such
case by order of the court may be withheld from indiscriminate public
inspection, but such records shall be open to inspection by the parent or parents
of such child or lawful guardian or attorney of the child involved.9

For girls the only special safeguards that were in force at the time
o f the study10 applied to girls between the ages of 6 and 16 years
who might be convicted of “ being found in circumstances of manifest
danger of falling into habits o f vice or immorality.” 11
7 See Juvenile Court Standards, p. 1, sec. B.
* Rev. Stat. 1916, ch. 137, sec. 0.8.

»Rev. Stat. 1916, ch. 144, sec. 3, as amended by Laws of 1919, ch. 58, and Laws of 1921,
ch. 129.
10 By an act of the legislature in 1929 the provision for private hearings and special
records was made applicable also to girls between the ages of 6 and 16 years “ found
guilty of an offense punishable with fine or imprisonment, other than imprisonment for
life.’’ See Rev. Stat. 1916, ch. 144. sec. 24, as amended by Laws of 1929, ch. 270,
u {lev. Stat. 1916, ch. 144, sec. 20, as gmended by Laws of 1921, ch, 55,

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M E T H O D S OF D E A LIN G W I T H

DELHSTQtTEirT CHILDREN"

The disadvantage of these provisions is that, in order to derive any
benefit therefrom, a child must first be found guilty of a specific
offense. For example, if a boy is charged with larceny, he first pleads
guilty to the charge of larceny, and, after being found guilty o f
larceny he is convicted o f juvenile delinquency. (See the case of
Steve G., p. 28.) Similarly in a girl’s case, although the .apparent
intent of the statute is to protect girls in 'danger of falling into
habits o f vice and immorality, yet no court action is taken until
proof has been established that a girl has actually committed some
specific offense. In other words, these provisions, apparently de
signed to protect the child from routine criminal procedure, are not
sufficiently well defined to establish a distinct and special procedure.
In the absence of further legal provision and state-wide policy,
the judges exercise their discretion in conducting juvenile hearings.
The hearings attended in the course of the survev indicated that
some judges were making successful efforts to conduct informal,
socialized hearings; for instance, several judges were hearing chil
dren’s cases in their private offices or court chambers rather than in
the court room, and one judge reported that he usually arranged
to have a woman social worker present during his interviews with
delinquent girls. But these isolated efforts merely serve to em
phasize the general need for a radical departure from such exist
ing conventional practices as the issuing of warrants for the arrest
o f children who could be expected to appear in court in response
to a mere notice sent to their parents, the swearing of the child, the
exacting of a plea of “ guilty ” or “ not guilty ” from the child, the
pronouncing o f a formal sentence, the indictment by the grand jury,
and the occasional presence of newspaper reporters. These are all
practices that tend to set up a defense reaction in the child and
to destroy any possibility of a confidential relationship between
him and the judge, the foundation o f constructive case work. They
are practices, moreover, which progressive courts are eager to aban
don. The very fact that in some of the Maine courts an interested,
sympathetic, and resourceful judge can see his way clear to get away
from these practices whereas in other courts an unimaginative or
indifferent judge will follow the stereotyped adult' court pro
cedure—or, on a plea of being too busy, will turn his juvenile cases
over to the court recorder regardless o f the latter’s special interest
or ability— demonstrates the injustice o f allowing procedure in
juvenile cases to be determined by the personality of the judge rather
than by public law.
At present the lower courts have no jurisdiction over offenses
which, if committed by adults, would constitute felonies and would
come under the jurisdiction o f the higher courts. So, unless the
judge in the lower court avails himself of his authority in cases of
children under 16 years of age to continue such cases without trial
(see p. 20) or devises some plan for reducing the charges in children’s
cases to those within the jurisdiction of the court, he is obliged
by law to bind the child over as if he were an adult committing
a similar offense. A few courts have requested the prosecuting at
torney to nol-pross*so much of the charge as is beyond the jurisdic
tion o f the lower court, thus enabling the lower court to dispose
o f the case without subjecting the child to the formal procedure

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MAttfTE

o f a hearing in the higher court and to a waiting period of possibly
several months pending the next session o f the court. For example,
in one case in which the charge was breaking, entering, and larceny,
the county attorney nol-prossed so much of the complaint as alleged
breaking and entering. Another case in which the charge was auto
mobile stealing or larceny in excess o f $50 in value, the county at
torney nol-prossed so much of the complaint as alleged larceny in
excess of $50 in value.
The problem of the jurisdiction of the lower court also enters into
the matter o f appeal. According to the present procedure, when
the appeal is taken the order of the lower court is automatically sus
pended and its jurisdiction ceases. As the higher court does not
assume jurisdiction until its next session, the child may remain free
for several months without receiving either corrective care or con
structive treatment. During the 6-month period o f the survey, 7 of
the 214 cases handled by the courts were appealed.
The right of appeal is accorded to children in some juvenile courts,
but it is generally agreed that the lower court should retain jurisdic
tion and its orders remain in force while the appeal is pending.12
Although possibly a little more formal, the hearings conducted by
the higher courts both in appealed cases and in cases bound over by
the lower courts or indicted by the grand jury, on the whole are not
unlike those of the lower courts. But, although the larger municipal
courts hold daily sessions and the smaller municipal and trial justice
courts hold hearings whenever cases present themselves, the periodic
sessions o f the higher courts frequently necessitate delay of several
months before a final plan is made for a child. This delay is one of
the most objectionable features of the present court procedure and is
in direct contravention o f juvenile court principles.13 The child
either spends this time in jail, subject to the degrading influences of
jail confinement, or is released on bond and is allowed to remain
for a considerable period under the same conditions that may have
produced his delinquency. In either case, moreover, the postpone
ment of the treatment to be given has a bad psychological effect and
makes later work with the child more difficult.
DETENTION BEFORE AND AFTER HEARINGS

Detention quarters.

Maine has no legal provision against the detention o f children in
institutions for adults, and consequently children are still being de
tained in jails and police stations.14 The only legal provision for
separate detention for juveniles appears in the section on “ Treat
ment o f prisoners for debt, and minors ” providing that %every
prison keeper shall keep all minors * * * before or after con13 See Juvenile Courts at Work, by Katharine F. Lenroot and Emma O. Lundberg, pp.
134-136 (U. S. Children’s Bureau Publication No. 141, Washington, 1925), and The Legal
Aspects of the Juvenile Court, by Bernard Flexner and Reuben Oppenheimer, pp. 25—26
(U. S. Children’s Bureau Publication No. 99, Washington, 1922).
13 See Juvenile Court Standards, p. 5.
14 For examples of short periods of detention see the cases of Yvon S., p. 46; Harold R.,
p. 6 1 ; Carl H., p. 64; Earl K., p. 33. For longer periods of detention see the cases of
Roger S., p. 73, and Napier D., p. 75. The case of Jack S., p. 32, contains an interesting
reaction of the child’s mother to his detention, and the case of Martha A., p. 65, shows
neglect to notify the mother that her daughter was being detained.

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METHODS OE DEALING W IT H DELINQUENT CHILDREN

viction, separate from notorious offenders, and those convicted more
than once of felony or infamous crimes, so far as the construction
or state o f the prison admits.” 15 W ith this limited provision it is
not surprising that none o f the places visited that were used for
the detention o f delinquent children had special quarters for
children.
The Cumberland County Jail, in Portland, has two wings for men
and, so far as possible, the wing housing the less serious offenders is
used for the detention o f boys. It has only one section for women,
however, thus making the segregation o f the younger girls im
possible. The Portland House of Detention (city jail) has special
detention rooms apart from the cell blocks in both the men’s and
women’s quarters; but these rooms, although occasionally used for
boys and girls, are not primarily juvenile quarters, and they are
not used for “ very bad ” boys nor for girls with venereal disease.
The Penobscot County Jail, in Bangor, has a cell house for men
and two rooms for women reached by passing through the men’s
quarters. Boys are detained in the cell house and girls in the
women’s quarters. The Bangor City Jail is in the city hall building.
The jail is old and offers little opportunity for segregation, although
it has a separate detention room which may be used for women and
girls, and occasionally for boys. Children are seldom detained over
night in the city jail, but sometimes boys are locked up during the
day to give them an opportunity “ to think.”
The Androscoggin County Jail, in Auburn, has a cell house for
men and separate quarters for women but no special rooms for
children. The Lewiston city lock-up has cells for men and a sepa
rate detention room for women, the latter being also used for children
and the former occasionally for “ older boys.”
The Washington County Jail has a large isolation room, entered
from the main cell corridor, which is used for cases o f contagious
disease and for detaining women and girls. It makes no provision,
however, for segregating young boys from older offenders.
The use of detention facilities other than jails and police stations
was reported in several localities, the children having been held in
hospitals and in boarding houses while awaiting court action or
institutional commitment.16
The sanitary conditions and general equipment in the jails were,
on the whole, no worse and in some instances perhaps even better than
in similar institutions elsewhere. Provision for recreation seemed
to be haphazard. Dominoes and checkers were seen in one or two
institutions, and playing cards in others. The only literature ob
served was of the sensational variety. Opportunity for school work
was entirely lacking. This is significant particularly in connection
with children who are detained for several months while awaiting
the next session of superior court and children sentenced to jail
for punishment, their activities thus being limited to cleaning in the
jail, helping in the preparation o f meals, and lounging around with
adult offenders.
15 Rev. Stat. 1916, ch. 85, sec. 46.
and AnnettemQle p ° 6|UCh detention see the cases o£ M itoetf

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., p. 5 4 ; Clarice W., p. 5 6 ;

JUVENILE DELINQUENCY IN M AINE

Extent o f jail detention.

Children were detained in jail in Maine both before and after
court hearings. In recognition of the undesirability of detaining
children in jail before the hearing, Maine has two legal provisions
for assuring a child’s appearance in court without detention. The
first o f these provides that whenever any child under 16 years of
age is arrested for any offense and is confined in any jail or police
station, the arresting officer shall “ notify a probation officer in his
county o f the fact o f such arrest and o f the time and place of such
trial. And any court having jurisdiction of the offense may upon
application o f such probation officer by an order in writing, cause
such child to be forthwith placed in the custody of such probation
officer pending the trial and final determination of said cause.” 17
The second, which applies only to children under 16 years o f age
charged with an offense other than a felony, provides that “ the
officer making such arrest may accept in lieu o f bail and without
committing such child to any jail or police station, the personal re
cognizance in writing, without security, of the parent, guardian, or
other lawful custodian of such child to produce such child before
the proper court or magistrate on the following day at a time and
place to be specified in said recognizance.” 18
In spite o f these provisions a considerable number of children
under 16 years of age, even those charged with an offense other than
a felony, are detained pending hearings.^ The probation officers do
not avail themselves of the authority given them to take custody
o f such children but leave the question o f their detention to the
police. The latter almost invariably fail to take advantage of the
provision allowing the children to remain free upon the personal
recognizance o f the parents and simply detain the children as if
they were adults or release them on bail. Children who are lost
or have run away and children referred to the court for official action
are those most frequently detained by the police. Such children are
seldom held more than 48 hours.
Children were also detained in jail under court order either await
ing a subsequent hearing in the lower court or, if bound over by the
lower court, pending the next session o f the superior court. As the su
perior courts sit as criminal courts at intervals o f about four months,
the children may be detained for this length o f time. O f the 44
children reported as having been held for the superior courts, 11 had
been detained in jail for periods varying from 1 day to 2 months and
12 days19 and 19 had been released on bond.20 No information was
available as to the detention of the remaining 14 children. Another
group often detained after court hearings includes the children await
ing transfer to the State training schools or to penal institutions.
It was impossible to measure the actual extent o f jail detention of
children, even in the localities visited, because the jail records, in
addition to not including the age of persons held, in many cases did
not indicate clearly whether detention occurred with or without the
authority of the courts.
17 Rev. Stat. 1916, ch. 137, sec. 17.
18 Ibid., sec. 15.
“ Of these 11, 2 were subsequently released on bond.
20 The amount of the bond in these 19 cases was $500 in 12 cases and. $1,000 in 5 cases;
in 2 cases the amount was not reported.

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Some facilities for the detention of children should be available to
the courts, as a few children may need detention for safe-keeping
or for observation. Many o f the larger, and some o f the smaller,
cities throughout the United States have provided detention homes
for children requiring such care under the supervision of the juvenile
court. A number of cities are caring for children requiring deten
tion in boarding homes under the supervision of the juvenile court
or o f an agency.21 The finding and development o f family homes in
which delinquent children may be boarded for detention care and
for periods of reconstructive treatment is one of the services that
should be developed in Maine.
DISPOSITION OF CASES BY MUNICIPAL COURTS AND TRIAL JUSTICES

The dispositions made by the municipal courts and trial justices
during the 6-month period were classified on the same basis as the
dispositions reported to the Children’s Bureau by cooperating juve
nile courts. Only 7 o f the cases had come before trial justices, the
remaining 207 cases having been heard in municipal courts.
More than a third (67) of the 179 boys’ cases were disposed of by
placing the boy on probation. (Table 5.) Forty-three boys were
referred for prosecution in a higher court, 28 were committed to the
State training school, and 10 to penal institutions for adults; 17
cases were dismissed; only 1 boy was fined, and costs were ordered
in only 3 cases. It should be remembered that in nearly four-fifths
(141) o f the boys’ cases the offense with which the boy was charged
was stealing. (Table 3, p. 11.)
T able 5.— Disposition of case by municipal courts and trial justices and sex of
children dealt w ith ; delinquency cases reported during the 6-month period
February 1 to July SI, 1928
Delinquency cases
Disposition

Total Boys’ Girls’
cases cases cases

Total_________________

359

275

Dealt with by municipal courts
and trial justices___________

214

179

19
2

V
2

Dismissed-- ..
Restitution ordered______
Fine imposed or payment
of costs ordered....... .......
Child bound over to higher
court___ _____________
Child placed on probation _
Child committed to institution________ _______
State training school__
State reformatory for
men_____ ________
County jail__________

Delinquency cases
Disposition

Dealt with by municipal courts
and trial justices—Continued.
Child committed to institution—Continued.
State institution for the

43
67

1
9

62
49

40
28

22
21

2
8

1
2

Child committed to agency
State department of
public welfare.
Private agency— ^___

3
1

Other______

145

Private institution___

44
76

Total Boys’ Girls’
cases cases cases

courts and trial justices

Commitment to the State training school was the most usual dispo
sition in girls’ cases, only nine girls being placed on probation. One
» Lenroot, Katharine F. : Progressive Methods of Care of Children Pending Juvenile
Court Hearing. Hospital Social Service, voi. 15, No. 1 (January, 1927), p. 46.

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girl was bound over to a higher court, two were referred to private
agencies or institutions, and the cases of two were dismissed. All
but 7 of the 35 girls had been charged with sex offenses. (Table 3,
P- U -)
.
'
.
.
.
Compared with the dispositions made in official cases by 62 juvenile
courts reporting cases in 1928 to the Children’s Bureau,22 the propor
tion of cases dismissed was small, 9 per cent, compared with 29 per
cent in the juvenile courts. The probable explanation o f this is
the previously discussed tendency in Maine of referring to the courts
only those children who have committed serious offenses. (See p.
11.) The proportion o f cases disposed of by placing the children on
probation was somewhat smaller in the Maine courts than in the
juvenile courts (36 per cent in Maine and 43 per cent in the juvenile
courts), and the proportion of commitments to institutions for juve
nile delinquents was higher in Maine (23 per cent in Maine, 15 per
cent in the juvenile courts). The most striking difference between
the dispositions made by the Maine courts and those made by the
juvenile courts is the. number of cases referred for prosecution in
the higher courts and the number of cases in which the children were
committed to penal institutions. Less than 1 per cent of the cases
heard by the juvenile courts had been referred to higher courts as
compared with 21 per cent of the cases in Maine. Practically no
children under 18 years of age were committed to penal institutions
by the 62 juvenile courts, whereas 5 per cent of the Maine cases were
disposed of by commitment of the children to such institutions.
Another point to be taken into consideration in studying the dis
positions made by the Maine courts is that 129 of the 214 cases dis
posed of by municipal courts and trial justices involved children
under 16 years of age. Most of Maine’s legal provisions for the
care of delinquent children apply only to children under 16 years of
age. In Table 6 the dispositions in cases o f children under 16 are
compared with those of children 16 years of age and over. Larger
proportions of the cases involving the younger children were dis
missed or disposed o f by placing the children on probation. Com
mitment to an institution was made more often by the lower courts
for children under 16 years of age. None of the younger children
was committed to a penal institution, but eight o f the older chil
dren were sent to such institutions. Although the older children were
more likely than the younger ones to be bound over to the higher
courts, 18 children under 16 were held for prosecution in such courts.
* Juvenile Court Statistics, 1928, p. 18.

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METHODS OF DEALING W IT H DELINQUENT CHILDREN

T a b l e 6 .—

Disposition of case by municipal courts and trial justices, and ages of
children dealt with in delinquency oases disposed of during the 6-month period,
February 1 to July 31, 1928
Delinquency cases
Age of child

Disposition
Total

Total_______________

Under 16 16 years,
Not
years
under 18 reported

359

226

100

214

129

Dismissed___________________»_____________________
Restitution ordered___________________ _______ ______
Fine imposed or payment of costs ordered____ __________
Child bound over to higher court____ __ _______________
Child placed on probation...____________ ________ _
Child committed to institution_____ _______ ___________
State training school___________ ____ _____ ________
State reformatory for men____ ____________________
County jail___ .'__________ _ ____________________
State institution for the feeble-minded__________ ____
Private institution___________________ ___________

19
2
4
144
76
62
49
2
8
1
2

12
1
1
18
47
45
43

3
1
3
23
18
11
3
2
6

Child committed to agency............................. ............ .......
State department of public welfare____________ _____
Private agency_____ J___________ _____ ___________

4
3
1

Other__________________________________ ____ _____

145

Not dealt with by municipal courts and trial justices__ _____

1
1

3
11
6
3
2
1

1 6 of these boys were sentenced to the reformatory for men by the higher court.

The desire to protect or “ clean up ” the community without regard
for the interests of the child is still the basis of too many dispositions.
In four communities cases were reported in which the court had sug
gested (or had accepted the child’s suggestion) that the child leave
the community. In none of these cases did the court make any at
tempt to discover whether the child would be properly cared for or
supervised in the community to which he was to go. The dis
position was made not because it was for the best interests of the
child but because it was the easiest way for the court to divest itself
of responsibility.
D IS P O S I T I O N O F C A S E S B Y S U P E R I O R A N D

SU PR EM E COU RTS

During the 6-month period 51 children under 18 years of age came
before the higher courts— 14 being bound over by the lower courts
and 7 coming up on appeal. In 41 of the 44 bound-over cases the
oharge was stealing; in the only girl’s case the charge was a sex
offense; and in the remaining 2 boys’ cases the charges were perjury
and intoxication. Most o f these cases were bound over to the
superior courts in the three larger counties—Androscoggin, Cumber
land, and Penobscot. The proportion of children’s cases coming from
the lower courts in these counties differed strikingly: In Androscog
gin County the proportion bound over was 8 out of 29, in Cumber
land County 7 out of 63, and in Penobscot 19 out of 36.
The dispositions made by the superior courts and the supreme
court are somewhat similar in character to those made by the lower
courts, with the exception that usually commitments were made to
the State reformatories rather than to the State schools. (Table 7.)
98523°— 30-----3

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All the children whose cases were appealed had been committed
by the lower courts to the State schools or reformatories; only one
o f these cases had been heard at the time of the survey, the child
being placed on probation.
T able 7.— Disposition of case Toy superior and supreme courts and method of
acquiring jurisdiction; delinquency cases disposed of during the 6-month
period, February 1 to July 31, 1928
Delinquency cases
Disposition
Total

Total______________________ _______ _______________________

Child
bound Appealed
from
Over by
lower
lower
court
court

Dismissed______________________ •________________ "1____ _____
Child placed on probation____________ i ______ _________
Child committed to institution_________________________________
State school for boys___ _______ _______ _________________ . . .
State reformatory for men_________________________________

4
19
8
2
6

4
18
8
2
6

Pending............. ....... ................................................. ....... .......................

Case histories illustrating the w ork o f the courts

This group of case histories includes five children who were bound
over and three whose cases were appealed to the higher courts.
The majority of the boys whose cases were bound over to the higher
courts were charged with stealing. In a large number of these cases
the offenses had been committed by the boys as members of neigh
borhood groups or gangs. Steve G. and Morris A. had been involved
with such groups, as younger members not as leaders, and were
placed on probation by the superior court. Lester J., who was also
a member o f a small gang, was committed to the State school; his
case is interesting for its history of minor delinquencies handled
unofficially by the court, as well as for its illustration of unwieldly
court procedure in the handling of his last offenses.23
The history of Jack S. illustrates the binding over to the superior
court of a young child as if he were an adult. The history of Earl K.
contains a picture of a particularly objectionable type o f public
hearing.
The histories of Henry B., Rhea R., and Irma and Gladys I. are
fairly typical examples of the cases appealed. A ll these children
were released on bond pending the next session o f the appellate court,
and they received no corrective treatment or supervision in the
meantime.
STEVE O.

Native w hite; nativity of parents not reported.
Age at time of offense, 15.
Municipal court, December 2, 1927 : Stealing; bound over to superior court.
Family at time of disposition: Foster parents married and living together;
foster brother 34, at hom e; three foster brothers, over 30 years of age, away.
Steve is tall and thin and does not appear to be very strong. H is mouth
breathing seems to indicate that his tonsils and adenoids need medical atten23 This boy had appeared in court before the 6-month period of the study, and his case
was not included in the 359 reported cases.

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METHODS OP DEALING W IT H DELINQUENT CHILDREN

tion. He is a quiet boy, but answers questions readily and easily and has a
pleasant manner.
Tiie G. family live in a good residential district and own their home. The
house is a characteristic Maine dwelling— white with green blinds and having
woodshed and barn attached. It is equipped with modern conveniences, well
furnished, and in good condition.
Mr. G. works in a brickyard. He is no longer young and does not work
regularly. Mrs. G. is well read and interested in current events.
O f Steve’s own parents and family history nothing is known. He was taken
from an orphanage and adopted by his present foster parents when he was
4 years of age.
Steve’s foster parents had never had any trouble with him. They consid
ered him a normal, healthy boy, approved of his interest in playing basket ball
and reading sport news, and appreciated his willmgness to help his mother
with the housework. They realized he was “ not smart in school ” and seemed
? slow ” ; one of his foster brothers did, indeed, suggest that he was mentally
deficient. But as Steve seemed to be a good boy and got along fairly well,
they were not unduly concerned over his slowness.
In December, 1927, they learned with considerable surprise that he had
been a member of a gang charged with breaking, into houses. Steve’s own
story is that he used to walk around the streets with a gang of boys, who,
in their desire for excitement, broke into several houses and stole various
things. .
The police arrested Steve on warrant and detained him over night in the
city-hall detention room awaiting next morning’s session of the municipal
court. He was tried on two charges of “ breaking and entering with intent
to commit larceny,” to both of which he pleaded not guilty, and on one charge
of “ breaking, entering, and larceny,” to which he pleaded guilty. On a judg
ment of “ probable cause ” he was bound over for prosecution in the superior
court, to be released on $1,000 bond pending the next session of that court.
He was detained in the county jail for nine days until the bond could be
furnished.
On January 20, 1928, he was arraigned in the superior court on the same
charges. He pleaded guilty and was convicted of “ juvenile delinquency.” He
was released on $500 bail until February 18, 1928, when he was placed on
'probation.
During this time Steve was repeating the eighth grade, with no prospect of
graduating. His school attendance was regular and his classroom conduct
good, but in the opinion of his teachers he was “ not smart ” ; in fact, his
teachers considered him too dull to have been the leader of the gang. Steve
played on the school basket-ball team and enjoyed this very much. But he
finally concluded that he was too big to remain in the eighth grade, and so he
dropped out of school. He blamed his failure on his own laziness.
Steve had worked in the woods during his spring vacation, and so on leaving
school he soon found a job spiking pulp. At the time of the interview, how
ever* he was stoking ovens in a brickyard from 7 p. m. to 6 a. m., earning
$15 a week and saving thriftily. He was not getting much recreation.
Apparently Steve’s probation officer never took any action in regard to his
leaving school nor helped him to find work. In fact, the probation officer never
made a home visit, and, although Steve reports regularly at the probation
officer’s home on Sunday evenings, his report is frequently received by some
member of the family other than the officer himself. Steve likes the officer,
however, and his mother thinks the reporting is having a good effect on him.
MORRIS A.

Native w hite; father born in Russia; mother native white.
Age at time of offense, 14.
Municipal court, December 2, 1927 : Stealing; bound over to superior court.
Family at time of disposition : Parents married and living together; brothers 13,
7 ; sisters 18, 17, 14, 10, 8, 5, at home.
Morris is a neat and rather handsome boy. He seems to be of normal build
for his age and looks healthy. In the interview he answered a l l ' questions
courteously, but was reluctant to talk about himself and volunteered no infor
mation beyond that asked for.
The large, old-fashioned house in which his family live and which they own,
is set well back from the street and has a big yard. It is located in a fairly
good neighborhood in which most of the residents own their homes.

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The family evidently believe in maintaining close home ties. They hate
a piano and an expensive radio and seldom go out for recreation; when they do
go out, they usually go with one another.
Mr. A .’s coal and wood business is the chief source of the family income.
Mrs. A. has been in poor health for some time. All during the fall and
winter months preceding Morris’s last court experience, she was confined to
her bed as the result of a surgical operation. She attributed some of the
boy’s trouble to her illness and thinks she might have kept him out of difficulty
had she been able to watch him more closely.
Morris thinks he has a good home, and yet he is manifestly not quite satis
fied with home conditions. He sees very little of his father, as the latter’s
business is in a neighboring town and he often works at night. Morris seems
to feel that his mother is ill so much of the time that the children do not get
all the care and attention they need.
The boy is not lazy, and, according to his mother, he is not afraid of hard
work. Last summer he worked for a building contractor, who was a friend
of the family. He gave his earnings to his mother, receiving from her a weekly
allowance.
A rather wealthy friend of the family has shown a special interest in the
boy and frequently takes him out for “ good times.” Morris also spends some
of his leisure time in drawing, and occasionally he goes to the “ movies.” His
mother has noticed that of late he has lost interest in his Young Men’s Christian
Association activities and that he does not stay at home or “ chum ” with his
brothers and sisters as much as her other children do.
Morris was always a quiet boy and gave his mother no trouble previous
to this court experience. Yet neither he nor his mother attempts to excuse
his delinquency. He simply got in with a bunch of boys and did whatever they
did and was guilty along with the rest of the gang.
Morris was arrested on a police warrant. His court record contains the
following inform ation:
Municipal court:
1 2 -2 -2 7 (1) Breaking and entering with intent to commit larceny. Plea “ not
guilty.” Adjudged “ probable cause.” Bound over to superior
court; $1,000 bond. Surety given by father.
(2) Breaking, entering, and larceny. Plea “ guilty.” Adjudged “ prob
able cause.” Bound o ver; $1,000 bond. Surety given by father.
Superior court:
1 - 17-28 Arraigned. Plea “ nolo contendere.” Convicted of “ juvenile delin
quency.”
Bail of $500 furnished.
2 - 18-28 Disposition: P-laced on probation to county probation officer, to report
weekly until January, 1929, term o f court.
Morris is doing only fairly well on probation. Although he is in the eighth
grade and could graduate in June, he manifests a most stubborn dislike of school
and plays truant on any occasion. He tells his mother that he is hunting jobs
and says that he would take any job he could get if only he could leave school,
take drawing lessons, and become a cartoonist. He admits that sometimes he
just goes to “ shows ” instead of going to school.
The probation officer has never visited the home. On one or two occasions
he has met Mrs. A. and talked to her about the boy, but for the rest he has
contented himself with receiving Morris’s weekly reports. Morris likes him.
He finds, however, that the weekly report periods are much too short to permit
any discussion of his problems, and he has never confided to his probation
officer his ambition to be a cartoonist or his desire to take drawing lessons.
Occasionally he fails to report altogether, but never for long.
The school principal, who is thoroughly familiar with the family situation
and with Morris’s difficulties, has tried by talking both with the boy and with
the school-attendance officer and the probation officer to help keep him straight,
but he has found his efforts to be practically useless. Except for truancy, he
has had no occasion to find fault with the boy’s conduct in school, but he
is disturbed over the fact that Morris seems to have no “ backbone,” that he
loafs with rough boys and smokes too much, and that he is quite unmindful
of his mother’s concern over him. He thinks Mr. A .’s preoccupation in his
business, his constant absence from home, and his lack of interest in the

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children are much to blame. He also thinks that the probation service in this
case is failing to do anything helpful for the boy. He has not undertaken,
however^ to give any special service of his own.
•mL
0 « ? 8*8 13-year- ° ld brother was also a member of the gang. He was charged
with the same offense o f which Morris was found guilty and bound over to the
superior court by the municipal court. In the superior court his case was
nol-prossed for lack of evidence.
LESTEB J .

Native w hite; parents native white.
Age at time of offense, 15.
charges of stealing and one of malicious
miscmer , tor three different dispositions see text
13 at horn“ 6 ° f disposition: Parents married and living together; brother
s e ^ f bri?hta f,n1dai - L r iry^b^y With sbarp but not unattractive features. He
seems bright and keen and has a sunny disposition. During the interview he
was perfectly at ease and talked freely.
interview he
th

liVG ° n th^ edge of a very undesirable neighborhood, in which
k0l}smf ¿S poor and the moral standards are low. Their own house
and theh fnliabby-anid ^ p le a sin g from without, ischeerful and cozy within’
floor
5 eD-S1Jely fu ” ushed living room makes a brave showing7 with its
floor lamp and pictures. The house has six rooms and a bath.
Mr. J. is a cook in a small restaurant and works regularly. He is the oniv
wage-earner in the family.
s
1S rne omy
J-v!iad. nl espeCi? lly enlightening comments to make concerning her son
fw
tha,t +be had been a g00d boy at borne and at school. She knew
s e r io ii ha, d p layed truant to some extent, but she did not regard this as- very
se ions. She also knew that he had played around with a gang of boys but
w i t w h ° Pini01l tbeir activities were harmless. She was favorably impressed
T fii1 tbe C° U,aty Probation officer to whom Lester had been obliged toPreport

ru t ^ S f „ „ de&

' bUt She “

“ at tta P ^ t io ft S o S T a d

Lester attended parochiai school until he was 9 years of age and then went to
Eflwo s?b° o1, ieachmg the eighth grade. According to the principal of the public
school, he was “ put o u t” of the parochial school because he was ‘?too tough ”
His conduct m the public school seems to have been satisfactory except that
his attendance was somewhat irregular.
^
excepr tnat
tJS?®

fi^ st j ° b was selling newspapers after school in the winter of 1927
During the summer vacation of the same year he worked as assistant affpndnni-

™ A SaSOl!,ne
6am I“ g * 5 a w e e k / P a r t o f
mother and part he deposited in the bank.

° ? Pi°rii,Unities1 for wholesome recreation were rather limited. His
leighborhood had no playgrounds or community centers, but Lester and his
brother used to go to a boys’ club to swim. Tbe boys also went to lh e “
»
and, of course, played around with other boys.
movies
^.ester !Las 9 years of age he came to the attention of the police for
the first time
He was brought in to be “ lectured” by the chief on several
occasions. Also he was twice brought before the judge, who talked to him
informally in his office. A t one time (court had no rlcord of date) he w S
Lon officer “ to e .” 0“

stealm g; he sported regularly and liked his proba-

Lester gave as his reason for his present delinquencies the fact that the
other boys in his gang did “ those th in gs” and so he did too
The cour?
record shows that he was brought into court on two charges o f’ larcenv and
one of malicious mischief, but gives no details concerning the offenses nor anv
information concerning the boy himself. Lester had ev id en tly beenl o c a t e d
with Henry B. (see p. 34) in stealing from clothes lines, but the extent of hi«

HiS m° ther Said tbat tbG thiA§S be bad tSen°fwe ll
hroiisfht°aUtrtthea « ? led f^aCh ° ^ the three cbarges separately, although all were
brought at the same time. For each of the charges the court made a snlcial
disposition For the first charge of larceny, commitment to the State school
sedond charge of larceny, binding over for action by superior
corn t , and for the charge of malicious mischief, continuance for sentence
Thp
superior court quashed the second charge of larceny, and Lester after beine
detained for three days, was taken to the State school by the sheriff
8

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Aside from the facts in the mittimus sheet, the State-school record contains
no information other than that Lester was interviewed and given a physical
examination on admission, that both his parents were living, and that he was
an intelligent eighth-grade boy.
Lester seems to be fairly happy in the institution. He plays both football
and baseball and takes part in whatever activities are provided for his cottage.
Much of his spare time he spends in reading.
JACK S.

Native black; parents native black.
Age at time of offense, 10.
Municipal court, December 23, 1927: Stealing; bound over to superior court.
Family at time of disposition: Parents divorced; mother, brothers 14, 9, sisters
16, 12, at home.
Jack is a bright, happy-go-lucky, vivacious youngster with a mischievous
twinkle in his eyes. He has good features and a fairly light skin, and at the
time of the interview he looked healthy and neat.
The family live on a small side street on a steep hill. The neighborhood is
not a bad one, but most of the little houses are old and in need of repair. Mrs.
S. rents six rooms on the second floor of a two-family house; the rooms are
attractive and comfortably furnished, and a bridge lamp, pictures, and many
plants give the flat a home-like atmosphere.
Jack’s grandmother is a white w om an; she married a negro man from whom
she was later separated. Jack’s father is “ not much good.” Mrs. S. thinks
that the lack of paternal discipline in the home is in part responsible for the
delinquency problems of the children.
Mrs. S. is employed as a cook in a private family and works fairly regularly.
Her work has taken her away from home a good deal, but recently she has
been able to arrange to be home for the evening meal. Maxine, the 16-year-old
girl, and Brewster, the 14-year-old boy, attend high school. Maxine works as
a nursemaid after school and on Saturdays, thus earning enough money to
pay for her clothes.
The family are not without contact with community resources. Mrs. S. is
taking a night-school course in practical nursing; Maxine enters.into the social
activities of the high school; her 12-year-old sister belongs to the Girl Scout
troop at her church; the boys belong to no organization, but they use the public
library. Jack and one of his brothers were also sent to a Young Men’s Christian
Association camp for two weeks last summer.
The family are also known to three social agencies. Through the State de
partment of public welfare and the municipal board of children’s guardians
they have been receiving mothers’ aid in the amount of $30 a month, and from
a private agency, which cared for Jack and his younger brother before the
granting of mothers’ aid, they receive $15 a month in rent. All three agencies
are interested in the children and are conscious of Mrs. S.’s inability to give
them the necessary supervision. But although they recognize the danger to
which mischievous youngsters are exposed without proper supervision, they have
apparently been unable to find a way out of this difficulty.
Mrs. S. has found Jack to be qui'et around the house and not especially trouble
some. But she knows that he is mischievous and sometimes vengeful toward
his brothers and sisters, and she feels that she does not really understand him.
Jack was in the fifth grade last year. He did not like his teacher and fre
quently played truant. The school-attendance officer returned him to school a
number of times, but never found his truancy sufficiently serious to warrant
his referring the boy to court.
Just before the delinquency in question, Jack and Sam, a boy slightly older
than he, had been loafing around a bakery. One morning one of the drivers
parked his car in front of the bakery, leaving bills and checks amounting to
more than $100 in the automobile while he entered the bakery. Jack and Sam
took the money, dividing the bills between them and hiding the checks. They
purchased several small articles and two second-hand bicycles. Through the
purchase of the bicycles the boys were detected, and one evening they were
arrested and taken to the police station for the night.
The morning after the arrest their case was heard in the municipal court.
Jack pleaded not guilty to a charge of larceny of more than $100, but probable
cause was found and he was bound over to the superior court. He was released
on furnishing bond of $300.
The three social agencies were represented at the hearing, but with the ex
ception of the agent o f the State department of public welfare, who stood as

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security for the bond furnished by the mother* they did not assist in the court
action.
On January 16 Jack’s case was brought before the superior court. He was
represented by an attorney appointed by the court and pleaded “ Nolo con
tendere.” He was convicted of “ juvenile delinquency ” and released on $500
bail. On February 18 his case was finally disposed o f; he was placed on
probation, to report weekly until the September term of court.
On September 10 the probation officer, who had made no home visits but
had had weekly oflice reports from the boy, reported to the court that although
Jack had reported somewhat irregularly he excused this on account of the
boy’s age and recommended discharge from probation.
The court experience evidently made little impression on Jack. The thing
he remembers with perhaps most vividness is the overnight detention in the
police station. This also made a considerable impression on Mrs. S., espe
cially as she was not notified of the arrest until the following morning, and
also as her “ little boy ” by reason of his arrest and detention was deprived of
both supper and breakfast. She thinks the experience “ learned him a lesson,”
so far as stealing is concerned, but that it did not help his conduct in general.
She still worries about him.
Sam was not interviewed, but from interviews with his mother and his
school principal, and from information concerning the delinquency of both
boys, the following story was obtained:
Sam’s parents are separated, and he lives with his mother, two older brothers,
two older sisters, and brother-in-law. Last year he was excused from school
attendance because of poor health following an accident.
Sam was 14 years of age at the time of the offense. His experience was prac
tically the same as Jack’s, and his court record is like his friend’s except that
the bail requested in his case was $1,000 rather than $500. His probation
report reads as follow s:
“ Samuel X . has fulfilled, with the utmost punctuality and scrupulous care,
the terms of his probation as laid down by your honorable court and seems in
every way to have learned a valuable lesson by his experience. I am therefore
recommending his discharge from probation.”
The comments of Sam’s school principal are interesting. He considers Sam
“ the victim of whomever he happens to be with,” and has noticed that Sam
prefers the company of older boys and is easily led by them. He also considers
Sam mentally deficient, and although he has placed him in the seventh grade,
he did so merely to keep him in a c ass with boys of his own age and size.
As no mental tests have been given to Sam, it is impossible to say whether
he is really deficient, or merely retarded by illness, or to decide whether, in his
adventure with Jack, he was allowing himself to be led by a younger boy or
was himself the leader. The probation officer gives no help on this point. He
seems not to have realized that punctual reporting during the probationary
period is in itself no indication that a child has made progress but may, on the
contrary, indicate that particularly pathetic type of mental deficiency which
makes certain people do faithfully whatever they are told to do but leaves
them incapable of determining whether what they have been told to do is right
or wrong. It is just such persons who are most in need of guidance and
supervision.
EARL K.

Native w hite; parents native white.
. Age at time of offense, 17.
Municipal court, February 28, 1928: Stealing; bound over to superior court.
Family at time of disposition: Father dead, mother remarried. Earl living in
boarding home as State ward.
Earl is a tall, thin, fairly healthy-looking boy. At the time of the interview
he was working in a shop, dressed in khaki shirt and breeches and high boots.
His manner was courteous and pleasant, but full of cautious and deliberate
reserve.
Earl became a ward of the State department of public welfare when ne
was 14 years of age. His father’s death and his mother’s remarriage having
left him homeless, the State boarded him with his aunt. He stayed with her
about a year and was then transferred to a rural boarding home where he
was able to earn most of his board by helping with farm work. After he
had finished the ninth grade he left school. He wanted to go on with a trade

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M A IN E

or technical school course; but, as the town high school offered only commercial
and college-preparatory courses and as he knew of no way of getting to a
trade school, he continued working on the farm.
In February, 1928, a cottage on a lake near his boarding home was broken
into and various articles, among them a rifle, were stolen. Suspicion fell on
Earl because he was said to have been seen near the cottage at the time
of the burglary and also because he was known to have a rifle. The boy was
arrested and detained in the town lock-up for one night, to be arraigned the
following day.
According to one of the spectators, the hearing was arranged for the after
noon in order to enable more people to attend; and when the court room became
too crowded for comfort, - the proceedings were adjourned to the town hall.
When Earl was brought in some one shouted, “ Herb comes the guy that stole
the gun,” and the crowd became thoroughly interested and excited. Earl felt
at a disadvantage because he had no lawyer, but he defended himself as best
he could, attempting to prove that he was not on the premises at the time of
the burglary and that the rifle with which he had been seen was his own.
His boarding parent also testified to his general good conduct. But. the judge,
being unconvinced of the boy’s innocence, bound the case over to the grand
jury, and on findings of probable cause Earl’s case came before the superior
court. He was defended by a lawyer in the superior court and the' case was
dismissed.
After the trial Earl returned to his boarding parent, who helped him
find a job in a factory and a boarding home near his work.
Earl is now learning to sew m attresses; he thinks that he learns slowly, but
he likes the work. He earns $12 a week, and out of this he pays $7 for board,
buys his clothes, spends a little for movies, and saves the rest. He is hoping
to save enough to enable him to go to an automobile trade school within the
next year or two.
He likes to read and takes books and magazines, mostly of adventure, from
the town library.
In speaking of his experience Earl said, “ I ’ve always been used right except
when some one lied about me.” He feels that although his case was dismissed,
he is still under suspicion in the community. This doubtless accounts in part
for his reserve.
h e n r y b.

Native white ; parents white.
Age at time of offense, 14.
Municipal court, April 4, 1927: Stealing ; placed on probation for remainder o f
school year. May 6, 1927 : Stealing; committed to State school for boys.
Family at time of disposition: Widowed mother, brother 12, sisters 19, 17, grand
mother, and brother-in-law (husband of sister 19) at home.
Henry is a heavy-set, rather good-looking boy. He seems to take great
pride in his appearance. H is personality is pleasing, and in conversation he
seems bright and alert.
Henry’s father was a hard drinker and a drug addict. From time to time
he had spells during which he would go off alone like a tramp or hobo. Twice
he was a patient at the State hospital for the insane, where his case was
diagnosed as “ pathological intoxication.” The immediate cause of his death
was not reported.
For the past 10 years Henry’s mother has been the main wage-earner in the
family. She has been employed regularly during this time as a cashier. She
is a young-looking woman, attractive and refined, and was spoken of highly
by the various persons interviewed in connection with the case. The 17-yearold sister is a telephone operator and also contributes to the family income.
Henry always enjoyed out-of-door life. H e was familiar with birds and
trees, and he liked to hike in the woods. Although he was In the seventh
grade at the age of 14, he never liked school; his classroom conduct was good,
but frequently he played truant in order to go tramping— sleeping in the woods
and living the life of a hobo. His school principal attributed these “ spells ”
to the fact that, through his mother's employment, he had been left too much
to his own devices, thus not receiving proper training, and to the fact that his
father was known to have had similar tendencies. But neither the principal
nor the teacher ever made any effort to counteract these tendencies.
The police had known Henry as a truant and “ runaway ” for several years.
They had brought him before the chief for lectures and warnings, but, because

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of the high standards of the family, they had kept him out of court as long
as they possibly could. They made no attempt to study his behavior, his home
life, or hi£rrecreational interests and resources; and no effort to guide and
direct his interests into legitimate channels.
In April, 1927, Henry and a few other boys broke into a house and took some
kitchen utensils which they used as drums and cymbals in a street parade.
For this Henry was adjudged guilty of lafceny in the municipal court and
placed on probation for the rest o f the school year.
He- reported several times to his probation officer; but as the latter never
made a home visit and never spent much time with him, they scarcely became
acquainted with each other.
Henry had been on probation only a month when he stole a knife from
a store and with it cut down several clothes lines on which clothes were
hanging. H e was charged with burglary, but adjudged guilty of “ juvenile
delinquency,” and his case was continued for 12 days, during which time he
was under observation at the State hospital for the insane.
The hospital
found no evidence of mental deficiency, emotional disturbance, or psycho
pathic tendency, but suggested that his training had been faulty and recom
mended suitable training to keep him occupied. He was accordingly returned
to the court and committed to the State school for boys.
Henry’s family considered the sentence too severe and suspected that the
boy had been blamed by the police for incidents with which he was not con
nected. They appealed the case to the superior court and, pending the Sep
tember term, had him released on a $300 bond.
On September 24, 1927, a capias was issued by the superior court; on Sep
tember 28 Henry was convicted of “ juvenile delinquency,” and on October
11 he was committed to the State school for boys. H e was detained in the
police station and county jail for one night at the time of the first hearings.
At the time of the superior-court hearing he was detained in the county jail
for about two weeks, from the time of conviction to the day of transfer to
the State school. This detention was called a period of “ safekeeping,” so
that no record of it was made in the jail register.
Henry is now in the eighth grade at the State school for boys. H e has twice
been strapped— once for running away and once for refusing to report the
escape of other boys. He is beginning to appreciate his home and learning
that he must behave himself.
RHEA R.

Native w hite; parents native white.
Age at time of first offense. 13.
Police matron, March 15, 1928: Sex offense; dismissed with warning.
Municipal court, April 28, 1928: Truancy; placed on probation. June 7 , 1 9 2 8 :
.
Truancy and sex offense; continued on probation. On October 1, 1928, com
mitted to State school for violation of probation. Decision appealed.
Family at time of disposition: Parents married, but not living together; Rhea
living with divorced aunt, who is housekeeper for widower with several small
children.
Rhea is tall and slender and pretty in two distinctly different w a y s; she is
insolently pretty when she is dressed for the street in her smart flapper
clothes, with her cheeks rouged and her lips thickly painted; and she is
pathetically pretty sitting at home in a faded gingham dress, with no stockings
on her long, straight legs, no color in her pale cheeks, and with her tired eyes
and wan face betraying the need for long hours of sleep and regular, nourish
ing meals. Her aunt thinks she is “ high strung ” and hysterical, and, indeed,
her conduct in the judge’s office showed her to be of an unstable temperament ;
but her appearance and her story suggest that possibly this instability is due
to the fact that she has been overtaxing her youthful strength by trying to
lead the life of a vigorous and sophisticated adult.,
Mr. R. deserted Mrs. R. about three weeks before Rhea was born and did
not return until some time during the late war, when, according to town
gossip, he reclaimed his family in order to escape the draft. He is now doing
bridge-construction work in a neighboring State, and although he has not
been at home for some time he still sends home part of his earnings.
Mrs. R. when first deserted by her husband went to live with her mother,
both of them going out to do housework for a living. When Mr, R. returned.
Mrs. R. went to live with him, leaving Rhea to be brought up by her. grand
mother. Rhea and her grandmother were extremely fond of each other, and
when the latter died in July, 1927, Rhea was heartbroken. Instead of going
to her mother, she went to live with her aunt, Mrs. K.

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Mrs. K . is a large, good-natured woman who sheds quantities of tears with
the greatest ease. Having obtained a divorce from her husband several years
ago, she now supports herself and her young child by keeping house for a
widower and his little children. Their small six-room cottage is cluttered
with an untidy assortment of worn furniture, soiled cushions, ragged magazines
and music, the widower’s large dog, and Mrs. K .’s collection of birds and bird
cages. Mrs. K . has been generous with Rhea. Of the $5 a week that she
receives from Mr. R. for his daughter’s board, she returns $1.50 to Rhea, and
she is similarly indulgent with the girl in allowing her to do almost anything
she wishes. Unfortunately this indulgence is not tempered with good judgment.
Last year Rhea was in the eighth grade in school. She learned easily and
got on well, but she and her friend Martha A. (see p. 65) suddenly began to
feel very grown up and eager for more exciting activities than those furnished
by grammar school. Rhea, whose grandmother had permitted her to take
dancing lessons, had an insatiable desire to go to dances; and, when there was
no lodge dance to which her aunt could take her, she and Martha would go to
public dances. They soon attracted the attention of the police matron, whose
duties included visits to the various places of public amusement; one evening
both girls were arrested, and, on the ground of “ being found in circumstances
of manifest danger of falling into habits of vice or immorality,” they were
given a severe warning.
W ithin the following month their craving for grown-up activities took a
new form. By adding a few years to their ages, they obtained jobs in a local
shoe factory. Rhea was very industrious and earned altogether about $35,
every cent of which she spent on clothes. After a few weeks, however, she
and Martha were discovered by the factory inspector and reported to the police
matron and the school-attendance officer. On April 28 they were brought
before the municipal court on a charge of truancy and were placed on proba
tion. So far as could be learned, nothing was done for them during this period
of probation; they were merely made to feel that they were under close ob
servation and must watch their step in order to avoid being committed to the
State school for girls.
On June 7 they were again brought before the municipal court 24 for truancy,
going to dances, smoking cigarettes, keeping late hours, and in generak conduct
ing themselves in a manner unseemly for their years. The judge allowed them
to remain on probation with the understanding that they leave town. Rhea,
without further investigation, was to be sent to her father in the next State
as soon as the school term came to an end.
In spite of her truancy, Rhea graduated from the eighth grade the follow
ing week and then went to her father. Her father’s housekeeper was a distant
relative whose husband was suffering from shellshock and was extremely ner
vous and irritable, so that life in this household was not likely either to help
Rhea or to contribute to her happiness.
A t the close of the summer Rhea was eager to leave her father and return
to her aunt and enroll in high school. Her return was duly noted by the
police matron, who at once requested the high-school principal to notify her
as soon as the girl should be truant. Rhea tried during the first few weeks
to lead a blameless existence; she even telephoned the police matron, asking
for permission to attend two dances a month. When this was denied her
she spent her evenings with a new girl friend reading sensational magazines,
making fudge, and going for automobile rides in her friend’s car.
In the fourth week of the school term Rhea was reported absent. She re
mained absent for three days, and on each of those evenings the police matron
and officers watched for her at the various dance halls. On the third even
ing (Friday) a police officer saw her enter a lodge hall and speak for a few
minutes to several of the young people. He reported the incident to the police
matron who, with the judge’s consent, had a warrant issued for Rhea’s arrest.
The hearing, delayed until Tuesday because of Rhea’s illness on Monday, was
held in the judge’s 'office, in the presence of the chief of police, the police
matron, the school-attendance officer, Mrs. K . and her lawyer, Rhea, her friend,
and her m other; a newspaper reporter stood in the doorway. Mrs. K .’s lawyer,
the counsel for the defense, tried to conduct a regular cross-examination, but
24 On the occasion of one of these arrests, probably the one of April 28, Rhea was
detained for a few hours in the woman’s detention room until her aunt raised the required
$200 bail for her release pending the hearing.

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D E L IN Q U E N T C H IL D R E N

the judge’s method was quite informal. Rhea’s plea was that she had been
ill for three days with tonsillitis and, feeling a little better on Friday evening,
had gone over to visit her friend who had taken her for a drive; they had
-passed the lodge hall a little after 10 o’clock and had stopped to speak to some
acquaintances there, leaving after a few minutes to go home. The following
day she felt less well and later, when the warrant was served, had gone to
bed with a fever.
Unfortunately neither the school-attendance officer nor the police matron
had visited Rhea’s home during the three days of alleged truancy, and there
fore the court, unwilling to accept her plea, had no means of verifying it.
Unfortunately, too, the court had kept no record of its intention with regard
to Rhea’s stay with her father, and so a dispute arose between the judge and
Mrs. K., the judge holding that as Rhea had been ordered to remain per
manently with her father her return was in itself sufficient to warrant com
mitment to the State school, and Mrs. K. contending that Rhea had been
ordered to remain with her father for the summer only.
Nevertheless the court ordered Rhea’s commitment to the State school for
girls on a charge of “ being found in circumstances of manifest danger of
falling into habits of vice or immorality,” apparently on the following grounds:
(1) Rhea’s record of last spring for truancy, keeping late hours, attending
public dances, and smoking cigarettes showed her to be a girl in need of
institutional care.
(2) By leaving her father and returning to the city she had violated the
condition of her probation.
(3) Her present environment was an unsuitable place for her, and her
aunt, a divorced woman, an unfit guardian.
(4) An indirect and inaccurate report that Martha A., now at the State
school, was being treated for a venereal disease did not look well for Rhea,
who had been the girl’s intimate companion (see p. 6 6 ).
(5) Her four days of absence from school (Wednesday, Thursday, Friday,
and Monday) and her appearance at the lodge hall on Friday evening were
not in her favoi.
Rhea was not sent to the State school, however, as her counsel entered an
appeal. She was released on nominal bond with the recommendation that
she be given a physical examination and with orders not to return to school
until she had been found to be free from infection. Tbe physician’s reports were
negative. Rhea did not confess to having had sex experience.
In December, 1928, Rhea’s case came before the superior court, and the
commitment to the State school for girls was set aside. Rhea remained
with her aunt.
IRMA AND GLADYS I.

Native w hite; parents native white.
Ages at time of offense, 13, 11.
Trial justice, March 27, 1928: Sex offenses; ordered committed to State school
for girls.
Family at time of disposition: Parents divorced; brothers 16, 10, and sistef'8
(with Irma and Gladys) in home of father with housekeeper and her 14-yearold daughter; brother 6 in home of mother and her second husband in neigh
boring tow n ; sister 18 in State school for girls.
Mr. and Mrs. I. were divorced in May, 1927. Mrs. I. brought suit charging
that her husband “ wantonly and cruelly ” refused or neglected to provide
maintenance; that he was guilty of extreme cruelty; that he swore at her and
told her to “ get o u t” of his house; and that he threatened her life with a
revolver. Mr. I. did not appear at the trial, and Mrs. I. apparently obtained
the divorce with little difficulty. She was awarded custody of the children,
but at that time made no effort to take them with her.
Mr. I. is a fireman in a paper mill and works steadily whenever the mill
is operating. He has a pleasant 7-room house on the outskirts o f the
village in which he works. The place is simply furnished but clean and com
fortable, and the yard is made attractive with little flower beds. His house
keeper and her 14-year-old daughter have been living in the home since
April, 1927.
Mr. I.’s story of the family trouble is that Mrs. I. had shamefully neglected
her children; that for three years before December, 1926, when she finally left
him “ for good,” she had been at home only “ on and off ” ; that from time to
time she had gone off with other men and entertained men at home while he
was at work; and that during her absences the children had been free to

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go “ where they had a mind to.” He said that Mrs. I. never tried to take
any of the children after the divorce until two years ago, when she suddenly
kidnaped their 6-year-old boy, and she showed no interest in the girls until
she heard that they were to be committed to the State school for girls.
Mrs. I.’s liberal use of cosmetics and her generally overdressed appearance
at the time of the interview made her seem rather “ hard.” She gave, as her
reason for not assuming. custody of the children the fact that she had been
obliged to earn a living for herself and had not been in a position to make a
home for them. Upon her second marriage she had tried to bring the children
to her home, but had been refused permission by Mr. I. and had finally succeeded
in getting the 6-year-old boy by kidnaping him two years ago. Her attitude
toward Mr. I.’s housekeeper is that the latter has not given her children the
proper care and guidance and that she is an unsuitable person to have in the
home.
The only member of the family having a court record before the divorce was
Ida, now 18 years of age, who was committed to the State school for girls in
December, 1925, on a charge of “ being found in circumstances of manifest
danger of falling into habits of vice or immorality.” It was reported that Ida
had gone to an “ old man’s ” house and also that her mother had contributed
to her delinquency by inviting men to the house for her. Mr. I. described Ida
as having been “ headstrong” and disobedient and said that she had had the
opportunity to do something for herself, as a local woman had taken an interest
in her and had offered her a place in which she could earn her board and
room while attending school, but she had refused to accept the offer. Neither
Mr. nor Mrs. I. considered Ida’s experience or record as in any way contributing
to the delinquency of Irma and Gladys.
Irma has light hair and good features and is neat and attractive in appear
ance. She is rather large for her age, and overweight, and. according to the
school nurse, her tonsils need attention. She seems somewhat slow, but this
may be due in part to shyness.
Gladys is much more talkative than her sister and seems brighter. Like
Irma she is a neat and attractive-looking girl. The school nurse found her
“ all right ” except that her teeth needed attention.
Last winter Irma was in the fourth grade and Gladys in the third. The
school authorities considered this retardation due not so much to possible low
mentality as to irregular attendance, which, in turn, they attributed to home
conditions. The school took no action in regard to this irregular attendance
however, until one day the teacher sent a note to Mr. I.’s housekeeper reporting
the girl s absences. Both Mr. I. and the housekeeper said that this was the
first indication they had that the girls were truant. The housekeeper had felt
at times that the girls were being deceitful, but neither she nor Mr. I. had had
any cause for complaint of their conduct. On looking into the matter of their
nonattendance Mr. I. discovered that his two daughters had been sneaking off
to the “ old man’s ” house instead of going to school, and, enticed by his money
had submitted to illicit intercourse with him. He brought a complaint against
Irma and Gladys to the local trial justice.
The trial justice went to Mr. I.’s home to see the girls. He was already
familiar with the family and considered Mr. I. a steady worker of the average
laboring type and Mrs. I. a woman of questionable character. He had no doubt
that the girls had been neglected both before and after the divorce. He ar
ranged for a physical examination by the local health officer, who found no
positive evidence of venereal disease. He also notified the assistant county pro
bation officer, who, however, took no action in the case and was unable to be
present at the time of the hearing. On March 27 he ordered both girls com
mitted to the State school for girls on a charge of “being found in manifest
danger of falling into habits of vice or immorality'” Mrs. I., represented by an
attorney at the hearing, appealed, and, pending the next session of the superior
cmirt, she was awarded custody of the girls. The trial justice and the health
officer, and apparently also the father, considered it imperative that the girls
be removed from the community at once, but they saw no alternative to sending
them to their mother.
&
When the June term of the superior court was held the parties to the hearing
did not appear and the case was still pending at the time of the interview
Mrs. I. asserts that her husband’s complaint was merely a “ frame-up ” in
order to rid himself of the girls and to have them cared for in the State school
She has had no difficulty in getting them to attend school regularly since thcv
have been with her and has found them helpful and obedient in the home.

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The girls themselves like their new school even though they found the work
more difficult at first. In spite of the fact that their “ stepfather ” sometimes
gets cross, they like being with their mother better than with their father.
They have had few opportunities for wholesome recreation in either community,
but they enjoy playing with the school children in the community in which
they now live.
Their present teachers find them industrious, well-behaved pupils and do not
consider their school retardation due to mental defect.
The school nurse— the only person giving any indication of Mrs. I.’s status in
her new environment— reported that she had had some home contact with the
mother in regard to dental work, etc., for the girls and had found her coopera
tive. She also reported that Mrs. J. had taken her 6-year-old boy to the pre
school clinic and had been eager to get him in good shape before he should
enter school.
No record appears of any prosecution of the “ old man ” in this case, although
from the meager evidence it appears that he is the same man with whom Ida
had illicit relations before her commitment to the State school in December,
1925. As both Irma and Gladys were under 14 years, the “ age of consent ” in
Maine, at the time of this experience, he could have been indicted on two
charges of rape, punishable in Maine “ by imprisonment for any term of years.”

PROBATION

The most desirable method of caring for juvenile delinquents,
where home and neighborhood conditions make such a plan feasi
ble, is to allow them to remain in their own homes under the super
vision of trained probation officers. Supervision in this sense is
a very broad term. It means that the probation officer visits the
child’s home in order to become acquainted with his family and his
home conditions and help him to make the necessary adjustment to
any difficulties in his home situation; that he has private talks with
the child to gain his confidence and help him with his personal
problems; that he looks after his health, helps him to develop satis
factory school relationships and obtain wholesome recreation, and,
when he goes to work, assists in finding suitable employment.25
Good probation service is dependent upon an adequate and welltrained probation staff, as ample time must be given by the officer
to each child so that he can be of real assistance in substituting good
attitudes and habits of conduct for the undesirable ones that the
child has exhibited in the past. It is generally accepted that a full
time probation officer should have under supervision not more than
50 probationers, and that officers supervising girls should be responsi
ble for a smaller number.26
In Maine probation is used to a considerably greater extent for
boys than for girls. (Table 5, p. 25.) This is due partly to the fact
that girls’ cases seldom receive attention until they are considered
sufficiently serious to warrant commitment to an institution, and
partly to the fact that Maine has few agencies equipped to handle
girls’ cases effectively.
The courts may, and occasionally do, designate some especially
interested individual— a clergyman, a social worker, or the judge
himself—to supervise certain cases, but they refer nearly all proba
tion cases to the county probation officers. The authority and powers
of these officers have already been described. (See p. 4.) Study of
actual cases indicates that they take little advantage of these powers.
25 See Juvenile Courts at Work, p. 161 ff., and in particular pp. 142-143 and 179-188.
28Juvenile Court Standards, p. 8.

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The officers attend the required court sessions and receive as proba
tioners the children committed to their care, but they rarely request
the custody of children under arrest and awaiting trial or give in
formation helpful in making an adjustment. Their service to chil
dren is on the whole confined to receiving the minimum reports
prescribed by law as follow s; •
“ The court shall have authority to
order such probationer to report to the probation officer at such times
and places as the court in its order shall direct.” 37 The procedure
usually is for the officer to give to each probationer a written state
ment as to the terms of probation and the time and place at which
he is to report. Under this system the officers consider their obliga
tions fulfilled if they see the children in their office.28 They usually
ask a few general questions, such as “ How are you getting along ?
Have you been going to school every day?” and give the child a gen
eral admonition such as, “ Just be good and you will stay out of
trouble,” or, more specifically, “ Now you see you can get along all
right if you tr y ; it doesn’t pay to take other people’s things; it won’t
get you anywhere but to the reform school.” A few of the officers
who have a more professional attitude toward their work visit the
homes of the children under their care, inquiring specifically about
their school achievements and recreational interests, and advising,
encouraging, and reproving them as necessary. But, although they
may see possibilities for constructive work ^ith the children, none
o f them is able to give enough time to carry through an effective
plan of treatment.
The number of reports required o f probationers varies. Most
officers require weekly or biweekly reports at first, reducing the num
ber as time goes on. They keep a card file or a ledger record o f the
children, and each time a child reports a dated entry is made on
this record. This works well enough if the child reports, but if he
fails to report the officer is frequently unaware of it, as his only way
o f knowing which reports are due on a certain day is by going
through all the cards, or the entire ledger, to see when the last re
port was made in each case. For probation officers who do not keep
their files cleared o f old records and who have but one file for adult
and juvenile cases, as well as for records o f fines and costs collected,
this involves too much of a task. As a result, when a child reports
he is credited; when he fails to report, nothing is done, although this
is doubtless the very occasion when he is most in need of his officer.
In some instances probationers drop away entirely by this method
without the officers ever being aware of it. (See the cases o f Jacques
N., p. 43; and Anton C., p. 44.)
•Some children are supervised by correspondence, for in spite of
the fact that probation officers are appointed for county service, most
o f them serve only the cities or towns in which they are located;
lack of appropriation for traveling expenses and lack of time pre
vent their serving the county at large. Occasionally they attempt
to give probation service by mail to probationers located outside
(heir own communities. This usually means that the probationer
writes a biweekly or monthly letter to which he receives no reply;
«R e v . Stat. 1918, ch. 137, sec. 20.
28 One probation officer arranged to have probationers come to his home and, in his
absence, some member of his family received the report.

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and, if his letters become irregular or cease entirely, the probation
officer is likely to let the matter rest.
Nearly hair the children under the care of probation officers were
placed on probation by the court on a suspended sentence or during
continuance of the case. In several such cases studied the super
vision given the children under care was merely nominal, and on the
first occasion on which the probationer by some misconduct called
himself to the attention of a law-enforcing officer, his probation was
considered violated and he was referred to court for commitment.
(See the cases o f Carl H., p. 64; Martha A., p. 65; and Ernest
p -’ P - 67->

In some counties the probation period varies from 3 to 12 months,
in others from 6 to 24 months, and in others a year is set for all
cases. The discharge procedure is very informal. As has already
been pointed out, some probationers drop away of their own accord,
never being formally discharged. For the rest, a gradual decrease in
the number of reports and finally a word o f admonition when the
officer informs them that their time is up concludes the probation
period.
The responsibility of the probation officers to the court with regard
to children varies in different counties. Some of the courts seem to
have no further contact with probationers unless they violate the
terms of their probation; in other courts the judges maxe occasional
inquiries concerning individual children and require reports o f all
discharges, with notes as to progress made in each case. As the
officers keep no social records—without home visits and some de
gree o f investigation social records are naturally impossible—no
very detailed reports can be expected.
Case histories illustrating 'probation

A few cases will suffice to show some of the typical needs o f the
juvenile probationer and will help to make clear in just what re
spects Maine’s present probation service is defective. Included in
this group are the stories of Michael Y., who needed companionship
and encouragement to build up his self-confidence, self-reliance,
and independence; Jacques N., who needed advice based on a study
o f his mental and physical condition; Anton C. and Yvon S., who
needed friendly guidance—Anton with regard to a suitable vocation,
Yvon in connection with his school and after-school work, and both
boys in connection with their recreational pursuits; and Lucy P.,
who needed every kind of sympathetic and friendly supervision
(For additional examples o f probation service see the cases o f Carl
H., p. 64., Ernest P., p. 67; Tito V., p. 14; Rhea R., p. 35; Martha A.,
p. 65; Steve G., p. 28; Morris A., p. 29; Lester J., p. 31; and Jack
S , p. 32.)
MICHAEL Y.

Native w hite; parents born in Ireland.
Age at time of offense, 11.
Municipal court, March 5, 1928: Stealing; placed on probation for two years.
Family at time of disposition : Mother twice married; first husband died and
second deserted; brothers 10, 6, 4, sister 8, stepbrother 18, and stepsister (age
not reported) at home.
Michael is a pale, thin boy and seems unusually apprehensive and timorous
for his age. Unfortunately his mother’s impatient shouting does not serve
to encourage him. On the evening of the interview he sat on a bed looking

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like a frightened rabbit. H is chin quivered pathetically, his eyes were full
of tears, and he seemed unable to reply even to questions unrelated to his
offense.
The Y. family live in one of the poorer districts of the city, with the river
wharves and railroad tracks on one side and the business section on the other.
There are several vacant lots in this neighborhood and a number o f garages
and dingy stores; the housing conditions are not very good. Mrs. Y. rents
the second floor and attic of a shabby, old building for $13 a month. The
second floor has a parlor, a kitchen, and a tiny bedroom without an outside
window. The attic has three bedrooms and a toilet. A small and very dirty
vacant lot next to the house serves as a yard where the younger children can
make mud pies.29
Michael’s father deserted the family about a year ago. He had been an
occasional drinker and at times had drunk to excess, but he had never left home
nor threatened to leave until last year when, according to Mrs. Y., he suddenly
disappeared and has not been heard of since.
Mrs. Y. is a pale, bony woman who works very hard, gets much excited
over the injustices of the world, and “ hollers ” nervously at her children. She
is employed from 6.30 to 8 a. m. and 12.45 to 5 p. m. as a charwoman in a
public school, earning about $12.50 a week.
John and Kate, the oldest children, are children of Mrs. Y .’s first marriage.
John has graduated from high school and is at present looking for a job.
During the summer he was employed as a serving boy in a resort hotel. Con
cerning Kate, Mrs. Y . was strangely silent. Kate is employed in a factory and,
from Mrs. Y .’s reluctance to discuss her school and work history, it is likely
that she has been employed while under legal age.
Mark, aged 10, was in court last spring with another boy on a charge of
larceny of coins to the value of 50 ce»ts. H is case was continued for three
months in charge of the probation officer, but apparently he received no further
attention. A t the time of the interview he was spending his after-school hours
selling newspapers down town.
Peter, the 6-year-old boy, is a fam ily problem. He has a passion for making
noise and will bang together any two objects on which he can lay his hands.
He was slow in learning to talk, and Mrs. Y. at one time consulted a physician
about him. She was advised that his retardation and his passion for making
noise would disappear as he grew older. In the meantime neither public nor
parochial schools will accept him, as his presence is too disruptive to the
class. The day nursery has been unable to take him, as it is already over
crowded and he is really too old for its care. So Michael, Mark, and the
younger sister take turns staying home from school for the afternoon to take
care of him while his mother works. The youngest child is in kindergarten.
O f the 8-year-old sister nothing of special interest was learned save that she
helped to take care of her little brothers.
Michael seems to get on well with his family. He is in the sixth grade, likes
school, and has had no trouble there. For the last year or two he has been
selling newspapers after school on the main business street of the city.
Although he is out from 4.30 to 6 or 7, he sells only 15 papers. He earns
1 cent for every paper he sells and usually makes about 10 cents a day on
tips. The tips he reserves for his own use, but the earnings, together with
those of his brother Mark, pay for the family milk supply.
Mrs. Y. complained rather severely that Michael “ just walked down the
street with his papers ” without trying to sell them and that other boys could
dispose of 25 papers while he sold 15. A t one time she had arranged for him
to sell magazines, but he always had so many left that she could not afford
to have him continue with this enterprise.
Michael plays with other boys in the vacant lots near his home. For spe
cial recreation he goes to motion-picture shows, usually once a week. He
depends on the local boys’ club for picnics, for amusement on stormy nights,
and for occasional shower baths.
The family’s version of Michael’s offense is that one day last spring on the
way home from school he and about eight other boys passed a restaurant and
29 A few days after the time of interview the family moved to a 5-room first-floor flat,
which, although in the same neighborhood, was in a much better state of repair and had a
small piazza and yard in the rear. Mrs. Y. made this change for the sake of the children
and was counting on the older children to help her pay the rent, which was $10 a month
higher.

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decided to help themselves to some pie.
In their excitement they knocked
down a jug of sirup which spilled over and spoiled other things. The owner
of the restaurant made a complaint, and the judge talked to the boys, requir
ing them to report to the probation officer and to pay each his share of the
damages, which in their opinion greatly exceeded the value of their pie.
It is difficult to check up on Michael’s story.
The court record merely
shows that one Michael Y. was charged with larceny of pies valued at $1 and
that for this offense the municipal court judge sentenced him to the State school
for boys, but suspended the sentence and placed the boy on probation for two
years to a priest, as special probation officer, and to the regular probation
officer.
According to Mrs. Y., the special probation officer subsequently moved away
and Michael was given a card to report every second Saturday to the regular
probation officer. As Mrs. Y. works at the school all Saturday morning,
Michael occasionally forgets to report; but as he has been in no further diffi
culty the probation officer merely asks Michael how he is getting along and
tells him to be good.
Michael is obviously in need of opportunities for small successes which will
encourage him, give him self-confidence, and overcome his pathological timidity
and fear. He is not a -stupid boy nor yet a bad one.
JACQUES N.

Native w hite; parents French-Canadian.
Age at time of offense, 16.
Municipal court, May 23, 1928: Sex offense; placed on probation.
Family at time of disposition: Mother deserted; mother, brothers 20, 18, 2,
sisters 14, 12, 6 at home; brother 22 away.
Jacques has a few prepossessing characteristics— his good color, his white
teeth, and his amiable disposition. For the rest he is a dull, stunted-looking
youth, with untidy, unclean clothes, and a vagabond slouch to his gait and
posture. His speech is slovenly, as he scarcely opens his lips when he speaks.
Mrs. N. lives on a narrow street, near the river and railroad tracks. The
neighborhood is composed of tenement houses and little shops, and the people
are almost entirely French speaking.
Mrs. N. has five small, second-floor
rooms. The parlor contains a little organ, a sewing machine, several albums
and pictures, and several old rocking chairs which creak on the oil-cloth
covered floor; through the open door the polished kitchen stove with a bright
and shiny array of pots and pans may be seen.
Mrs. N. is a woman whom the years have left coarse and battered in ap
pearance in spite of her efforts to conceal the fact with rouge; her voice is
still strident, but her body looks ready to cave in. She has never been mar
ried. Each year when the men have come to town from the lumber camps
she has taken a boarder or tw o ; and for so long as her boarder has come back
to her and given her some of his earnings, she has considered him her husband.
Her home has been raided on several occasions, as she has been known to
sell liquor, and she has also been under grave suspicion of hiring out girls
for purposes of prostitution. Her oldest daughter recently died following an
attempted abortion.
Jacques was rather unresponsive on the subject of his home life. He said
that he had a room to himself, but that his litle brother had it with him.
(This answer is typical of the contradictory way in which he spoke.) When
the agent commented, on the fact that his home had looked clean and orderly,
he replied, “ Sure, we’re no pigs.” He seemed neither to know nor to care about
the relationships of the various members of his family to himself or to each
other, and he seemed unmoved by the illness and death of his sister, dismissing
the incident with the helpful remark, “ I can’t say the name of her sickness.”
Jacques was only in the fifth grade when he left school. He left immediately
after his sixteenth birthday because “ there were only four of us to support my
mother.” H e said that his first job was “ helping a milkman ” ; but when he
was questioned concerning his earnings and his working hours, he replied, “ I
can’t remember all those things.” He also worked for a month in a “ mill,” but
he could not remember when he worked there; he remembered earning “ $8 or
$9 or $10 a week,” of which he kept $1 and gave the rest to his mother. He
left this job because it was >
“ too much work.”
Late in the summer he met a man who had come down from a lumber camp
and was looking for a “ cooky.” 30 Jacques went along and took the job. But
*° Boy helper or assistant to the chief cook in a lumber camp.

98523°— 30------ 4

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he found the work hard, and he did not like being alone in camp all day with the
cook, nor did he like walking through the dark woods each evening to fetch
the milk. He stood it for a month, but then he felt so lonesome that he left,
His present job (which he had had only one day at the time of the interview
and probably has long since abandoned) is “ sorting colored clothes in a laun
dry ” at night. He did not yet know what his earnings would be, and he
seemed unable to describe the work or the place of his employment. (It was
difficult to know whether he never observed details or whether his intelligence
was so limited that he could not grasp them.)
The story of his delinquency was difficult to get from any source, but seems
to have been somewhat as follow s: He had been to a party one evening last
May and on his way home had stopped in an alley and looked into a window;
a woman and girl were sitting in the room. A police officer passing the place
on his beat' arrested the boy for window peeping and self-abuse and locked
him up in the detention room for the night. The case came up before the
municipal court on the following morning, and Jacques was found guilty of
“ wanton behavior ” and placed on probation. Jacques’s story is that he was
just “ passing by ” and that as he turned he saw the girl and her mother in
the room. H e denies the self-abuse, and as the agent had no opportunity for
studying the boy more closely and gaining his confidence the subject was
dropped. The injustice to the boy was not in the charge, which may easily have
been true, but in the failure to learn more about him and his needs.
Jacques never told his probation officer of his job as “ cooky” (although this
was during his probation period), nor did he report to his probation officer on
his return. Apparently the latter did not miss him and did not realize that he
had not reported for even a minimum of six months. The officer had never
made a home visit nor in any way attempted to help Jacques with his problems.
Jacques said that his good times were “ movies ” and “ parties.” When asked
whether he played cards, he replied, “ Naw, but when I play poker I play with
wafers. I never play for money.” When asked what he did at the “ parties ”
which he attended, he said that he did not kn ow ; he did not dance; occasionally
he sang.
The word “ party ” to him evidently means being with several boys and girls.
He was on his way to a “ party ” on the evening of the interview. He did not
know where it was or who was giving it, but he was going with a friend who
knew all about it. The bureau agent asked him whether he intended to go as
he was, with his hair and clothes untidy and his hands distressingly dirty.
He replied, “ Sure,” but just before leaving the agent he suddenly remarked
that he had decided to go to the “ movies ” instead. H e had with him some
money he had borrowed from a friend and thought he would have a better
time at the “ movies ” than at a “ party.”
ANTON c.
'French Canadian; parents French Canadian; father naturalized 15 years ago.
Age at time of offense, 17.
Municipal court, February 5, 1928 : Stealing; placed on probation.
Family at time of disposition: Parents married, but apparently not living
• together; father living in boarding house, which he runs; mother, sisters 24,
22, at home.

Anton is a tall young man, strong, and well built, but neither graceful nor
handsome. He was too self-conscious and shy to speak frankly or easily when
being interviewed.
Mr. C. runs a workingman’s boarding house near the mills. At the time of
the interview, shortly before noon, the downstairs rooms were bare save for
long tables which were set for the noon meal. Apparently he lives in the
boarding house and supports a woman who, with her daughters, helps him
with the work. The respectability of this establishment seemed questionable.
The women were dressed more, appropriately for a burlesque show than for
kitchen work; and after satisfying their curiosity as to the agent’s mission
they hastily disappeared.
•Mrs. O. and her two daughters live in a clean second-floor flat about a
block from Mr. O.’s boarding house. The rooms are well furnished, with an
upholstered parlor suite, a piano, floor and table lamps, rugs, and pictures.
Everything was neat and clean at the time of the interview.
The two girls are very attractive. They work steadily as stitchers in a
shoe factory and receive good wages. Their English is not fluent nor free
from a French accent, but the older girl expresses herself well and seems to
be a very intelligent and competent young woman. She has been decidedly

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conscious of the local prejudices against “ the French people ” and has felt
that her people have not had the same opportunities to get ahead as the native
Americans have. She has always been especially anxious that Anton should
not suifer any such handicaps, and in a very generous way she and her sister
saved part of their earnings with a view to helping him when they could.
According to the police and municipal court records, Anton and several other
boys were charged with larceny last February, were found guilty, and were
placed on probation. Further information concerning the offense could not be
obtained from the records nor from interviews with the probation officer and
other officers of the court. Anton’s account was that the boys had been skating
and that they made a little raid for food on a store.
Anton began to make his weekly reports to the probation officer, but he was
growing increasingly dissatisfied with life.
He felt that everybody was
“ against ” him because he was French; and then he felt that he could never
get anywhere without a trade, and that there was no way of learning a trade
in his home town. His story is that after graduating from the eighth grade
he tried to join the Navy, but was turned down because of a crooked spine. He
had helped his father cook in a lumber camp one winter, but he had not cared
much for that. Part of another winter he had cut wood, but that did not
appeal to him. He had also driven a taxi for a month hut had decided that
“ there was no money in it.” He finally became convinced that he wanted
to study aviation; and after reading some advertisements and having a little
correspondence with a Chicago school of aviation, he decided to go to Chicago.
He started out some time in April, his sisters having given him $500.
When Anton got to Albany, he stopped to see something of city life. When
he got to Buffalo, he stopped again. He was reluctant to give any details
concerning these experiences, but admitted that he became acquainted with
some young men and women and spent a considerable part of his $500 “ seeing
things.” (H is attitude toward these experiences is one of peculiar, aggressive
defensiveness. He feels that because he was brought up in a small town it
was essential to his budding manhood to have some experience in the ways
of the city.)
Anton finally reached Chicago, but with insufficient money to pay tuition for
his course in aviation. He went to look at the “ aviation college ” one day,
but said nothing about enrollment. For a month he saw the sights of Chicago,
spending his nights in hotels and his days on the streets, and then he started
back. Near Buffalo he joined a road construction gang and went to work.
He worked hard for two months, but one day he cut his hand on a concrete
mixer and, in addition to being unable to work, he felt ill. He wandered
about for a while, picking up odd jobs cutting wood or working on lawns, and
finally boarded a freight train for Boston.
On arriving in Boston Anton was held by the railroad authorities and taken
to the police station, where he was warned for riding freight cars. Then he
found a job unloading freight cars ,in Boston, and after working at that awhile
he went home.
His sisters were, of course, bitterly disappointed.
(They have concluded
that Anton is lazy, that he is always finding his immediate job too hard, and
is looking for and yearning after something easier and more interesting; they
are ashamed of his lack of ambition to get ahead.)
On his return Anton worked for his father in the boarding house for a
week or so. At the time of the interview he was driving a truck between
Boston and his home for a poultry dealer. His trips had to be made at night
and lasted from 8 p. m. one evening to 7 p. m. the next. He was not particularly
well pleased with the job, but expressed the firm intention of sticking to it
awhile to show that he could make good.
Anton has a distressing inferiority complex. The brief contact with him
was not sufficient to indicate whether this inferiority complex is genuine and is
the cause of his continuous failures or whether it is merely the excuse behind
which he wishes to hide his laziness, shiftlessness, or restlessness. The fact
that he has repeatedly taken jobs necessitating hard work would seem tb indi
cate that he is not really lazy. The consciousness of his father’s irregular
establishment troubles him. He did not feel free to discuss it, and yet, of his
own accord, he spoke of the situation and seemed ashamed and resentful
about it.

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Anton’s reasoning is still rather puerile: People are against him because
he is French; he can get nowhere without a trade; and he can not learn a
trade without money. When reminded of the money given him by his sisters
he replied without shame or sullenness that he had to have some experience.
When asked whether he had ever appealed to his probation officer for help in
solving his problems, he expressed surprise, “ H e? That old man? He never
did anything for me.” When, on the other hand, the probation officer was ques
tioned concerning Anton he replied pleasantly to this effect, “Anton C.? Yes,
I remember him. Nice b oy ; sure, he’s getting along all right ; and when at
the agent’s request he consulted his record to see when Anton had last reported,
he murmured a vague reply about having discharged the boy early. Apparently
he has not spoken with Anton since before the boy’s trip W est in April. (The
minimum period of probation in this court is supposedly six m onths; Anton
reported less than three.)
yvon s.
Native w hite; parents French Canadian.
Age at time of offense, 13.
.
.
.
.
2§
»,
10.io .
Municipal court, March 17, 1928 : Stealing; placed on probation. May 14, 1928 .
Same. June 14, 1928: Stealing; committed to State school for boys.
Family at time of disposition: Parents married and living together ¡brothers lo,
10, 3, 3 (twins), 9 months; sisters 12, 8, 7, 4 at home; brother 20, sister 18
away.
Yvon has a good complexion and bright eyes. H is stunted size and slouchy
posture indicate that he has not always lived a wholesome life, and his habit
of mouth breathing makes him look dull and unintelligent. He is good-natured
and pleasant in conversation.
Yvon’s father is a carpenter and is usually unemployed in the winter. His
mother is a toil-worn woman who has brought 12 children into the world and
has never been quite certain what they should do for bread. She has been
known to practically all the local social agencies— family-welfare society, over
seers of the poor, public-health nurse, child-welfare clinic, general hospital, and
small private organizations, but she has received help from them only in emer
gencies and never continuously.
The family lives on an unpaved, weedy little side street in one of a straggling
row of shabby houses. Their dilapidated “ ren t” has seven rooms, all rather
large but all ugly and shabby. The window shades were all ragged ; the floors
were dirty and littered with rubbish; the furniture was poor, broken, and
sticky; the sewing machine and mantlepiece were piled high with a miscella
neous collection of boxes, newspapers, broken clocks, unmended clothing, and
other things; and the windows seemed never to have been opened.
The oldest son and oldest daughter do not live at home. (The daughter left
after a quarrel with her father.) But the remaining 10 children, as well as
3 dogs and a cat, were living at home at the time just preceding Yvon’s
court experience.
Yvon was in the sixth grade at the time of his delinquency. He had already
attended 6 local schools— 4 parochial and 2 public. He said that he had not
disliked school until he was demoted. His first demotion was due to a pro
longed absence while he was suffering from a “ rash ” ; after that he was
occasionally demoted on being transferred between schools.
(H e could not
remember the reason for these transfers.)
The parochial school he last attended had only a long series of absences
marked against his name, but his public-school teacher had a vivid recollection
of him to the effect that “ he was absent half the time, and he smoked inces
santly. His lips were actually blistered from smoking the cigarettes which
he picked up on the streets. And then he was untrustworthy.” This teacher
thought that Yvon’s school retardation was due to his continuous absence and
to his smoking rather than to mental dullness, and she had discovered that he
was responsive to praise. She thought that he was probably not receiving the
proper discipline and supervision at home.
Yvon had never been very ambitious and cared little for jobs. He began
selling newspapers when he was 9 or 10 years of age, but he was not a
zealous worker and did not stay at it for more than two years. H e hauled
ashes a few times, but that also bored him. H e preferred to make his money
with less effort; namely, by robbing the church “ poor boxes.”
On March 17, 1928, Yvon and his brother Paul, who is two years older, were
brought before the municipal court on a charge of “ larceny of nickel, silver,
and copper coins valued at $ 1 .50” from a church. Both pleaded guilty and

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were committed to the State school for boys on suspended sentence and placed
on probation to a local priest acting as special probation officer together with
the regular officer.
On May 14, the two were again brought before the municipal court, this
time with three other boys on a charge of “ larceny of one bicycle valued at
$20.” Both again pleaded guilty. Yvon again was committed to the State
school for boys (alternative 30 days in ja il) on a suspended sentence and
placed on probation for two years. Paul was placed in custody of his mother
on her promise to send him to Canada to a farm. Although the court made
no investigation to discover whether the uncle’s farm in Canada would be a
suitable place for Paul, Mrs. S. feels satisfied from Paul’s letters that he is
doing as well as could be expected. He is doing farm work and not attending
school.
On June 14 Yvon was brought in on a charge of larceny of $22 which he had
taken from a store. He pleaded guilty and this time was sent to the State
school.
Yvon offers several excuses for his delinquency, but none of his excuses
seems convincing. His first excuse is, “ My trouble was smoking too m u ch/’
and he says that he feels better and thinks he has grown since he has been
at the State school and thus deprived of cigarettes. Another of his excuses
is.th at he “ did whatever the rest of the gang d id ” — his gang being the par
ticular group of boys with whom he was associating at that moment. How
ever, as he committed his last offense alone, he realizes that this excuse is not
adequate. He professes to have taken things just for the fun of it and not
because he needed or really wanted them.
His court experiences have made no great impression on him. He spent
four nights in jail cells— two pending court hearings and two on occasions when
he was picked up on runaway trips— but he did not see anything to frighten him
in jail. He has concluded that, although his probation officer never paid any
attention to him, he himself was responsible for breaking his probation and that
the State school was probably the only solution for his problem. His mother,
however, has always been convinced that he was merely led astray by his
brother Paul and that he would eventually have made good on probation if
he had been given another chance.
... J von ?eems t0 be getting along fairly well at the institution. He misses his
little twin brothers and the baby whom he used to “ mind frequentlyi apparently he enjoyed the feeling that he was able to protect them.
LUCY p.

Native white ¡ father born in Ita ly ; nativity of mother not reported.
Age at time of offense, 14.
Municipal court, April 26, 1928 : Truancy ; placed on probation.
Family at time of disposition : Father married to third wife (Lucy’s own mother
and first stepmother having died) ; brothers 17, 12; sister 13 at home • steDbrother, 9 months, in boarding home.
’ step
. Lucy is an attractive-looking girl in spite of her bleached hair which is grow
ing dark at the roots. She is stockily built and well developed for her a«-e*
she uses some rouge but wears her hair in a pretty, girlish bob, and dresses
neatly and appropriately.
Her family lives on one of the main thoroughfares of the city. The street
i s ^ e d with little shops and stores in the rear of which the storekeepers live
witb their families, the second and possibly third floors being occupied by other
American or Italian families. Occasional detached houses and numerous untidy
yards add to the generally unprogressive atmosphere of the neighborhood. The
P. family themselves occupy six rooms in the rear of their grocery store—-a
parlor, a reading room,” a kitchen, and three bedrooms.
An Italian mission in the community conducts classes, clubs, and religious
services which are attended regularly by Mr. and Mrs. P. and sporadically
by the children.
Mr. P. is a repair man on a railroad and earns $32 a week. According
to the reports of agencies who know the family, he is steady in his work but
* easf / g0! n.g
in bis bome- He has been married three times, and conse
quently his family has become somewhat complex. By his first marriage
he has five children, of whom four (including Lucy) are now living at home
and one is in an orphanage. After the death of his first wife he employed
and subsequently married a widowed housekeeper who had two children of
her own. This second wife died in childbirth, and after her death Mr P
placed her two children in an orphanage and the new baby in a boardin-

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home. He then engaged another widowed housekeeper, whom he has married
recently (within less than a year after his second wife’s death). From time
to time he has moved the children in and out of institutions and boarding
homes, so that in the course of the years the family has become fairly well
known to the various social agencies of the city.
The present stepmother is neat and attractive in appearance but loud in
manner and speech. When interviewed by the Children’s Bureau agent she
talked glibly and volubly of her stepchildren and especially of her efforts
in behalf of Lucy. She was evidently eager to make a favorable impression
on the agent, and therefore her attitude did not bear out reports from the
attendance officer, police matron, and school nurse, to the effect that she
was “ exceedingly rude ” and “ impossible.” By a previous marriage she also
has two children of her own, who, although partly supported by her, do not
live with her.
Robert, the 17-year-old brother, was unemployed at the time of the interview.
During the summer he worked for a barber, but he has had no regular
occupation. Michael, Lucy’s other brother, is, according to the school-attendance
oflicer, an habitual truant, but so far no truancy charge has been brought
against him. Both boys have been registered in the court docket, however,
for minor offenses. In the stepmother’s opinion both are “ light-fingered” and
help themselves to whatever they want in the store, but in view of the father’s
easy-going nature this is scarcely surprising.
Of Lily, the younger sister, nothing was learned except that she was sharing
a bedroom with Lucy and that the two were not getting on well together.
Indeed, Lucy does not get on well with any member of her family. In
her stepmother’s opinion she is “ strong headed,” “ bossy,” rough and vulgar
in her speech and actions at home, domineering in her attitude toward the
children, and deliberately defiant in her relations with her father.
Lucy
herself says that her father is eager to get rid of her, and is constantly threaten
ing to send her, as well as the other children, to the reform school. She admits
that she is unable to get along well with her new stepmother and is indifferent
to her sister and brothers, but when asked why she can not get along with
them she merely shrugs her shoulders.
Lucy dislikes school and thinks she would prefer to work during the day
and attend evening school, but as she is only 15 and in 7A grade she must
attend day school for at least another year. She is skillful in drawing but
dull in her other studies, and says of herself, “ I am rather slow, I guess,
and when the teacher asks me questions I can’t always answer quickly, and then
she thinks I don’t know, and I am marked down.”
Last summer Lucy was employed in a sardine factory for two weeks, leaving
of her own accord because she “ could not stand it.”
She later did some
housework in a private home, again leaving after a few weeks, this time
because she was lonesome for her friends.
Lucy always has one special “ girl friend ” with whom she goes to the
“ movies,” takes walks, and in general spends most of her time. Her last
friend having been committed to the State school for girls, she has recently
acquired a new companion. She is much interested in the circus and in cattle
ranches and reads everything she finds describing circus and ranch life.
Horse-back riding fascinates her. When she draws or pa;nts— both of which
she enjoys and does well— she chooses circus girls and ballet dancers as her
subjects. Although she does not attend any of the activities of the Italian
mission and belongs to no clubs, she expressed an interest in the agent’s
suggestion that she join a girl reserve group.
Early last April a worker interested in the family, hearing various reports
to the effect that Lucy was “ out every night,” “ crazy over men,” and “ going
with sailors,” and that the housekeeper (the present Mrs. P.) seemed uninter
ested in the children and was unable to make Lucy mind, referred the case to
a local child-welfare agency. On making an investigation of the home the
social worker from the agency found that Lucy had “ ransacked the property ‘of
the housekeeper ” and “ defied the school-attendance officer,” that she was
using powder and lipstick in excess, and that her father slapped her when,'
instead of working in the store, she ran out. . From the school-attendance
officer the social worker learned that during the preceding weeks Lucy had
been absent frequently and that the officer was about to have a warrant taken
out for her arrest on a charge of truancy, with a view to sending her
eventually to the State school unless court action should prove effective. At

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the request of the judge, the agency representative attended the hearing,
her last contact with the case.
There is no record of the court hearing and nothing to indicate the
source or nature of the testimony brought against the child.
The court
docket merely shows that Lucy was charged with truancy by the school-attend
ance officer, was “ found guilty,” committed to the State school for girls
on a suspended sentence, and placed on probation for two years. Persons
attending the hearing reported that Lucy was also questioned regarding a
“ joy ride with two men and another girl ” and concerning sex experience—
which, however, she denied having. These questions were apparently based
on complaints received by the police matron from Lucy’s father and from other
sources concerning the girl’s indiscreet conduct.
When - interviewed about her court experience, Lucy seemed to regard the
matter very lightly.
She was, however, indignant at the judge’s questions
concerning “ all her secrets ” and resentful of the presence of “ so many men
[the judge, attendance officer, probation officer, and attorney] and only one
woman [the police matron] at the hearing.”
Lucy’s probation record shows that she reported twice in May, once
in July, and once in September. It contains no information concerning the
place or nature of her summer employment, although she used this as an
excuse for not reporting and continued to use it as an excuse for some time
after she had ceased working. The probation officer has done nothing for
her save to make these entries on his card when she has come to his office to
report.
Although Lucy’s teacher of last year reported that the girl had given no
trouble in the classroom and that her general conduct was good, although the
attendance officer considered her delinquency due in part, at least, to the
influence of undesirable companions and difficult home conditions, and
although the school nurse thought that if taken from her home and placed
in a normal, healthy environment, with proper provision for school, work, and
recreational activities, Lucy might become a happy and well-adjusted child,
yet no one has made any suggestion for placement anywhere save in the State
school for girls; no one has taken any interest in developing her talent for
drawing either as a possible vocation or as a constructive outlet; no one has
tried to substitute for the “ undesirable companions ” interest in a group of
wholesome young people; and no one has definitely befriended Lucy.
At the time of the interview she was attending school with some degree
of regularity, but her attendance was due less to any reformative effect of
court action or probation than to the persistent watchfulness of the attendance
officer, who, with the policewoman, expressed the hopeful conclusion, “ W e’ll
have her in the State school yet.”

PROVISION FOR CARE OF DELINQUENT CHILDREN AWAY FROM
THEIR OWN HOMES

Unfortunately all delinquent children can not be cared for in their
own homes. Boys and girls whose home conditions or neighborhood
associations have contributed to their delinquency can not always
be expected to respond well to corrective treatment while they re
main in the same environment, and even those children whose home
conditions have not been positive factors in their delinquency may
be better able to overcome and forget their difficulties and to form
new standards of behavior in a completely new environment. The
traditional method of caring for delinquent children away from
their own homes is by committing them to institutions, especially to
State training schools. With the increased knowledge o f -conduct
problems and their causes, new methods of care are being developed.
Institutional care for delinquent as well as for dependent children is
being supplemented with placement in family homes so that to-day
some provision for the placement of delinquent children must be
considered in any State plan for dealing with juvenile delinquency.

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J U V E N IL E b E L lN Q tfE N C Y list M A IN E

In Maine the State is providing care for most of the delinquent
children for which it assumes responsibility in its State training
schools, for a few in penal institutions, and for a small number of
younger children exhibiting conduct problems by placement in
family homes.
CARE IN INSTITUTIONS
State training schools.

No attempt was made in this survey to make a thorough study of
the State training schools. The visits to these institutions and the
case studies of children committed to them for care, however, sug
gest a few observations that may be helpful in considering the Maine
problem as a whole.
A program of institutional training for delinquent children has
two aspects: First, the treatment of specific conduct difficulties, and,
second, the preparation for a well-adjusted and happy life in a nor
mal community. Neither of these can be accomplished without such
a complete study of the child’s physical condition, mental capacity,
environmental background, and his school, work, and general con
duct history as will yield an understanding of his individual prob
lems and the best way of meeting them.31
Neither of the State training schools has any officer who is espe
cially designated to make social investigations either at the time
a child is received or at the time he is discharged. As the courts
do not provide this service, the only available information concern
ing the child and his home is that contained on the commitment
sheet, supplemented by the boy’s or girl’s own story and, in the'
school for girls, by such information as parents supply on special
blanks sent to them by the institution when the child is received.
Physical examinations o f the children on entrance are given in both
schools, but psychometric tests are not given as a routine measure
nor has any provision been made in either school for systematic study
o f the personality problems of all the children.
Both schools include in their program of training health supervi
sion and school, work, and play activities, but these activities are
planned for the welfare of the group as an institutional group with
but little emphasis on the study and treatment of the individual or
his relation to life outside the institution.
The provisions for health care are also somewhat limited. In the
event of illness at the State school for boys, a physician and nurse
are called in or the patient is sent to the city hospital. The school
for girls, having a resident physician and two practical nurses, is
in a position to care for girls who are ill and is, moreover, adequately
equipped to give isolation care to incoming girls and to girls having
contagious diseases. Both schools have dental equipment and
weekly service from visiting dentists; the equipment at the boys’
school is not sufficiently modern, however, to provide for prophylac
tic treatment, and, from the appearance of the boys’ teeth, such
care is greatly needed.
The school for girls accepts pregnant girls but does not attempt
to give confinement care nor to provide for continued care of the'
81 For further discussion of the kind of study recommended for the individual delinquent
child entering such institutions see Reeves, Margaret: Training Schools for Delinquent
Qirls, p. 226. Russell Sage Foundation, New York, 1929.

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METHODS OP DEALING W IT H DELINQUENT CHILDREN

baby by the young mother. Girls are sent to a boarding home for
confinement and are received back after their babies have been
committed to the State department of public welfare for adoption.
This plan does not take into consideration the needs of the babies
nor the possibility that the girls should be encouraged to keep the
custody of their children.32
The educational program at the State school for boys provides
for academic class work through the eighth grade and some un
graded class work for boys who have completed the eighth grade.
No instruction o f high-school grade is provided, on the assumption
that most o f the boys committed to the school are not of a sufficiently
high mental grade to profit by it. Yet some of the boys whose cases
were studied had completed the eighth grade before commitment to
the training school. The majority of the boys paroled from August
1, 1927, to July 31, 1928, were 16 years of age or older, and were
thus not likely to reenter school on returning home. A ll but 12
of the 50 boys paroled had been in the institution for two years or
more before being paroled for the first time. It would seem desir
able, therefore, to provide these boys with such academic or special
ized instruction as would develop any special abilities that would
lead to future wage earning or personal satisfaction. In this respect
the State school for girls is fortunate in that, in addition to provid
ing some instruction of high-school grade, including several com
mercial courses, it is able, through one of its teachers, to give special
instruction in drawing and designing which, even without provid
ing much in the way of practical application, is furnishing some of
the children with a satisfactory means of self-expression.
Neither of the schools has developed a real vocational program.
With the exception of the commercial courses and whatever train
ing is being given in connection with the maintenance work, no
provision has been made for any vocational training that would help
the boys and girls in their choice of occupations when they leave
the institution. As 1,777 of the 3,661 boys committed to the boys’
school up to June 30, 1926, came from cities having a population of
more than 10,000, training given in farm work, which is the main
maintenance work of the institution, would hardly seem to meet the
needs of all boys.
The facilities for recreation are rather limited. Both schools have
an auditorium for assembly which they use for “ movies ” and enter
tainment. The boys’ auditorium is also used for chapel services,
and the girls’ for parties, dances, and plays. For out-of-door play
the boys’ school has baseball diamonds for each cottage; the girls’
school has a baseball field, a volley-ball court, and some rope swings.
Neither school has any playground apparatus such as flying rings,
horizontal bars, and ladders, or poles for climbing, or tennis courts,
or equipped indoor gynasiums and swimming pools. The main
tenance work, of course, provides some out-of-door exercise for the
boys on the farm and for the girls in the garden.
There is, as yet, little conscious development of a recreation pro
gram. The cottage matrons, especially in the girls’ school, help to
32 These problems are discussed in Training Schools for Delinquent Girls, p. 226, and
Minimum Standards for Child Welfare, p. 13 (U. S. Children’s Bureau Publication No. 62,
Washington, 1920).

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JUVENILE DELINQUENCY IN M AINE

plan for special cottage good times, and during the summer the girls
also have three weekly recreation periods under the supervision of
a recreation worker. This is practically the only way in which the
schools recognize the significance of planned and supervised play
as a part of the treatment process.
The ultimate success of institution treatment may depend on skill
ful parole supervision after the boys and girls leave the institution.
The officer giving this service is, in a sense, a liaison officer between
the child in the institution and the child’s outside world.
Both schools attempt to give certain minimum services in connec
tion with parole. A ll children sent to the State schools are com
mitted as *a matter o f routine until thev become 21 years o f age
“ unless sooner discharged by process o f law.” 33 It has been the
policy of the schools, however, to discharge boys from supervision
when they become 18, if their conduct has been satisfactory and they
have not been discharged earlier, and to discharge girls when they
become 18 unless they can be paroled and placed in working homes
earlier. Boys are generally placed on parole before discharge, in
which case the superintendent of the school usually obtains a written
statement from a local social agency or an individual— as, for in
stance, a judge, a sheriff, a selectman, or a clergyman—that home
conditions are satisfactory. During 1927-28, 50 boys were paroled—
35 to parents, 5 to other relatives, and 10 to employers. These boys
are supposedly required to make quarterly reports by mail, but no
forms are provided for this purpose and the requirement is not
always met.
The State school for girls has a parole officer who visits homes to
which girls are to be paroled. The officers of this institution believe
that practically all the homes from which their girls come are unfit
and that the girls are better off if not allowed to return to them, but
they do not verify this opinion either through their parole officer
or by enlisting the cooperation of other agencies, nor do they attempt
to improve home conditions. A t the time of the study 36 girls were
on parole—33 in working homes and 3 in the homes of relatives.
Girls placed ih working homes usually receive $5 a week, half of
which is allowed them for their own use and half saved for them by
the school. Occasionally girls are placed in family homes to work
for their board while they attend high school, and a few who are
still attending school are placed out to work during the summer
vacation. The parole officer tries to visit all girls on parole once
a month. As the girls are allowed to buy their clothing at wholesale
prices through the State school, some of them keep up their contact
with the institution in this way.
As the State schools are permitted to refuse to accept children
committed by the courts although they have no agent present at the
hearing, it is necessary for the judge to provide an alternative
sentence. The school for boys requires that this alternative sentence,
which is usually commitment to jail or house o f correction, shall
be shown in the commitment papers. This privilege of refusing
to accept children committed by the court is rarely used by either
** Rev. Sfat. 1910, eh. 144, see. 6 ; see- 20

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amended by Laws of 4921, eh. 55,

METHODS OE DEALING WITH DELINQUENT CHILDREN

school. Only one record was found of such a case occurring during
1927-28, and refusal in that case was based on an improper commit
ment. (See the case story of Norman F., p. 80.)
The State schools also have the privilege of discharging children
whom they consider unfit subjects for their care.34 For example, if
the State school for boys receives as delinquent a boy too feeble
minded to derive any benefit from the training or even to take an
active part in the institutional program, or a boy so violent that he
is a menace to the other children in the institution, it can discharge
him and return him to the committing court, where a new case must
be initiated, for the purpose of commitment to a more suitable
institution.
Case histories illustrating com m itm ent to the State training schools

The particular aspect of State-school commitment shown by these
case stories is the diversity o f needs that these institutions must meet.
Mildred E. and Nina B. were committed to the State school for
girls to safeguard them from further delinquencies and bad influ
ences, the State school being considered a substitute for the normal,
wisely supervised home life which both of these girls lacked.
Clarice W. was committed for practically the same reasons, as her
home, although intact at the time of the commitment, was considered
an “ unfit place ” for her. Louis F., on the other hand, had a satis
factory family background but was committed to the State school
for discipline. (See also the case of Tito V., p. 14.)
Charlie A. and Harold R., two young truants, were committed
to the State school because their families had failed to cooperate
with the attendance officers in obtaining their school attendance,
and Annette N. was committed to the State school both to insure her
further schooling and to shelter her during her pregnancy. Martha
A. was committed apparently because the court had failed to find
any other satisfactory means o f disposing of her case after trying
probation and requiring the girl to leave town. Carl H. exhibited
a number of difficult personality problems that needed more thor
ough study than was given by anyone.
The cases o f Carl H. and Martha A. both illustrate the use of a
“ suspended sentence ” under which a child becomes liable to com
mitment to the State school as soon as he again comes to the atten
tion of the public authorities for any offense, however slight. The
story of Ernest P. also illustrates this practice, whereas the stories
of Ernest’s brother Edward and sister Norma illustrate commitment
for purposes of discipline and safekeeping.
The desirability of the commitment of some of these children to
an institution is open to serious question. Constructive probation
work either in the child’s home or in another family home might
have assisted in overcoming some of the undesirable habits exhibited
by these children and at the same time have equipped them to meet
more successfully the many temptations that will always be encoun
tered in normal life in a community.
34 Only one such case— that of a girl— was reported during the year ended July 31, 1928.

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JUVENILE DELiNQUENCt IN MAINE
MILDRED E.

Native w hite; father American Indian; mother reported once as native white and
once as French Canadian.
Age at time of offense, 15.
Municipal court, February 2, 1928: Sex offense; committed to State school for
girls.
Family at time of disposition : Parents separated; mother, brothers 17, 14, sisters
14, 10, at home.
Mildred is small for lier age, but sturdy and apparently in good health. She
is neat about her person, and her dark skin, hair, and eyes, betraying her Indian
blood, add to her attractiveness. She is very likable, and her childish manner
makes her appealing. Mrs. E. said that Mildred was double-join ted and had
not learned to walk until she was 3 years of age, but there is no evidence of
any serious defect at present.
Mr. E. is an Indian. He is lazy and shiftless and has been in jail a number
of times for his excessive drinking. About seven years ago his drinking led to
a separation between him and his family.
Mrs. E. is a nervous and excitable woman and is said to “ enjoy poor health.’’
Since her separation from her husband, she and her children have been more
or less constantly dependent on the State, and for the last three or four years
they have been supported as paupers. The town in which they live has paid
their rent, supplied them with wood, and allowed them about $10 a week for
food and clothing, collecting for these disbursements from the State appropria
tions for Indians. Meanwhile Mr. E. has continued to maintain his willingness
to support the fam ily provided they live with him and once, indeed, Mrs. E. tried
this, but she could not stay with him. Apparently neither the town nor the
State has made further effort to get Mr. E. to contribute to the support of his
family.
The family live in the French section of the city, in a small 4-room shingle
house. The two downstairs rooms seemed comfortably furnished, neat, and
clean at the time of the interview, but the air was bad owing doubtless to the
poorly ventilated toilet room in the attached woodshed.
Mildred has a rather irregular school and work history. From time to time
she has stayed home from school in order to help her mother with the washing
or other housework, and sometimes she has stayed out of school in order to
play truant with her friend Elsie. After she began to work her school attend
ance became quite spasmodic.
Her first job was that of dormitory maid in a school. She earned $7 a week
and her room and board, but when, in spite o f her carefully camouflaged bed,
it was discovered that she spent her nights out, she was discharged.
Following her discharge she returned to school again until she found a job
at a small hotel. Her duties consisted of washing dishes, making beds, and
scrubbing floors, and her wages were $7 a week. After three or four months
o f this she returned to school again, and then to another dish-washing job, this
time in a restaurant. Some of her earnings she used for clothes, and some she
gave to her mother. Just before the offense for which she was committed to
the State school she was again attending school; she was in the seventh grade
of the model training school and liked both her teacher and the school work.
One evening Mildred went to the “ movies ” with her friend Elsie. Elsie had
the money to pay for their admission, but her father had forbidden her to go
to the theater, and so when she entered the theater and saw her father there
she was afraid to go home lest she receive a beating. So she took Mildred with
her to the home of the manager of the theater, with whom they spent part of
the night, later going to the next town with money that he furnished.
When Mildred did not come home from the “ movies,” Mrs. E. went to
the theater and a!sked the manager if he knew where her daughter was. He
replied that he did not, and, after Mildred had remained away all night, Mrs.
E. notified the police.
The chief of police issued a warrant for the child’s arrest, found her in the
neighboring town, brought her home, and confined her in the lock-up.
(The
various people interviewed disagreed as to whether the girls were detained in
a boarding-house in the town in which they were found or in the jail of their
own town, or both, and no records could be found to settle this point. They
were certainly detained somewhere for at least one night.) The chief of police
was already familiar with the girls and questioned them concerning their
experiences; he also requested Miss T., the woman member of the overseers
of the poor, to question them.
No one seemed to remember the details of the court hearing. Mrs. E. had
been notified as to the time and was present. Miss T. had asked to be notified.

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m ethods

oE De a l i n g W i t S

d e l in q u e n t

c h il d r e n

but having received no word, she did not appear. On a charge of having
been “ wanton and lascivious in speech and behavior,” Mildred was committed
to the State school for girls and was almost immediately conducted there
by Miss T.
Physical examination on admission to the State school showed that, although
Mildred had had sex experiences, she was not diseased. She was found to be
in good health, and, as she appeared to be normal, she was not given a mental
test. She has been promoted to the eighth grade and gets along very well.
She presents no conduct difficulties in the school and is considered a “ nice
child.”
Mrs. E. is still indignant over the way the case was handled. She feels
that the manager enticed the girls into the theater and kept them with him,
and if she had known at that time what she knows now she would have tried
to prevent Mildred’s commitment and would have “ gone after him.” No action
had been taken against the man at the time of the interview, eight months later,
because according to the chief of police it was impossible to obtain any evidence
against him.
About four months after Mildred had been committed to the State school,
Miss T. received a complaint that Mildred’s 14-year-old sister was also “ run
ning around.” She talked the matter over with Mrs. E. and has heard no
further complaint since.
Elsie, Mildred’s friend, is about a month older than Mildred. She has been
generally considered a tough girl and the leader of any escapades in which
Mildred took part. She is one of 12 children. Her mother is French and her
father is a Scotch Canadian who believes in ruling his children with an iron
hand. Elsie speaks bitterly of his sternness and of his practice of whipping
the children.
Elsie was known to the police before the delinquency in question. On one
occasion she had run away with a man from a carnival and gone to Canada
With him. Later, after she had run away from him, he was apprehended and
prosecuted. She and Mildred had also been questioned by the chief of police
at times when they were seen on the streets at night.
Her part in the present delinquency has been explained in connection with
Mildred’s story. The girls were arrested together and both committed to the
State school for girls. Elsie’s father was present at the hearing and was quite
satisfied with the disposition.
Elsie is only in the sixth grade; according to the State-school record she “ is
stupid but is learning as fast as she can.”
She was under treatment for
gonorrhea for more than six months but has been discharged recently.
N IN A B.

Native w hite; parents Italian.
Age at time of offense, 15 or 16.
Municipal court, April 3, 1928: Sex offense; committed to State school for girls.
Family at time of disposition: Father dead, mother deserted ; two brothers, one
sister, one stepbrother, one stepsister brought up in institution, all now living
in different places. Nina living with married stepsister.
Nina is a pretty girl with brown hair and big brown eyes. Her beautiful,
clear complexion is very fair. She is short in stature and rather stout, but
neat and particular about her person. According to various reports, she is a
good mimic and can sing well. She seemed eager to talk with the bureau
agent, and her manner was pleasing and bright.
Mr. B .’s first wife died in Italy, leaving him with four children. He married
again and had three children by his second wife. He moved his entire family
to New York City, where Nina was born and where his second wife deserted
him. He died soon afterward and his children were placed in an institution.
Nina’s oldest half-sister Lucia left the institution after a while and went to
live in Maine. She also took Nina’s own sister Tracy out of the institution.
In turn Tracy, who had married and gone to Rhode Island to live, took Nina
out of the institution to live with her. The remaining children are now scat
tered about in various places.
Nina was about 13 years of age when she went to live in Rhode Island.
She was frequently left at home alone, and on one such occasion her brotherin-law, who was many years her senior, attacked her. When Lucia learned
that the girl was not receiving proper care, she brought her to Maine.
Lucia and her husband had not been married until after they had four
children. But when Nina came to live with them they were buying their little

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JUVENILE BELINQUENCY IN M AINE

home and seemed to have an established domestic life. They attended church
and took part in the recreational activities of the Sunday school, and during
the summer the children attended the mission school and played in one of the
city playgrounds.
According to Lucia, Nina was a “ good girl ” and gave her no trouble when
she first came to-live in Maine.
She graduated from the eighth grade and
then stayed at home for a time to help Lucia in the house. Lucia wanted her
to go to high school, but Nina wanted to go to work. She attended night school
for a short time.
Mrs. Y., the Sunday school teacher of Lucia’s children, heard about Nina
and took a friendly interest in her. In March, 1927, Nina, very much upset,
came to Mrs. Y. and told her that she was afraid of Lucia’s husband because
he had forced her to have relations with him on several occasions, and that
Lucia, when she saw her husband showing favor to her, abused her. Mrs. Y.
tried to advise the girl, but as Lucia needed Nina’s help at home, things went on
without any great change for a while. At last Nina ran away.
Nina found a job in a large bakery. She did piecework, earning from $12 to
$22 a week. For two or three months she succeeded in concealing her where
abouts from Lucia and Lucia’s husband. But Nina was living with girls who
began to have a bad influence on her, and, according to Mrs. Y., she “ began to
go astray.” One day she was taken to the police station and given a “ talking
to.”
She continued working at the bakery, but at last Lucia’s husband met her
on the street and forced her to go home with him, refusing to let anyone see
her. Mrs. Y. learned of this and called in a children’s agency, which removed
Nina from Lucia’s home and, in accordance with her own wishes, allowed her to
go to Mrs. Y.
Unfortunately Mrs. Y . had no place for Nina in her own home, but she soon
found a position for her in a hospital, enabling the girl to earn $30 a month
and her board and room by waiting on the table in the nurses’ home. She
worked there several months and for a while tried to put $5 a week in the
bank.
But soon Mrs. Y. and the children’s agency began to receive reports
that Nina was being influenced by an undesirable companion, that she was
keeping late hours, and that as a result she was too tired to do her work
properly. They warned and advised the girl, but her irregular hours continued
and she was finally discharged from the hospital.
Mrs.
Y. was still loath to have Nina
sent to an
institution, so she plac
her in
a home where she was to help with the housework. Nina remained
there only five days, however, as she “ could not stand the cooking,” and when
Mrs. Y . found another home Nina absolutely refused to go. Mrs. Y . then took
her to the municipal court and, on a charge of “ being found in circumstances of
manifest danger of falling into habits of vice or immorality,” had her committed
to the State school for girls on April 3, 1928. No special investigation was
made by the court, nor was Lucia or the agent of the children’s agency called
in for the hearing. But Mrs. Y. and the police matron (who had warned
Nina on one occasion) reported what they knew of the girl, and after spending
one night in the women’s detention room of the jail, Nina was taken to the
State school.
Nina denies having had any sex experiences except those forced on her by
her brothers-in-law. She admits, however, that her choice of companions was
not above criticism. She feels rather keenly that she has been cheated out of
a real home life.
She has been placed in the high-school commercial class at the State school,
and for maintenance work she has been assigned to the medical room to help
the school physician. She likes this work so much that she thinks she would
like to take a nurse’s training course.
Mrs. Y. has not lost interest in Nina. She has found that Nina is gifted in
music and has managed to raise some money to provide for music lessons for
her at the State school.
GLAKICE W .

Native w hite; parents French Canadian.
Age at time of offense, 14.
Municipal court, June 15, 1928: Sex offense; committed to State school for girls.
Family at time of disposition: Parents married and living together; brother 3,
sisters 19, 16, 9, 8 at home.
Clarice is a dainty-looking girl with a childish face and timorous manner.
When seen at the State school she was in a tearful mood and said that she
was very homesick and wept every day.

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METHODS OP DEALING W IT H DELINQUENT CHILDREN

The family live in an ugly, barnlike frame house at the end of a short blindalley street. The house is unpainted and the street unpaved; a cinder path
fringed with dusty weeds, leading to the rear door is the only approach. The
yard space is large but equally unattractive. The rooms, although plainly
furnished, are kept clean and orderly. The parlor, with its player piano and
stiff chairs, has a cold and unused look, but the other rooms seem homelike.
The family are buying the house and have added a number of improvements
They rent out several rooms on the second floor.
Mr. W . is a thin, worn-looking man. He works on a night shift in a mill,
earning $19.50 for a five-day week. One of the mill foremen reported that he
was a hard and steady worker and.added that he knew Mr. W . to go off on
little wood-cutting jobs during the day to earn extra money. Mr. W . admitted
drinking some, but said that he usually drank in moderation.
Mrs. W . is^ a crisp, neat-looking woman. She has had 11 children, 5 of
whom have died. In addition to doing her housework, she tries to add to the
family income by laundering hospital uniforms, for which she earns from $5
to $8 a week.
The two older girls, Pauline and Marguerite, are employed as hospital tray
girls, earning $8.50 and $5 a week, respectively, plus their meals. Marguerite
is fat and pale and does not look well. She complains that for the last few
years she has been afflicted with a strange drowsiness and that as soon as she
ceases to do active work she is overpowered with sleep and must lie down lest
she faint. The other children seem healthy and lively. Mr. W . said that all
the children, as well as Mrs. W ., had had trouble with their eyes and had been
threatened with blindness, but at present there is no evidence of this.
The general impression gained from the home visit was o f a neat and orderlv
household and a fairly congenial, fairly normal family life. Interviews with
the chief of police, the local visiting nurse, one of the overseers of the poor, and
the head nurse employing Pauline and Marguerite, however, revealed the family
m a rather different light. The visiting nurse reported that when the children
were smaller both the house and the youngsters used to be in a deplorable state
™ ,.d l™ and d}so^der- The chief of police reported that about two years ago
Mrs. W . was in the habit of spending her evenings on the streets with “ ques
tionable characters, while her husband was wandering about looking for her.
, e would return home after midnight, and violent quarrels would then take
place between the two. The other interviews also disclosed the existence of
vulgar quarrels between Mr. and Mrs. W ., caused both by Mrs. W .’s conduct
with other men and by Mr. W .’s ceaseless and unrestrained demands on her__
ugly quarrels, overheard and discussed by the children. One of these quarrels
was said to have led to a separation between Mr. and Mrs. W . last spring Mrs.
healed111^ t0 Canada for several weeks, but apparently the breach w a s’ later
In 1924-25 Clarice was in the fifth grade of the public school; as her
absences were many and her grades, except for music and drawing, were low
she was not promoted. The public-school files have no further record of Clarice,
but one of the French parochial schools has a record showing that she enrolled
there in September, 1926; the sister’s recollection was, however, that Clarice
lett school after a few weeks to go to work. This coincides with Clarice’s
story that when she was 13 years of age she left school to substitute as hospital
tray girl for her sister who was ill. She worked for about a year, without a
work certificate, giving her earnings to her mother. During this time the
school-attendance officer was either unaware of or reconciled to her absence
trom school, as he made no objection. According to her own story, Clarice
returned to a public school again when her sister recovered, and shortly
thereafter she herself had an attack of rheumatic fever which kept her out of
school for several months. On her recovery her eyes troubled her, and instead
of going back to school she accepted a permanent job as tray girl in the
hospital. It was at this time that her mother went to Canada.
When Mrs. W . returned she found that Clarice was no longer employed but
was spending her days with Stella, a motherless girl with a bad reputation.
Fm dm g herself unable to break this friendship and get Clarice back to work
Mrs. W . called on the woman member of the overseers of the poor who
advised her to call in the woman deputy sheriff to warn the girl, which
Mrs. W . did. The deputy sheriff was not satisfied with warning Clarice, but
coming upon the family at an unpropitious moment she concluded that they

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were a disorderly, unclean, foul-mouthed, and immoral lot, and that the home
was an unfit place for Clarice. She promptly removed the girl to a boarding
home for the night, collecting the cost of lodging from Mr. W . The following
d$y she took Clarice before the sheriff. Clarice confessed having had sexual
relations with seven or eight men, and on the strength of this confession she
was brought before the municipal court on a charge of “ being found in
circumstances of manifest danger of falling into habits of vice or immorality.”
The hearing, as described by Mr. W ., was attended only by the deputy
sheriff, the woman member of the overseers of the poor, Clarice, and her
parents. The case was discussed, and the deputy sheriff (who was also a
member of the municipal board of children’s guardians and thus in a position
to place children in boarding homes) recommended that for a little while
Clarice be placed in some “ nice hom e” where her parents could see her and
from which they would be free to remove her. Mr. W . stated that he and
his wife consented to this plan, duly signing the papers submitted to them
by the judge. After obtaining their signatures the judge read the papers
aloud to them, and they realized for the first time that they had consented
to commit Clarice to the State school for girls, from which in spite of all
their efforts, they have thus far been unable to remove her. (This probably
incorrect account of the hearing could not be verified as the court record con
tained no details and the deputy sheriff has died.)
Clarice had never confided in her mother, and although Mrs. W . had
objected to her daughter’s friendship with Stella she never suspected her
of any misconduct sufficiently serious to warrant commitment to an institution.
Mr. W . said, “ O f course those two men forced her, but she didn’t know what
it was all about and she was always a good g irl; she never lied, never stole
anything, and never was in trouble of any kind.” Both parents show less con
cern over their daughter’s present and future welfare than over the fraud
that they allege was practiced on them in committing Clarice to the State
school.
Clarice has little to say concerning her court experience. According to her
institutional record her story on admission was that her home was “ very un
clean and immoral,” that her two older sisters were immoral, and that she
had run away from home a great deal. A t present, however, she says that she
has a good home and was always “ well used ” there and would like very much
to go back. Aside from her homesickness, she seems to be getting on fairly
well in the institution. She is in the sixth grade and likes her school work.
L O U IS

Native w hite; parents French Canadian.
Age at time of offense, 13.
■j
Municipal court, March 30, 1928: Stealing; committed to State school for boys.
Family at time of disposition: Parents married and living together; brothers 22,
18, 7, 5 ; sisters 25, 17, 16, 15, 11 at home; brothers 21, 19, sister 23 away.
Louis is small for his age, but seems well built and healthy. He has large
brown eyes and would be a good-looking boy if his teeth were cleaned properly.
The F. family lives in one of Maine’s smaller mill towns. They rent the
second floor of a three-story flat opposite the river, not far from a mill and
rather near the railroad tracks. In spite of the large family, they have only
six rooms, but these are fairly large, well lighted and ventilated, and comfortably
furnished.
The father and oldest son are employed regularly in the mill. The 18-yearold boy works steadily on a farm. The two girls, aged 25 and 17, work in a
factory, but their employment is seasonal.
Most of the family interview was conducted with the older sisters, as Mrs. F.
speaks only French. These sisters are pretty, neat, well-mannered, and intelli
gent girls. They are keenly aware of the existing prejudice against the “ French
population,” which they are made to feel even though they are American-born
citizens. They realize that one of the best ways of keeping young people out of
trouble is to occupy and interest them in wholesome recreation, but they find
that the community provides only the barest minimum of wholesome recreation
facilities and that in the young people’s clubs and group organizations the
“ French children are not wanted.”
Louis attended both public and parochial schools. He gave no trouble but
did not do well in either school. H e was never given a mental test, so that
it is impossible to say whether his failures were due to mental deficiency or
to lack o f interest and application. He does not appear to be a dull and back
ward child, nor does his developmental history show any abnormalities.

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H e received very little spending money from his father, but he was able
to earn enough himself by delivering papers on Sunday, by picking beans
on a truck farm in summer, and by shoveling snow and bringing in coal and
wood in winter. He went to the “ movies ” about once a week and played at
home with his brothers and sisters, never giving his fam ily any trouble.
Last winter Louis received $5 from a man who had tapped a gas meter and
who wanted Louis to assume the blame. The boy accordingly pleaded guilty
to the charge in court but privately related the true story to his chum.
When his fam ily learned of his innocence and reported it, he was released by
the court.
After this incident Louis became less trustworthy. He frequently slipped
away from home to join a group of boys at the local pool room. W hen
his father tried to keep him in he would become sulky, and, after supposedly
going to bed, he would steal off to spend the rest of the evening at the pool
room. Louis worked there, setting up balls at a cent a rack from 8 to 12.30
at night. H e also played pool and sometimes gambled with the boya in order
to make enough money to play.
When Mr. F. went to the pool room to look for his son the proprietor would
sneak the boy out of the back door, and when his sisters tried to find Louis
the proprietor hid him in a closet.
One evening Louis stole $10 from a man, in order to pay for his pool games.
The theft was promptly discovered and a warrant issued, but before it was
served Louis was assured that if he confessed the case would be dropped.
He refused to admit the theft, was arrested, brought before the municipal
court, found guilty of larceny, and committed to the State school for boys
(alternative sentence of commitment to county ja il).
(The pool-room proprie
tor was required to pay the court costs and to refund the stolen money.)
Louis’s family have concluded that probably the State school was the only
possible disposition, and yet they think that if some one had taken an interest
in the boy and tried to help him, he might have made good at home. W hen
interviewed at the State school, Louis said that he thought he deserved
commitment. He seemed to be getting along fairly well at the institution.
CHARLIE K .

Native w hite; parents native white.
Age at time o f offense, 13.
Municipal court, March 20, 1928: Truancy; committed to State school for boys.
Family at time of disposition: Parents married and living together ; brothers 9,
7, 3, 2, living at home; housekeeper also in home.
Charlie is average in size, general development, health, neatness, and cleanli
ness. His manner when interviewed is at first shy, but he is frank and respon
sive if encouraged.
Charlie’s family lives on the second floor of a large tenement house directly
opposite a public school and public-school playground. They rent five light
rooms, a bath, and a sunny porch for $7 a week. The rooms seen were rug
less, scantily furnished, and untidy, and the tenement halls and stairways were
dark and dirty.
The neighborhood is not especially objectionable. Near by are one or two
other tenements, a garage, a store or two, and one and two fam ily detached
houses. The absence of yard space for play is partly compensated for by the
playground across the street for the older children and the tenement porches
for the babies.
Charlie’s father is a truck driver, earning, when he works regularly, $21 a
week. In the past few years, however, his employment has not been very
steady.
Charlie’s mother has been employed on and off for the last four years in a
shoe factory, where she earns $13 a week when work is steady. During her
absence the children are cared for by a housekeeper.
The overseers of the poor have had to help the fam ily nearly every wintaj|
Although no social records were kept, the clerk of the overseers retained v l fjSi
ous general impressions to the effect that Mr. K . “ was not very bright,” tQ»c
he was unable to hold his jobs, and that he had never amounted to anything.
He also said that several winters ago Mr. K . had raised fancy dogs in his
house and that on one occasion the town visitor had found the house so filthy
that he had called in the local department of health, threatening to stop relief
until the house had been cleaned.
98523°'— 30------ 5

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The fam ily has also been known to the local Red Cross. In the winter of
1928 several of the children came to the home of one of the Red Cross nurses
with a “ begging letter.” The nurse visited the home and found that Mr. K.
had been out of work for several months, that the family was without food,
and that the baby was ill. She promptly put in some groceries and placed the
family on the milk list. Two days later she made another visit and found
that the baby had died. As the family was receiving aid from the overseers
of the poor and Mrs. K . was working irregularly, and as there was no other
Illness in the home, the Red Cross closed the case by referring the children
to the Salvation Army.
The family has had a great deal of illness. Three other children have
died, the causes of death, according to the mother, being whooping cough,
inflammation of the bowels, and hernia. The second oldest child has recently
been taken out of a plaster cast which was supposedly correcting a tuberculous
hip, and Mrs. K . has just recovered from a complicated surgical operation.
On the day of the interview the youngest child was sick and wailed con
tinuously. The three other children were playing about and quarreling with
vigor, but they looked pale and thin.
Charlie has a rather mature loyalty toward his family.
His version
o f the dog breeding was that his father had been given a dog and that
one day, in one of the family bed rooms, this dog gave birth to a litter of
eight or nine pups, which none of the family could bear to kill.
Some of
the pups were given away, but some were raised in the home.
Charlie had not yet had a real job. H e sometimes helped his father wash
automobiles, but whenever he was paid for this he gave the money to his
father. H is only earnings were for shoveling snow in the winter.
For recreation he used to go to Saturday afternoon “ movies ” and to Salva
tion Arm y meetings, where he and his brother had a good time “ singing,
praying, and testifying.”
After several failures in school Charlie was placed in a special grade.
H is parents disagreed as to the reason for his retardation.
Mrs. K .
thought it was due to natural slowness, whereas Mr. K., who considers
his son bright, thought the retardation was due solely to his truancy. Last
winter the family received almost daily calls from the school-attendance
officer, but usually at times when Mr. and Mrs. K . were not at home. Mr. K .
occasionally took Charlie to school himself, but as soon as he left Charlie
would leave, too.
His school principal had never given him any mental tests, but she
thought that his mental capacity was subnormal. She professed an entire
lack of sympathy with the boy, however, and was convinced that he had
never been truthful concerning the reason for his truancy.
After talk
ing with his parents she concluded that they were lax and indifferent and
that Mr. K . was “ irresponsible,” and, although she had never visited
the home, she had no doubt but that home conditions were very bad. She
felt satisfied that Charlie was unfit for any other treatment than the discipline
o f the State school for boys.
In March, 1928, Charlie’s truancy suddenly reached its climax.
The
school-attendance officer decided that it was useless to waste further effort
in trying to get the cooperation of the parents, and, as much o f the time he
was unable even to find Charlie, he referred the case to the municipal court for
official action.
Charlie had no previous court record, but he had the following record with
the police department:

Released with warning
1926—
Sept. 4 : Larceny_____
1927—
July 5 : Larceny of bicycle____________________Released with warning
1928— Jan. 1 1 : Larceny of paper cups_______Released with warning
1928— Jan. 2 6 : Truancy------------------------------------------------- Released with warning
^928— Feb. 1 8 : Larceny of coal------------------------------------ Released with warning

In view of this record and the complaint of the school-attendance officer, the
municipal court, without further investigation, committed Charlie to the State
school for boys.
Charlie’s own story regarding his truancy is rather interesting. He told of
several occasions when the family was without a housekeeper and he had had
to take care o f the children so that his mother would not be obliged to stay

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home from work. On another occasion his only pair of shoes met with an
accident and as his father could not afford new ones he stayed at home for
a while. He admitted, however, that his truancy was not always due to such
necessities. He recalled having stayed out of school for an entire week on one
occasion in order to play in an old barn. When he grew tired of playing, he
would lie down and read a “ doctor book ” which he used to carry around in
his pocket; he read about “ lungs and things ” and did not find them espe
cially interesting, but had nothing better to do. He did not dislike school; he
merely thought that he would not go.
Charlie is not unhappy at the State school. So far he has been punished
only once, which he says was for refusing to eat his breakfast porridge one
morning. For recreation he does beadwork, plays baseball, and takes part in
the general activities provided by the institution.
The school-attendance officer has been opposed on general principles to send
ing boys to the State school on charges of truancy, and, during a long period
of service, this has been the only case in which he recommended such a disposi
tion. But he is convinced that the regular meals, regular hours of sleep, re
quired school attendance, and general atmosphere of orderliness and discipline
are exactly what Charlie needs and are proving a great benefit to him.
HAEOLD E.

Native w hite; parents native white.
Age at time of offense, 11.
Municipal court, February 3, 1928: Truancy: committed to State school for bova
Family at time of disposition: Widowed mother, brother 14, sister 11 at home ’
Harold is a very likable little chap with red cheeks and shiny eyes. His
cottage mistress had ordered a hasty clean-up for the interview, and as a result
he appeared with his face well scrubbed and his hair plastered down with water
wearing an institution shirt at least three sizes too large for him. His con
gested breathing indicated the need for attention to his tonsils and adenoids,
and his teeth were badly in need of cleaning, but in other respects he seemed
healthy and vigorous. His mother reported that he had had three convul
sions when he was 2 % years of age, but apparently these had no after-effects
The combination of his childish appearance and his wistfully serious manner
makes him a most appealing little person. H e is doubtless easily impressed
and easily led, but none the less honest and frank.
Mr. It. has been dead for about seven years. He was epileptic and spent
the last years of his life in the State hospital for the insane.
For many years the family had been dependent on the city. In the winter
o f 1928 the overseers of the poor having concluded that Mrs. R. was “ crazy ”
that the children were being neglected, and that the family would continue to
be a chronic case for aid, decided to break up the home by sending the mother
to an institution and having the children placed out. Accordingly they ar
ranged for a member of the municipal board of children’s guardians to peti
tion the court for custody of the children on grounds of “ neglect and willful
failure of parent to provide suitable food, clothing, and the privilege of edu
cation.” Mrs. R. appealed to a lawyer who was already exercised over what
he considered a growing tendency on the part of these agencies to break up
homes and who, therefore, defended her case with considerable vigor. As
the agencies were unable to produce conclusive evidence to prove the mother’s
neglect of her children, the family remained intact and, at the time of the
interview, the overseers of the poor were paying for their rent, groceries and
fuel and giving them clothing. Mrs. R. supplements this aid by going out to
do housework, usually two days a week, earning 40 cents an hour. A t one
time she applied for mothers’ aid, but her application was refused.
A t the time o f the interview the family had just moved from a flat in a
rather undesirable neighborhood near the river wharves and railroad tracks
to a small house in an unpretentious residential district. Although- tM i
rooms were in need of fresh paper and paint, they had been well cleaned
GEhe
parlor furniture, consisting of an old plush sofa, a small table, several rickety
chairs, and a worn rug, looked extremely old and shabby. Mrs. R. seemed to
take considerable pride in the place, however, and was planning to furnish a
little garret room so that when Harold returned he could have a room to
himself.
Mrs. R. is a thin woman with a gnarled and angular body. Her wrinkled
cheeks are pale and sunken, and she has only two or three teeth, and with her

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ragged assortment of cast-off clothing she looks like a worn-out pauper; but
when she begins to defend the rights of her children and rushes across the
room waving her clenched fists, her flashing eyes and scarcely intelligible
hisses indicate that she has enough bitter energy to continue struggling if
necessary.
She has not given her children very close supervision. The fact that she
has always worked out several days a week and that the boys have been
encouraged to spend their after-school hours down town selling newspapers
has led to considerable freedom on their part to do as they please.
She
realized last winter that Harold was playing truant and was hiding from
the school-attendance officer, but she seemed unable to discipline him and
always blamed his misdemeanors on the bad influence of fhe neighborhood
in general and one delinquent boy in particular. (This boy did, in fact, have
a bad record in the court.) •
A complaint made to a protective agency in October, 1924, alleged that,
according to neighborhood rumors, Mrs. R. was having epileptic fits, that she
did not know how to cook for her family, and that she beat and otherwise
neglected and abused her children. The records of this agency do not show
that any action was taken on this complaint nor whether an investigation of
the home did indeed prove such neglect and abuse to exist.
Richard, the 14-year-old brother, and Patsy, the 11-year-old sister, are
attractive, healthy-looking children. On the day of the interview, which
was at the end of the week, their clothes looked rather dusty, but they were
otherwise neat. Both children were eager to ask questions, Richard, espe
cially, asking some very intelligent questions about the functions of the Gov
ernment. Richard adds a little to the family income by selling newspapers
down town every day after school. H e is very alert and rather independent;
and when his mother, who has no confidence in books, tries to keep him from
reading, he is not so obedient as she desires: H e has a good friend in the
lawyer who had befriended the family before. Noticing that Richard’s ade
noids were troubling him and that the agencies were not attending to the
matter, the lawyer arranged for an operation, and he has kept up a very
friendly relation with the boy ever since. Richard goes to his office every
Saturday morning to “ talk over things.” Patsy’s eyes are obviously in need
of an oculist’s attention, but, although the school nurse has pointed out the
need for care, no one has taken the child to an oculist
A t the time of his delinquency, Harold was only in the fifth grade. This
retardation may be accounted for in part by the fact that, although he had
been living in but one city, he had already attended six different schools, trans
ferring between public and parochial whenever any special school requirement,
change of residence, or some other reason made a transfer seem desirable. H is
last teacher considered him bright but thoroughly unreliable, and was of the
opinion that he and his delinquent companion had a bad influence on each other.
Although she had never visited his home, she had had several talks with his
mother, and from them concluded that home conditions were partly to blame.
She referred the boy to the school-attendance officer and thus disposed of his
case.
Harold’s employment record is almost as irregular as his school record. H e
sold newspapers before he was 10 years of age. H e also sold magazines on
the street corners for a while, but on finding his competitors too strong for him
he began selling a club of magazines with the inducement of a free theater
ticket as a premium for JLOO weekly sales. H e also collected milk and medi
cine bottles, which he managed to sell. H e usually gave his mother $1.50 a
week, reserving the rest of his earnings for himself. After he became interested
in the “ bad boys,” however, and found that they did not work he, too, ceased
working.
• -^Harold's only special recreation was going to the “ movies,” but he also had
a good time playing down by the river wharves and hanging around stores and
alleys. H e liked Patsy and sometimes went walking with her. His relations
with his brother were less amicable, but he was more helpful to his mother
than Richard.
H is story of his delinquencies is as follows :
“ When I was 10 years old, I learned to be a bad boy. John told me to ask
some men for some money and then to go to the Five and Ten with him. Be
fore that I never done nothing bad. One time A1 and I * took ’ some Christmas
wreaths and sold them to a lady, but she never gave us the money. Some-

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times I went in the Five and Ten and took some candy and little play toys
and a rubber ball, and once the manager caught me and called the police, but
the police never came, and so he let me go.”
H e remembered having been in court three times and to the police station
once. He was scolded and warned, but the “ bad boys ” who were his com
panions proved too strong an influence for his good resolutions. He admitted
that because they were older he liked to show that he could do whatever they
did.
Early in February, 1928, the school-attendance officer brought Harold before
the municipal court on a charge of habitual truancy. H e had one court record
against h im : When he was 10 years of age he had been one of three boys charged
with larceny, the disposition in his case being “ Continued for sentence and
placed on probation for one year.” And so on this occasion, without further
ado, he was committed to the State school for boys before the friendly lawyer
had time to help him.
Harold was evidently awed and impressed by the procedure. He told of hav
ing sat for several hours in a dark “ jail cell ” behind a locked door both before
and after the hearing, and he repeated almost reverently the judge’s words of
disposition, “ This boy is sentenced to the State school for boys.”
Harold seems to get along fairly well in the institution. He realizes that his
poverty is a handicap to him here as it was at home, for he can not write to
his mother except when the school furnishes the stamp (which is once a month),
and he can not afford to make bead necklaces unless one of the other boys lends
him some beads. H e accepts the situation, however, with a resigned seriousness.
ANNETTE Q.

Native white; parents native white.
Age at time o f offense, 14.
Municipal court, April 21, 1928: Sex offense: committed to State school for girls.
Family at time of disposition: Parents married and living together; brothers 21,
16, 8, 4 ; sisters 11, 8, 9 months at home; sisters 25 and 20 married and hi
own homes; half-brothers 28, 25, and half-sister 80 in own homes.
Annette is small, but she has good color, a fairly clear skin, and, on the
whole, looks healthy. She is shy and childish in her ways.
Her parents live in a shingle house on a paved road in the so-called “ French
town ” section of their village. The house has a large yard, but like the neigh
boring houses, it is small and poorly built and has no running water. The
first floor has but one large room with a wood-shed adjoining; the second floor
has four rooms. Except for a fairly good sewing machine, the house is poorly
furnished and, although warm, is dirty and cheerless.
Mr. Q. works irregularly in the woods and in the potato fields according to
the season and the employment available. The oldest son also works and
pays board. There are no other wage earners in the family, and during the
Winter of 1927-28 they received aid from the town.
Mrs. Q. has been accustomed so long to poverty and low standards that she
makes little effort to improve the dirty and unkempt condition of her children.
When interviewed by the Children’s Bureau agent she was friendly but seemed
determined to shield Annette, and she stressed the child’s willingness to stay
at home with the children while she went out.
The winter before the interview Annette was in the fifth grade. She liked
her teacher, attended school with fair regularity, and gave n;o trouble.
In her spare time she worked for an aunt and uncle, earning $3 a week, which
she either gave to her mother or used to purchase her clothes. In March
she left school. One of the local overseers of the poor who called on the
family at that time was told by Mrs. Q. that Annette was pregnant and was
staying in the next town with “ the P .’s ” who, although not responsible for
her condition, had promised to care for her.
Early in April the woman deputy sheriff of “ the next tow n ” received a
complaint that Mr. P., an elderly man separated from his wife and long con
sidered a questionable character, had a little girl living with him. The
deputy sheriff promptly visited him and found Annette there. She learned
from Mr. P. that he was responsible for the girl’s condition and was planning
to place her in a boarding home and pay the expenses of her confinement.
From conversation with one of Annette’s friends and froni further investigation,
she learned that Annette had stayed with Mr. P. on three different occasions—
in October, 1927, at Christmas time, and at the time of discovery. She also
heard that a railroad gate tender had enticed the child into his shack by

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offering her grapes and candy and had made improper advances to her, but was
not responsible for her condition.
After the deputy sheriff’s visit Mr. P. went to the judge to learn his possible
penalty and to offer to provide for the girl. The judge took no affidavit, but
gave him to understand that the penalty would be severe. On the same
day Mr. P. took Annette back to her own home. W hile there he heard of her
experiences with the other man, whereupon he promptly revoked his con
fession, which, he explained, had been made merely to protect the girl. His
new story was substantiated by both Annette and Mrs. Q., who were full of
praise for his kindness and goodness.
Two weeks after the initial investigation the deputy sheriff had a warrant
sworn for the girl’s arrest. Annette was examined by the city health officer
and found to be four months pregnant. A t the recommendation of the deputy
sheriff, who saw the need for further schooling, Annette was committed to the
State school for girls and, pending her transfer to that institution, was
detained in a local hospital. Apparently Mrs. Q. did not understand what
happened at the hearing, as she telephoned several days later to learn what had
become of Annette and was surprised to hear that she had been committed to
the State school.
Annette was placed in- a boarding home for confinement, after which she was
returned to the State school and given treatment for gonorrhea. Her baby
was committed to the State department of public welfare for adoption.
The State school for girls made no investigation of her case, but obtained
from Annette a statement admitting that other men had had relations with her,
but that Mr. P. was the father of her child, and that her mother, on becoming
aware of her condition, had sent her to him for care. This affidavit has been
referred to the county attorney, and it is expected that Mr. P. will be indicted
by the grand jury.
When interviewed, Annette expressed the opinion that she should have been
allowed to remain with her mother; however, she did not appear unhappy at
the institution. She is still in the fifth grade and is having the usual share
of institutional work and play activities.
CARL H .

Native w hite; parents native white.
Age at time of offense, 13.
Municipal court, March 28, 1928: Stealing; placed on probation. On April 10,
1928, committed to State school for boys for violation of probation.
Family at time of disposition: Mother divorced from first husband but married
to and living with second husband; stepbrother 7, stepsister 5 at home.
Carl is a heavily built and strong-looking boy. H e carries himself with a
slight slouch and drags his feet as if he had not yet learned to manage all of
his body. In spite of the fact that he has had his tonsils and adenoids out, he
still breathes through his m outh; he thinks the doctor “ didn’t get them all o u t”
Carl gives the impression of being lethargic and even dull in his thinking
process, but alert and cunning in planning mischief.
Mr. H . is employed at painting machinery; he earns $23 a week and works
steadily. Mrs. H . was divorced from her first husband on the ground of
nonsupport. After working for several years she married her present husband.
She still does occasional days of housecleaning in order to earn extra money.
In being interviewed she seemed seriously and genuinely concerned over her
son’s delinquency and was eager to tell anything that might help to account for
his conduct.
Except that he was born with “ a swelling ” on his head, Carl had no physical
disabilities or defects. Following his parents’ divorce he was cared for by his
grandmother and possibly overindulged by her. He always wanted to “ show
off ” and “ act smart,” and this was an aspect of his behavior which always
worried his mother. She thought that he got some of these ideas from the
** movies.” He was always “ crazy about the movies ” and went often ; his
mother used to roast peanuts and send him down town to sell them, and when
ever he made 10 cents or more profit he would stay to see a “ movie ” instead of
coming home.
Mrs. H. and her second husband did not always agree on the way in which
Carl was to be brought up, and as a result Carl did not get on well with his
stepfather.
He seems to have been a rather solitary child, without chums or gang associ
ates, and, unlike most boys, he never attempts to ascribe any of his delinquen
cies to the influence of bad companions. He was in the seventh grade before

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METHODS OP DEALING W IT H DELINQUENT CHILDREN

his delinquency. He liked school “ all right ” but did not like to get low
marks, and he was truant much of the time. In the course o f the interview he
told how he had bribed some of the older boys “ that could write better ” to
write notes to the teacher excusing his absences, and thus he sometimes managed
to
get by without attending school more than once a week. The principal
remembered him as an unruly, untidy, lazy, and truant boy who was deliber
ately and destructively mischievous.
He never worked much. When he was 9 or 10 years of age he helped a boy
with a newspaper route, and later he tried to sell newspapers and magazines
for himself for a time ; but he “ did not like going around so much ” and so he
did not keep at these jobs very long. He used his earnings in the same wav
in which he used his profits from selling peanuts— going to the “ m ovies” and
buying candy.
« xHiL gay® |ihe Show ing account of his conduct: When he was little he liked
trading his play toys whenever other boys had things he liked better. He
liked playing fireman, and one day he and another boy hacked down the
0f , »
f i th a hatchet when they were playing fire. H e liked to show
off, and he liked to smoke and say “ smarty things ” to the boys to see whether
impress them, and yet he was conscious of the fact that the boys
disliked him for trying to act smart.
One day he broke into a schoolhouse and took several boxes of gold stars
which he scattered about. Later he broke into another school and took the
children s milk money, amounting to about $8 ; and, after tying it up in a bag
he buried it under an ash pile. Several youngsters tunneling through the ash
p e found the money and divided it among themselves. When this was reported
to the police Carl s offense became known, and on March 28, 1928, he was
larceny bef° re the municiPal court on a charge of breaking, entering, and
H e spent three days in a special detention room at the police station while
his case was continued. Then his stepfather furnished $200 bond, and Carl was
released under his stepfather’s supervision. The prosecuting attorney nolprossed the 4 breaking and entering ” charge and on a simple charge of larcenv
gave him a suspended sentence for commitment to the State school for bovs
(alternative 30 days in ja il). Meanwhile Carl was placed on probation for
two years.
Mr. H. promised to give Carl a weekly allowance and to take him to the
movies when his conduct was satisfactory, and tried by talking with him to
foster his desire to do better. Carl would spend his evenings with other boys
and remain out late, however, and then, according to his story, his father began
to hate him and would himself stay away from home evenings in order to
avoid further contact with his stepson.
One day when Carl was out on the street he saw a jug of sirup in a parked
c a r; and recalling a hoax he had heard over the radio, he spilled the sirup
over the upholstered seat of the car so that later the driver ruined his clothes
in the mess. Carl was arrested for this offense and detained for one night in
a
regular cell.” The court considered his action a violation of probation
and as Mr. H . made no further pleas in his behalf Carl was committed to thè
State school for boys.
Carl says that he is glad to be in the State school because he can not get
into trouble, whereas if he had been placed on probation he would have been
in some other mischief before long. He expresses the hope that the State
school will “ reform ” him and that when he is discharged he will no longer
get into diflSculties.
6
MARTHA A.

Native White ; father native white, mother Canadian
Age at time of offense, 14.
CrÌ*<i^ Ì Q^ rcm’ * 1
1928: Sex offense; dismissed with warning
1928 Tf.uancy ! Placed on probation. June’

~ &

i o “ f f i U,?ho0o U o 7 S iir

Ìulr 9' 1928 : V,olat,on «

1928 •

Patton,

Martha is a distressingly unattractive girl ; she has stringy, stubborn hair a
pasty, rash-covered complexion, and poor teeth. Her unusually large head and
strangely shaped forehead are suggestive of abnormality. She seems to make
appear neat and looks incapable of alertness, responsiveness, or

initiative.

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Mrs. A. claims complete ignorance of the reason for Mr. A .’s desertion and of
his whereabouts during the past six years. In a sentimental manner she regrets
the fact that her children have been deprived of a father’s care and blames their
delinquencies in some measure on their lack o f paternal discipline.
She earns a living for herself and the children by doing housework and gen
eral cleaning, for which she earns $3 to $4 a day, and by keeping roomers.
She rents a 5-room basement apartment on an unattractive but respectable
small-town street and has a living room, kitchen, a pantry, and three bedrooms.
She usually rents two of the bedrooms to male roomers for $2 a week.
Mrs. A. seems sadly lacking in judgment where her children are concerned.
As the school-attendance officer never came to see her, she did not worry about
their school attendance, although she knew that Martha was sometimes truant.
Last April when Martha and her friend Rhea (see p. 36) left school in order
to work she suspected, especially when she saw the girls’ new clothes, that they
were not attending school but were working. W hen asked why she did not
question the girl, she replied rather lamely, “ I suppose maybe I should have
asked her, but I didn’t ; she was so big and didn’t like to be bossed, and she has
no head for learning anyhow.”
Nor was Mrs. A . unaware of Martha’s recreational interests. She knew that
her daughter went to the “ movies ” three and more times a week, because she
was herself continually giving Martha “ movie money ” as an inducement to
wash the dishes. When she first heard that the girl had attended a dance,
she “ spanked her terribly,” but as the only effect of the spanking was that
Martha would run out of the house whenever she wanted to go to a dance,
Mrs. A. thought there was no use in repeating that form of punishment. Occa
sionally she had accompanied Martha to dances, but she. soon found that too
fatiguing. She had concluded that “ there is nothing wrong in dances; it’s
coming home from dances when the trouble begins,” but she felt unable to bring
Martha home and apparently ceased to worry about her.
H er son Clarence seemed to realize the dangers to which his sister was
exposed and tried to keep her in nights, but he was so little older than she
that he merely antagonized her.
Except that Martha was in the seventh grade when Rhea was in the eighth,
the experiences of the two girls are practically the same. In the winter be
fore the study they attended public dances together, were arrested together,
and, on March 15, together received a warning from the police matron. They
both falsified their ages to obtain jobs at a shoe factory; and, although Martha
was less ambitious and earned less than Rhea, both used their earnings for
clothes. Like Rhea, Martha was discovered by the factory inspector, arrested,
charged with truancy in the municipal court on April 28, and placed on pro
bation. On June 7 she was again brought before the municipal court with
Rhea for continuing or repeating all past offenses, and, like Rhea, was con
tinued on probation with the understanding that she leave the community.
Martha went to stay with an aunt in a neighboring small town. She stayed
several weeks, but the lure of the public dances in her home town was too
much for her, and one Saturday evening, early in July, she was discovered by
the police matron in a public dance hall and arrested. She was held in the
women’s detention room of the city jail. Mrs. A . maintains that she waited
for her daughter to come home and did not know where she was until Monday
morning, when a neighbor showed her a newspaper account of Martha’s
arrest and detention.
On a charge of having violated the conditions of her probation and in view
of her past record, Martha was committed to the State school for girls on
July 9. Her matron there considers her “ low grade mentally ” and unable to
learn much. Martha herself seems too incapable of any spontaneous emo
tional reaction to be either happy or miserable at the State school. She
admits her sex experiences with an attitude of utter indifference. The only
subject on which she betrays a sign of responsiveness is that of dancing; she
learned to dance by watching others and is crazy about i t ; she and Rhea used
to go to roadhouses to pick up dance partners. The girls in her cottage are
allowed to dance every Saturday night, but they may not do the Charleston,
and the dancing is “ pretty tame.”
Martha’s brother Clarence also had a court experience during this time.
H e was 16 years of age at the time of his offense and was earning $1 a day
distributing handbills. On June 2, 1928, he and two other boys were brought
before the municipal court on a charge of burglary; they were indicted by the

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METHODS OF DEALING W IT H DELINQUENT CHILDREN

grand jury and held for the next term of the superior court. Clarence could
not furnish the required $1,000 bond and was detained in the county jail
pending the hearing. H is record showed one previous arrest, and since the
evidence of leadership in the present offense was not in his favor, he was com
mitted, to the State school for boys on June 28.
On October 29 he and another boy escaped from the institution. A s he was
not returned in time to be interviewed, his story must remain incomplete.
Mrs. A. thinks, of course, that Clarence should have been given another
chance and that it is hardly fair for Martha to be in the State school for girls
unless her friend Rhea is also there, but, at the same time, she seems fairly
well pleased that her two children are being so well cared for in State insti
tutions.
ERNEST AND NORMA P.

Native w hite; father native white, mother born in Canada.
Ages at time of offense, 14, 15.
Municipal cou rt:
Ernest, February 16, 1928 : Larceny; placed on probation. March 5, 1928:
Probation violated; committed to State school for boys.
Norma, March 1, 1928: Sex offense; committed to State school for girls.
Composition of family on date of Ernest’s first disposition: Parents married,
father in sanatorium in W est; sister Pearl 16, brother Victor 9 at home;
brother Edward 12 (or 13) in State school for boys.
The interview with Mrs. P., Ernest, and Norma, and with various indi
viduals having contact with the family, and the fairly detailed record o f
the family-welfare society clearly showed that, although Ernest and Norma
were the only members of the family whose delinquencies definitely fell
within the 6-month period studied, they were so closely bound up with the
family situation as a whole that it would be necessary to include each member
o f the family in the case study.
Mr. P. was at one time a railroad employee and was twice seriously
injured in railroad accidents. After one of these accidents he became
tuberculous. Although he was not bedridden, he was unable to work, and so
he lounged about at home, irritable and querulous, easily roused to anger
with his wife and his children, and violent in his outbursts of temper.
Mrs. P. is still in her early thirties, and with her fresh, pink complexion
and bobbed brown hair she makes an attractive appearance. Although she
looks well, she complains of being worn out with work.
She has been
working on and off for the past 10 years, whenever Mr. P. _a s been unable
or unwilling to work. When the youngest child was a baby, she worked in
a rug factory, earning $16 a week. Later when the factory closed she was
employed as a laundress. Her last position has been that of hotel chamber
maid.
The health histories o f the children show that Pearl, the oldest daughter,
had convulsions every day during the first three months of her infancy,
and that as a child she was exceptionally timid and given to holding her
breath when scolded.
Since early childhood Ernest has had a bilateral
hernia, supposedly the result o f having been severely kicked by his fath er;
although he has sometimes worn a truss, he has never had any careful medical
attention.
Norma has been troubled by a hernia since infancy, but like
Ernest, she has never had proper medical attention for it.
The school records for all the children show many “ repeated grades” ;
but, in the absence of mental tests or further comment, it is impossible to
determine whether the failures were due to actual mental deficiency or to
the very irregular school attendance which seems to have been characteristic
o f all the children.
Neither Pearl nor Norma finished the seventh grade. Pearl definitely left
school to take a job as a nurse g ir l; and Norma, who was feeling very con
scious of her womanly appearance and ashamed to be in school with
little girls, began to stay away from school, to look for jobs, and also to
“ run the streets.”
Norma was a constant source of irritation to her father. Whether his
fits of temper encouraged her to run away from home on any and every occa
sion or whether her habit of running away caused his outbursts o f temper is
difficult to say.
Her mother believed the former to have been true and
attributed the girl’s tendency to run off and look for jobs to a desire to
be completely independent of her abusive father. A t the same time Mrs. P.
realized that Norma was playing truant, staying out at indiscreet hours
with undesirable companions and having a bad influence on her older but more

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timid sister, and she began to fear lest both girls would come to harm.
So, early in the winter of 1926-27, she arranged to send Norma to a private
institution in another State.
In January, 1927, Norma attempted to escape from that institution. Her
story to her mother was that she had been working on a power machine,
sewing rayon underwear all day anil she had been cruelly treated. After faint
ing from exhaustion, she had been taken to the bathroom to be revived and
on being left alone had decided to escape by jumping out of the third-story
window.8® Although she broke a leg in the fall, she managed to drag herself
nearly a mile without being discovered. She was then picked up by the police
and taken to the city hospital, where she was under treatment for several
months both for her broken leg and for what the neurological department
diagnosed as “ hysteria.”
Meantime, in spite of Norma’s absence, Pearl was growing less and less de
pendable. She was given to running away and although her employers con
sented to take her back again at first, they could not keep her long. Presently
her mother learned she had spent several nights away from home, and although
she could not bring herself to question the girl, she suspected that Pearl had
been with men and that something would have to be done. So, in March, 1927,
Pearl was sent to the same private institution that had received Norma.
In September of the same year, after the girls had complained of being very
unhappy there, Mrs. P. sent for them, and, with the consent of the head of
the institution they both came home. The stories are not quite clear as to
what they did during September and October; apparently they divided their
time between their home and the hotel at which their mother was employed.
In November they both disappeared, but were promptly found in a neighboring
town and returned home. There is no further information about Pearl at this
time. Norma (either at this time or earlier) through her mother found work as
a private maid in one of the hotel light-housekeeping suites; her duties con
sisted o f dusting, making the bed, washing dishes, and occasionally acting as
waitress when her mistress entertained. She liked the job, but the hotel
management soon learned of the arrangement and objected to the employment
o f an “ outsider.” Norma then found employment as a chambermaid in a
smaller hotel, without her mother’s knowledge, and while she was working
there a man promised her a better job in the neighboring town and presently
she disappeared.
Ernest seems to have been much more dependable and ambitious than his
sisters. In his after-school hours he had worked at the usual jobs of carrying
newspapers and shoveling snow. Later he found a job for the summer months
working on a truck farm, where he earned $1 a day and his meals, and during
the school year he worked as delivery and stock boy in grocery stores in after
school hours and on Saturday. A t first he gave all his earnings to his m other;
later he began to use them to purchase his own clothes. H e was a member
of the boys’ choir in his church and a leader of a troop of Boy Scouts.
Ernest considered it one of his chief duties in life to look after his younger
brother Edward who frequently ran away from home. The latter wanted
to be a soldier, and he believed that by running away from home and hang
ing around an Army post his ambition would be realized more quickly. When
ever Edward ran away Ernest went in search of him, usually locating him at
the nearest Army post. On one occasion Edward, at his father’s request, was
detained all night in the guardhouse with a view to curing this runaway
habit. In March, 1927, however, both he and Ernest left home; it is not
clear whether Ernest went merely to follow and protect his younger brother or
whether both boys were running away to escape the continued abusiveness of
their father. They arrived in Boston and were picked up by the police, who
notified Mr. P. to come after them.
Both boys had been charged with petty larcenies. Ernest was accused of
having gone through the pockets of the choir boys during a church service,
but his guilt could not be definitely established and his case was dismissed
without formal court action. Edward, although actually guilty of a small
larceny, was not taken to court. According to his mother, he came home from
school one night looking very pale and feeling quite unable to eat his supper;
in the course o f the evening he gave her 30 cents, confessing that he and
“ A letter from the institution reported, however, that Norma and another girl had
Jumped from a first-floor window on their way from chapel.

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another boy had taken 60 cents belonging to the school milk fund. He was
made to return the money and, at least to his mother’s knowledge, never
repeated the offense.
A t the end of March, 1927, Edward was brought before the municipal court
on a charge of truancy, and, in view of the general family situation, and on
recommendation o f the school-attendance officer, he was committed to the
State school for boys. (The school-attendance officer was also eager to have
Ernest committed to the State school on charges of truancy and larceny, but
there is no record of complaint against Ernest or of the basis for such
possible charges.)
Apparently Victor was the only member of the family not presenting any
problems, and even he was a source o f difficulty, as Ernest was obliged to stay
home from school frequently to look after him whenever he was unable to
go to school. In December, 1927, Mr. P. went W est to a sanatorium, leaving
the two boys without even his querulous supervision.
The family was meanwhile becoming well known to the community. The
school principal considered the children a “ hard lo t ” ; the school-attendance
officer felt that he had exhausted every means at his disposal for keeping the
youngsters in school; the police officers and police matron had had numerous
occasions to look for the children when they had run away or to warn them
when they had conducted themselves improperly; the local children’s agency
heard of them through a letter complaining of mischief done by the children
and a letter from the Boston juvenile court reporting its experience with
Ernest and Edward, who had seemed “ bright and attractive ” but had “ com
plained of beatings and an unhappy home life ” ; their clergyman had tried to
keep a friendly eye on the children; and the family-welfare society was con
stantly receiving pleas from Mrs. P. for advice and help in keeping the chil
dren out of the “ reform school.” When Mrs. P. finally appealed for a board
ing home for the boys, the various agencies and individuals concerned in the
welfare of the family conferred in the judge’s office. They concluded that
as Mr. P. was already away from home and not likely to return for some
time and Mrs. P. had demonstrated her incapacity to care for her children
properly and was, moreover, a woman of questionable moral standards, the
home had best be broken up completely. According to their plan Pearl was to
be committed to the State school for girls on a charge of “ being found in cir
cumstances of manifest danger of falling into habits of vice or immorality,”
sentence to be suspended during a 2-year period of probation; Ernest was to be
committed to the State school for boys on a charge o f larceny,*6 sentence to be
suspended during a 2-year period of probation; Norma was to be committed to
the State school for girls on a charge of “ being found in circumstances of mani
fest danger of falling into habits of vice or immorality,” as soon as she could be
fo u n d ; and Victor was to be placed in a boarding home, his mother to pay his
board. The entire family was to be examined for venereal disease at the clinic.
These plans were duly carried out. The results of the examinations for
venereal disease were all negative. Pearl was intrusted to the supervision of
the family clergyman (who has since moved away and, as far as Pearl’s
supervision is concerned, has not been replaced) during the period of her
probation. She works as a tray girl in a hospital and spends some of her
nights with a friend near the hospital and some with her mother, whose
single room on the outskirts of the city is all that is left of the family home.
Mrs. P. feels confident that Pearl’s conduct is blameless at present, but she
worries over the girl’s health. Pearl is restless at night and talks in her
sleep, and she has a troublesome suppurating growth on her neck.
Victor, who was committed temporarily to the custody of the municipal
board of children’s guardians, has been placed in a rural boarding home, where
he seems to be doing nicely. H is mother is well pleased with the arrangement.
W hile the various members of the family were thus being disposed of, Norma
was in the neighboring town working as a night waitress in a restaurant,
using her earnings to pay her hotel room rent and her tips to buy silk stock
ings. One day she made a saucy remark to a man who had spoken to her
89 The complainant in this case was the school-attendance officer, but as Ernest’s school
absences lacked one session of the number necessary to constitute habitual truancy he
used the charge of larceny of a tobacco pipe and a pen from the church, a charge which
had previously been made informally against Ernest and two other boys but of which he
had not been proved guilty.

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on the street, and a policeman, having observed her, warned her to go home.
H er return was promptly noted by the authorities, and on March 1 she was
brought before the municipal court and committed to the State school for girls
for breaking the conditions of her probation.
Norma, at the age of 15, is a handsome, well-developed girl with an appear
ance of abundant health and vitality. She was interviewed at the State school
and seemed quite willing to discuss her experiences. Without attempting to lay
the blame for her delinquency on her mother, she said that if her mother had
been able to remain at home to look after the children their troubles might have
been prevented.
O f her experiences with men she spoke with more bitterness than shame.
Apparently she had consented to go for automobile rides with any man who
asked her, although the very first ride had taught her that she could not trust
so casual an acquaintance. She sometimes worried over the risk she took.
She used to cry herself to sleep at n ight; but, although she sometimes confided
in her sister, she could not bear to have her mother know of her experiences.
She is doing well at the State school, both in her class work and in the
cottage. She likes the kitchen work less than the work on rayon underwear at
the private institution which had previously cared for her, but she appreciates
her present educational opportunities. Part of her maintenance work has been
to polish floors on her hands and knees. She enjoys this, but the strained
position always aggravates her hernia. She told the school doctor, who tried
to relieve the condition with a bandage, but the bandage chafed her and so she
removed it. A s she fears a surgical operation she no longer complains.
Norma likes to take care of pretty things— dishes and silver and silk under
wear. She thinks she would like to be a maid in a private home and evidently
feels no resentment toward her father as she would like to go W est to work
near him.
Ernest was at first placed in the boarding home with Victor. After he had
been there two weeks the boarding mother complained that he was conducting
himself so outrageously that she would not keep him and so she sent him back
to his mother. H is return, in view of the attending circumstances, was con
sidered a violation of probation, for which he was committed to the State school
for boys.
Ernest, at the age of 14, is a tall, healthy-looking boy with a fresh pink com
plexion and attractive brown eyes like his mother’s. He is perhaps the only
member of the fam ily who considers himself to have been “ badly used,” and his
mother is decidedly of the same opinion. He resents his truancy record be
cause his absences, he says, were all due to his duty toward his family— hunting
for Edward when he ran off to be a soldier; looking for Norma when she stayed
out late or disappeared for a night or a w eek; taking care of Victor when no
one else was at home to care for him, and in general trying to make up for the
deficiencies of his father and mother. He was not aware o f the efforts of the
school-attendance officer to help the family, as the latter had never spoken to
him. H e also resents his experience with the court in connection with the
church larceny; he insists he was innocent and the offense was committed by
a little negro boy, who has since been committed to the State school for boys
on similar charges.
He feels that his boarding experience was a failure because his boarding
parents feared his popularity with and influence over the younger children in
the home. A s Ernest resented being asked to saw one and one-half cords of wet
wood with a dull saw and to clean out a chicken coop, his popularity and in
fluence probably threatened the morale of the home. So he was given his car
fare and told to return to the city.
According to Ernest’s story, the judge talked the matter over with him,
saying that as Ernest was homeless and still of school age, he would be
better off in the State school for boys, where he would have his brother near
him, than in another boarding home. The judge asked his consent to the
plan before making this disposition and promised him that it would not be a
regular commitment but merely a temporary arrangement. Ernest told the
Children’s Bureau agent with some bitterness that thus far he had been
treated exactly like the rest of the boys in the institution. H e especially
resented the fact that his clothes had been taken from him. Moreover, he
considered the judge’s statement that he would be near his brother rather a
fraud, as he had been assigned to a different cottage and had seen Edward
only when they were both assigned to kitchen duty and the kitchen matron
allowed them to work together.

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METHODS OF DEALING W IT H DELINQUENT CHILDREN

Ernest’s attitude toward the court’s method of dealing with him and of
breaking up and disposing o f the various members of the family is one of
protest, therefore. His attitude toward the police, who on one occasion sum
moned a patrol wagon to meet him half way in order to complete his arrest in
good form, in spite of his promises to walk along without giving any trouble,
is no less resentful.
Ernest is giving no trouble at the State school. H e is in the eighth grade,
and except for his worry over the other members of the family— particularly
over Norma, of whose disposition he has not been told— he is not very
unhappy. H is former summer employer came to visit him and tried to arrange
to have the boy live on his farm, but as this plan would have interfered
with Ernest’s school attendance it did not receive the consent of the superin
tendent.
Ernest’s ambition is to become a doctor. H e seems to be a thoroughly
intelligent boy, but whether, in view of his past handicaps and his present
circumstances, he will ever be in a position to prepare for entering a medical
school seems extremely doubtful.

Reformatories and jails.

Boys and girls who are considered unfit subjects for commitment
to the State schools because o f their age or the seriousness o f their
offenses are committed to the reformatories or jails. Maine has no
law prohibiting commitment o f children to jails; in fact, the alterna
tive sentences provided for in all commitments to the State school for
boys are usually commitments to jail or to a house o f correction.
Any “ male over the age of 16 years” if convicted o f or having
pleaded guilty to a crime may be committed to the State reformatory
for men 87 and any “ woman over the age of 16 years ” convicted
before any court having jurisdiction o f her offense may be sent to the
State reformatory for women.88
During the 6-month period studied 16 boys under 18 years o f age
were committed to these institutions— 8 to county jails and 8 to the
reformatory for men. Six of these commitments were made by
higher courts. Seven of the boys were under 17 years o f age at
the time o f commitment and thus were eligible for admission to the
State schools. No girls were committed to the reformatory for
women during this period, although 7 had been committed there
during the preceding six months.89 These commitments to institu
tions intended for adults constituted 24 per cent o f the total commit
ments of children to correctional institutions.
The various States differ greatly in the extent to which children
under 18 years o f age are committed to institutions for adult o f
fenders. The percentage o f juvenile delinquents who were committed
to institutions for adults, especially to jails and workhouses was
much lower throughout the United States in 1923 than in 1910.40
In all the New England States this tendency was noticeable, but
least so in Maine.
The most serious objections to these commitments are the contacts
with adult offenders, the lack o f facilities for organized instruction
in academic and vocational work in these institutions, and, for the
children in jails, the long period of idleness. (For description of
jails see p. 22.) In order to give to all delinquent children under
* Laws o f 1019, ch. 182 sec. 1, as amended by Laws of 1923. ch. 58.
**Bey. Stat. 1916, ch. 142 sec. 61, as amended by Laws of 1919, ch. 106
commftoent
86 ^
WOTe 16 years of age and t t » 6 were « years of age at the time of
Washington* 1927? Instltutloiiel

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1923, pp. 29(1-297.

U. S. Bureau of the Census.

JUVENILE DELINQUENCY IN M AINE

18 years o f age the greatest protection, it would seem desirable to
prohibit the commitment or detention of boys and girls under 18 in
any jail,41 and to raise the maximum age limit for admission to the
State schools to 17 years.
The State reformatory for women is fairly well equipped to meet
its problems. The plant consists o f a main building which houses
most o f the inmates, an honor cottage accommodating about 14, and
a large cottage for girls and women who have babies. Each cottage
has a recreation room, and in the main building this is large enough
to accommodate the entire group for entertainments and religious
services. Although no educational work is provided, some training
is given in connection with maintenance work. Every woman is
taught to Sew. No attempt is made to separate the young girls from
the older women, but each person has her own room.
The provision for the care of pregnant girls and later of their
babies is so much more adequate at the reformatory than at the State
school for girls that a few of the younger girls have been sent there
for such care. Girls or women receive confinement care in the insti
tution and they may keep their babies with them for two years.
Although there is some question as to the desirability of keeping
children who are over 9 months^of age in a penal institution, and also
o f delaying the early placement o f children who are to be adopted,
the plan followed by the reformatory at least prevents the undesir
able early separation of the babies from their mothers that occurs at
the State school for girls.
The State reformatory for men is housed in a new building o f the
congregate type. The entire third floor is a dormitory, accommodat
ing all the inmates. A schoolroom has been provided in this build
ing, but was not in use at the time o f the visit. A chapel is avail
able for general assemblies, and a large bench-lined room is provided
in the basement for use during leisure hours. The boys and men are
employed in maintenance work, on the farm, and in a brickyard.
No trade activities are provided. No walls have been built around
the building, and outdoor activities are reduced to outdoor work and
to baseball games.
The parole supervision by both these institutions is limited by
inadequate funds for travel. Each institution has one parole officer
who undertakes some supervision of persons paroled throughout
the State. The parole officer from the men’s reformatory tries to
see persons paroled once a month and receives reports from them
every two weeks. No definite policy as to seeing women paroled at
regular periods has been established at the women’s reformatory, but
they are supposed to make a monthly written report, for which a
printed form is provided.
Private institutions.

During the period o f the study 13 delinquent children were placed
in private institutions, 9 being sent to institutions within the State
«• For the child of 10 years of age or over whose habits or conduct would constitute a
menace to other children, a special provision for detention in a jail or other place of
detention for adults, but in quarters separate from those of adults, seems desirable. See
A Standard Juvenile Court Law, prepared by the committee on standard juvenile court
laws of the National Probation Association, pp. 28 and 29. National Probation Associa-

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and 4 being sent outside. A ll but 1 of these were girls. Most o f the
placements were made unofficially by various persons, only 2 children
having been committed to private institutions by the courts.42
Case histories illustrating commitment to the State reform atory
The only two case stories illustrating commitment to institutions
for adults are the stories of Roger S. and Napier D., who were both
committed to the reformatory for men. These stories contain an
account o f the boys’ reactions to the unprofitable leisure time and
title contact with older men in the reformatory. The effect o f jail
commitments is brought out in Napier’s story in the description of
the disposition made o f the remaimng members o f the gang.
These two boys were members o f a community gang to which
apparently no one paid any attention until a number o f serious
offenses had been committed. As Napier had already spent two years
in the State school for boys, and Roger’s older brother was on parole
from the reformatory for men, an interested parole officer might
have followed up his contacts with these two families by stimulating
the organization o f wholesome recreational activities in the com
munity and helping to provide these growing boys with an outlet
for their restless desire for adventure. The dispositions made of the
cases o f the various members o f this gang (see also pp. 75, 76) seem
to show, however, that no one recognized the various factors m this
gang situation and that Roger and Napier were committed to an
institution for adults not because they were especially vicious or
desperate, but simply because they were over 16 years of age and
therefore considered too old for commitment to the State school for
boys.
ROGER S.

Native w hite; parents native white.
Age at time of offense, 16.
Municipal court, March 14, 1928: Stealing; hound over for prosecution in
superior court.
Family at time o f disposition: Parents married and living together; brothers 18,
12, 11, 8, 7 ; sisters 16. 14, 6, 4, 2 at home.
Roger is a medium-sized boy with fair hair, good color, and a clear com
plexion. H e is neat in appearance, and alert, responsive, and pleasant in
manner.
H is fam ily live in the country in a small farmhouse which, together with a
little apple orchard, they rent for $8 a month. The house has a kitchen,
sitting room, and one bedroom downstairs, and two bedrooms upstairs. The
crowding is somewhat relieved by the fact that Mr. S. and the oldest boy are
in camp most of the winter, and the boys sleep in a tent in the apple orchard
during the summer.
Mr. S. is a cook, working in lumber camps in the winter, on ships in the
summer, and digging potatoes, sawing wood, and picking up odd jobs between
seasons.
Mrs. S. is a young but worn-looking woman. Her many fam ily cares and her
trying deafness have given her an anxious and apprehensive manner. In the
summer she sometimes goes with the children to pick blueberries in an effort
to increase the family income, and the year of the study she raised a hog which
she hoped would “ help out a little.”
Martin, the oldest brother, has a reformatory record. In November, 1926,
he was committed to the State reformatory for men on a charge o f “ breaking,
entering, and larceny.” Through breaking rules and attempting to escape
« T h is type of commitment is not illustrated by the case histories. The story of
Bertha N., p. 19, although an example of care in a private institution, shows commitment
by a police matron at the request of the child’s mother.

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he was kept in the institution until he had served 14 months (January, 1928).
Since his parole his conduct has been highly satisfactory, and he has been dis
charged recently. His mother finds him reluctant to speak of the experience
but thinks he has “ learned his lesson.” He has been working with his father
the past few months.
Janet, the 16-year-old girl, has been doing office work since she graduated
from grammar school two years ago. In lieu of wages she receives her clothes
and the office experience. She is planning to attend business college next
year and her employers have promised to help her.
The remaining children seem to be normal in school achievement and look
healthy and happy in spite of the family poverty.
Roger seems fond of his family. When interviewed at the reformatory he
inquired eagerly about his young sisters and brothers and wanted to know
what impression they had made on the agent. H is mother also spoke of his
interest in the little ones and said that, although he had “ teased and plagued ”
them, he had not been a bad boy.
O f his school work Mrs. S. merely said that Roger seemed unable to learn
as well as the rest of her children and never went beyond the sixth grade.
During January and February of last year Roger worked as a woodcutter In
a village about 7 miles from his home. He walked to and from work and gave
his wages o f $5 a week to his mother. Practically his only recreation was
playing ball with his brothers in the yard.
Late last winter Roger began spending his evenings in a neighboring vil
lage, where, under the leadership of a young man named Higgins, he and
six other boys formed a group which, although not called a gang, was one
in fa c t The boys would hang around the post office in a sociable way until
the evening mail had been distributed. About 9 o’clock, when the village
had pretty well quieted down, they would divide up and make forced entries
into various places to take whatever they could. The “ g a n g ” spirit of the
group is illustrated by the fact that each of the boys felt it necessary to make
a successful haul in order to maintain his self-respect in the group, and by
the understanding that when the booty was large and taken by more than
one boy, it was to be divided among all seven. After a series o f these rob
beries the sheriff arrested one boy, who then revealed the names of his con
federates, whereupon all were arraigned before the municipal court judge.
Roger had made several entries into stores, but his chief offense had been
committed in the lumber office in which his sister Janet was employed. He
took more than $100 in cash, hiding the money in the woods with the intention
of spending a little at a time on candy, motion pictures, and similar expendi
tures; but before he had spent very much he found himself in court. He de
cided to confess his guilt to clear his sister Janet, who was under suspicion
for the theft of the money. The municipal court found probable cause and
bound him over to the supreme court for trial. H is bail was fixed at $800.
Roger thinks that his father could have borrowed sufficient money to fur
nish bail had he not been convinced that detention in jail pending the supreme
court hearing would reduce the boy’s ultimate sentence. His mother said, how
ever, that the family had been afraid to borrow the money lest Roger should
run away and thus forfeit the security. Whatever the reason, he Spent two
months in the county jail awaiting trial. When tried in the supreme judicial
court he was found guilty of “ breaking, entering, and larceny ” and committed
to the State reformatory for men.
Roger did not complain of reformatory life. H e admitted that he had spent
two periods in “ solitary confinement”— one for 10 and one for 11 days for
talking and giggling in the dormitory after the lights had been turned out—
which seemed to grieve him considerably. A s he had been unable to write to
his mother during this time and was afraid to refer to the experience later,
he worried lest she think that he had been deprived of the privilege of writing
home because he had committed a serious offense, such as attempting to
escape.
Having spent two months in the close confinement of the county jail, he
appreciates the greater freedom of the reformatory, the opportunity for work
out of doors, the weekly motion pictures, and the church services. But he
still has considerable leisure time which must be spent in the basement rec
reation room where the men do bead work, play cards, read magazines, and
tell stories, and his experiences down there have convinced him that a boy can
not derive much benefit from living with “ a bunch of hardboiled fello w s”

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METHODS OP DEALING W IT H DELINQUENT CHILDREN

who fill his head with ideas that, in spite of his court record, he has not had
before.
H e is interested in the fact that his brother Martin is “ making
good,” and he hopes to follow his example.
NAPIEE D.

Native w hite; parents native white.
Age at time of offense, 17.
Municipal court, March 14, 1928: Stealing; bound over for prosecution in
superior court.
Family at time of disposition: Parents married and living together; sisters 27,
011(1 havinS custody of her infant), 19 (with husband and one
child), 16, 10, brother 20, at home; brother, 25, sister 23, away.
Napier is rather tall and thin, and, although he does not look sickly, he seems
to be lacking in vitality. H e breathes through his mouth most of the time and
walks with a slight slouch.
The fam ily live in a small five-room house, lighted with kerosene lamps and
approached by a cinder path and two or three rickety board steps. They are
about one block from the center of the town, directly opposite a river.
Mr. D. is a lumberman and said to be a steady worker. Mrs. D. appears to
be a hard-working woman and supplements the family income by doing washing
and housecleaning.
The oldest daughter is a school-teacher. She is the most pathetic member of
the family, for, although she has a keen mind, she has always worked so hard
that she has never had time to learn to play. She is conscious of the com
munity’s lack of opportunities for wholesome recreation. Although she herself
finds a little recreation in connection with the social activities o f the school, she
realizes that most of the community have only the “ movies.”
The oldest brother works in a neighboring town and contributes irregularly
to the family. The second brother lives at home, works seasonally, and
contributes “ some.”
The marital status of the various sisters was not quite clear. O f the two
who were living at home, one was said to be divorced and the other to be
married. The 23-year-old sister was doing housework in another town. Ac
cording to a local social worker', one of the. girls had a child of illegitimate birth.
O f the remaining children, the 16-year-old girl is attending high school, and
the other two are in the seventh and sixth grades. O f their conduct nothing
special was noted.
The fam ily gave the following brief history of N apier: When he was 10 years
o f age he was sent to the State school for boys, where he remained for two
years on a charge of breaking, entering, and larceny. There is little evidence
that Napier received any constructive parole supervision on being released
from the State school. A t any rate, when he was 15 years of age he was again
brought before the municipal court and charged with breaking, entering,
and larceny (this time with a boy accomplice). His case was bound over for
prosecution in the higher court, and in default of $500 bail, he was committed
to the county jail for some 30 odd days pending the next session of the supreme
court. In November, 1926, he was placed on probation by this court. H e had
attended high school for one year before his second delinquency, but after the jail
commitment he never returned to school and it would seem as if the probation
officer made no effort to urge him to do so. According to several reports the
probation officer at this time was a man whose intemperance eventually lost
him his position.
Mrs. D. was never correctly notified o f Napier’s hearing and was thus unable
to attend. In view of Mr. D .’s attitude that the court could do whatever it
considered right for his son, however, she felt that she could not plead suc
cessfully in her son’s behalf. A t the time of the interview with the Children’s
Bureau agent the entire fam ily seemed almost indifferent to his situation.
Napier was never dissatisfied with his home, but he seems to have had no
close bonds of affection or interest with the various members of his family.
He was conscious of the fact that his oldest sister was displeased with him
when he did not do well in school or was in a scrape.
H is work history is vague and irregular. H e worked in a fish cannery one
summer, in the woods part of one winter, and in the potato fields for a season,
giving his earnings to his mother.
His love of adventure was apparently the chief motive in his burglaries.
H e liked to break into tourist camps and steal cameras and other equipment,
Roger S. he joined Higgins gang (see p. 74) and on March 14, 1928, was
and he enjoyed the excitement of hiding the loot in the woods. Together with
98523°— 30----- 6

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Roger S. he joined Higgins’s gang (see p. 74) and on March 14, 1928, was
brought before the municipal court on a charge of breaking, entering, and
larceny and bound over for prosecution in the higher court. In default of $800
bail he was again committed to the county ja il pending the next session of the
supreme court. His jail detention lasted nearly two months, at the end of
which he was committed to the State reformatory for men.
Napier likes the reformatory better than the State school for boys because
he has more freedom in the reformatory. H e has heard that a clergyman is
planning to come to the institution to give several hours o f tutoring a week,
and he has been looking forward to this. He spends his spare time in reading
books and magazines and playing baseball and cards.
He bears no resentment against anyone and realizes tearfully that he is in
the reformatory through his own fault. W hile he was on probation he re
ported regularly that he was “ making good,” but once excused from report
ing he ceased to feel the necessary restraint to prevent his getting into trouble.
He makes the impression of being a rather weak character, easily led and quick
to repent.
The remaining members of this gang were disposed of as follow s:
Carter, aged 16, having helped the sheriff locate the rest of the gang, was
placed on probation for one year.
The two B. boys, one under and one over 18 years, were placed on proba
tion. They are a pair of shiftless young men who, because their mother is
dead and their father an unreliable, neglectful, and more or less disreputable
citizen, appeal to the sympathy of the community. In less than a month after
the hearing they, together with Carter, were again brought before the munici
pal court and sentenced to 60 days in jail plus a joint fine of $30 and court
costs, or, in default of payment, 30 additional days in jail. Carter served 60
days, the other two served 90. They had a pleasant, lazy time, gained weight
on the ja il food, and when interviewed neither the boys nor Carter’s family
expressed regret concerning the experience.
The leader’s young brother pleaded not guilty and was placed on probation
for one year. He was digging potatoes in Aroostook County at the time of
the interview and thus not reporting to his probation officer, who, however,
was under the impression that the boy was doing well.
Higgins, the leader, was over 18 years of age and was committed to the
State penitentiary for two to three years. He is now serving out his sentence.
P L A C E M E N T IN

F A M IL Y

HOM ES

Within the last 10 years institutional commitment as a method of
caring for the delinquent child has been to some extent supplemented
in various parts o f the country by placement in family homes. The
theory is that corrective treatment should train the child to live a
well-adjusted and socially acceptable life in a normal family group
in the normal community and that this can not be accomplished satis
factorily and happily in the artificial atmosphere o f a disciplinary
institution.
The probation departments o f some of the juvenile courts have ex
tended their services from the supervision of children in their own
homes to include the supervision o f children in homes other than
their own, and thus probation service has grown to cover also a
limited amount o f placement service. Other courts, fearing to over
burden their probation departments and thus adversely affect their
standards o f probation service, use the various existing private
agencies to do their placement work for them.48
** For a discussion of this method and its results in Boston see Reconstructing Behavior
in Youth, by William Healy, Augusta F. Bronner, Edith M. H. Baylor, and J. Prentice
Murphy, p. 228 ff. (Alfred A. Knoph, New York, 1929), and for a general discussion of
placement in family homes see The Child in America, by William I. Thomas and Dorothy
Swaine Thomas, ch. 2, The Treatment of Delinquency, and in particular p. 124 ff. (Alfred
A. Knopf, New York, 1928).

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In a few States the placement o f children either in a family home
or in an institution according to the needs o f the particular child
is undertaken by a State department which assumes the guardian
ship of children needing care. Possibly the most comprehensive
authority is that given to the State department in Virginia, the law
providing that “ all delinquent children intended to be placed in a
State institution shall be committed to the State board of public wel
fare, it being the purpose of this chapter to make said board the sole
agency for the guardianship o f delinquent children committed to
the State.” 44 The State board studies each child and decides upon
the care that he needs.
In Maine family-home placement has been utilized chiefly as a
means o f caring for dependent and neglected children—the depart
ment o f public welfare receiving such children into custody from
the various committing courts and placing them in foster, boarding,
or wage homes. The department appreciates that this same service
should be provided for some of the delinquent children and has
offered its services in this respect to the various courts. A t the time
o f the survey, however, very little work of this kind was being done.
The courts seem reluctant to commit delinquent children to the de
partment o f public welfare for home placement. The department
field workers, with case loads of 100 or more dependency cases and
50 “ mothers’ aid ” cases and with the duty of inspecting and licens
ing boarding homes, could scarcely give even the minimum super
vision essential to successful placement of delinquent children. I f
the Maine courts were to make more-extended use of placement
service as a means of caring for juvenile delinquents, therefore, the
State would be obliged, in the absence o f either adequate probation
service or private placement agencies, to increase the personnel and
develop the facilities of the State department o f public welfare in
order to avoid crippling its service to the children already in State
custody.
Case histories illustrating 'placement in fam ily homes
The following three case histories show how satisfactorily familyhome placement may answer the needs of the delinquent child. Gervaise B., Randolph L., and Norman F. were all three under 12 years
o f age and all came from broken homes. Their commitment to the
State department o f public welfare for placement in boarding homes
is not particularly surprising, therefore, as they might have been
committed equally well on grounds of dependency or neglect. These
cases, however, are suggestive of a method of treatment that might
be developed for handling some of the older children who are not
properly committable to institutions and yet require a complete
change o f environment. As Healy and Bronner show in the Bos
ton experiment,40 placement of older delinquents, aged 13 to 18
years, in some cases meets with but little less success than placement
o f the younger groups; and as the older children can usually earn
44 Va., Code 1919, sec. 1910, as revised by Laws of 1922, ch. 481.
a Reconstructing Behavior in Youth, Table 14, p. 308.

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part or all o f their cost o f maintenance by after-school or full-time
work either in the home or elsewhere, this method is feasible from
a financial standpoint as well.
GERVAISE B.

Child of illegitimate birth; nativity not reported.
Age at time of offense, 10.
Municipal court, May 22, 1928: Stealing; committed to State department o f
public welfare for placement in boarding home.
Family at time of disposition: Mother (known as aunt) married and living with
her husband in neighboring tow n ; child living with grandmother and aunt.
Gervaise has very round red cheeks and very large brown eyes with long,
dark lashes.
He is a lively and responsive child and has an affectionate
nature. H is accent and inflections are still decidedly French.
Gervaise’s mother lives in a neighboring town with her husband who repre
sents himself as “ in the garage business.” They pretend to be Gervaise’s aunt
and uncle and appear to take a warm and protective interest in their young
“ nephew.” According to the police inspector, they are a pair of “ hard-boiled
bootleggers ” ; but, although the woman has been arrested for drunkenness
while driving and the man has been involved in disputed cases of chicken
stealing, neither has been arrested thus far for bootlegging.
Except for a short time, when he lived in an orphanage, Gervaise has always
been with his grandmother.
She has four neat little rooms in a foreignlooking tenement house on a narrow street. She has tried to keep Gervaise
out of mischief, but with her age and her inability to speak English she has
been unable to give him the necessary supervision.
Gervaise went to a parochial school, where all the instruction except English
reading was given in French. He said that he did not like school because the
sisters scolded him, and he played truant whenever any of the other boys
did so.
H e was brought to the police station in July, 1927, on a charge of larceny
and apparently was dismissed with a warning. His grandmother took him to
the police matron (date not recorded), asking the latter to send him t o the
State school as she. did not know how to keep him from stealing, but the police
matron tried instead to dispose of the case by talking to the boy. In May,
1928, he was again brought to the police, this time on a charge of breaking,
entering, and larceny, and his case was referred to the municipal court for
action. The police matron recommended that he be sent to the orphanage
that had cared for him previously, but that institution refused to accept him
on the ground that he had, been a bad influence among the boys when he was
there before. It was finally decided to commit him to the custody of the State
department of public welfare for placement in a boarding home. Accordingly
the State field agent visited his home and arranged for placement in another
city.
Gervaise was first placed in a temporary boarding home in which there were
usually from four to eight children. H e was quite content there; but as the
home was Protestant and he was French Catholic, the State field worker trans
ferred him to a Catholic home. Gervaise, however, had liked the children and
the dog in the temporary boarding hom e; he got into the habit of wandering
back, until finally he was allowed to remain there.
Gervaise’s friendliness and lack of restraint when interviewed in the boarding
home indicated that he was very much at ease there. He talked happily about
playing in the yard with the other children, and was very eager to bring in
Bimba, a roguish little mulatto child, and have her sing a little solo to her
teddy bear. He has grown to like school; he is in the fourth grade now and
attends regularly. H is teacher has taken a special interest in him and is
helping him to catch up in his English. On Sundays, instead of going to Sunday
school with the rest of the family, he goes to mass, so that although he is in a
Protestant home, his church affiliation is being maintained.
Gervaise’s aunt and uncle sometimes drive over to see him, and they seem
satisfied with the care he is receiving. Altogether he seems to be leading a
normal child life with regular hours for sleep and school attendance, plenty of
wholesome out-of-door play under the supervision of his boarding parents, and
the constant companionship, of other children.

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RANDOLPH L.

Native w hite; parents Canadian.
Age at time of offense, 8.
Municipal court, March 8, 1928: Stealing. April 10, 1928: Stealing; twice con
tinued for sentence. Committed to custody of State department o f public
welfare.
Family at time of disposition: Parents divorced; mother, brothers 18, 17 at
home; father remarried and living elsewhere; sister 15 living with grand
mother ; brother 11 in foster home since 1922.
Randolph is a jolly, healthy-looking little lad. H e seems bright and has a
real talent for dancing.
His parents were divorced in 1920. Mrs. L. and the boys live in the poorest
and probably most disreputable section of one of Maine’s largest cities. They
occupy four first-floor rooms in the rear of a store. A t the time of the inter
view the dilapidated porch entrance to their part of the house was cluttered
with empty cans and refuse, which had apparently been accumulating for sev
eral weeks. The scantily furnished rooms, although less dirty than the porch,
were also untidy. (Mrs. L. had been ill several days preceding the interview,
however, and the messy kitchen and general untidiness may be accounted for
in part by this fact.)
It was learned subsequently from the family-welfare
society that Mrs. L. had disappeared.
The two oldest boys are employed as laborers, and Mrs. L. takes in occasional
washings. The entire family have been known to social agencies and to the
court over a considerable period of years. In 1916 they had their first contact
with the family-welfare society; in 1918 they received aid from the overseers
of the poor. In 1919 the mother brought a complaint of assault and battery
against the father, the case being continued for sentence; in 1920 the parents
were divorced, the mother receiving the custody of the children. In the same
year the father was fined $5 and costs on a charge of drunkenness. In 1921 the
mother was arrested for maintaining a house of common nuisance wherein
liquor was sold and gambling permitted; she pleaded guilty, and the case was
continued for sentence under $1,000 bond. The next record of her was in 1926,
when she was again applying to the family-welfare society, this time for fuel.
In 1922 and 1923 the oldest boy was arrested four times on charges of enter
ing, breaking, and larceny. For the third offense he was sentenced to the State
school for boys, but appealed his case and while out on appeal committed his
fourth offense, for which he served three days in jail. According to agency
records, he must have been placed on probation by the superior court and ulti
mately referred to a nonsectarian child-placing agency for placement. But
after two months in a foster home he returned to his mother, without the consent
o f the agency, and no further action seems to have been taken.
In 1927 the young brother was arrested on a charge of larceny and truancy
and placed on probation for five months. W hile on probation he reported regu
larly to his officer and improved his school attendance to some extent.
Randolph was not quite 5 years of age when the family-welfare society
began to receive reports of his successful begging.
As Mrs. L. was frequently away from home, Randolph was sent to school
with his older brother before he had reached school age, and under this arrange
ment he felt free to go and come as he chose. Later, when he was of school
age, he continued in his irregular attendance. When he was 7 the familywelfare society received the following report of his school conduct: “ Very b a d ;
playing truant, smoking cigarettes, and stealing.” H is irregular school attend
ance had another aspect. Randolph was spending many o f his evenings enter
taining people With his dancing. H e danced well and, with his winning per
sonality, became a popular entertainer at lodge parties, local theaters, commer
cial dance halls, and midnight revues, sometimes earning as much as $30 an
evening. But on the day following such a performance he needed his sleep and
naturally did not go to school.
The school-attendance officer was unsuccessful in his efforts to keep Randolph
in school. The police also warned the boy on three different occasions, but with
no greater success. The representative of the Travelers’ Aid Society reported
to the State department of public welfare that the child was being exploited,
but no other action seems to have been taken by either the Travelers’ Aid
Society or the department of public welfare. No one tried to get at the essen
tial cause of Randolph’s truancy, and no one took any steps to protect the boy.

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Last March Randolph became involved in two cases of larceny. In the first
instance he managed by his dancing to hold the attention of a group of people
in a hotel lobby while several other boys made away with a laundry case tuil
of clothing valued at $10. H is case was twice continued for sentence in the
municipal court, but in the meantime he became involved with a group of boys
who stole lead pipe, valued at $5, and was brought before the municipal court
on a new charge of larceny. No special investigation was made, but the general
fam ily situation had long been known to the local agencies and officials and
accordingly the municipal board of children’s guardians entered a complaint,
alleging that the child was kept in places injurious to his health and morals.
W ith his mother’s consent he was committed to the custody of the estate
department of public welfare.
.
Randolph was taken to another city and placed in a boarding home by the
department of public welfare in April, 1928. In spite of the fact that he had
previously been much spoiled and petted by older people who admired his
dancing, he has adjusted himself rather well to his position as merely one of
a family of children. H e is well liked by the family and seems happy in the
companionship of the children and their neighborhood playmates.
His school attendance has become quite regular, and he likes his school work
and his teacher. He has been having difficulty with reading, but with the help
of his boarding mother he has managed to improve this year.
The boarding home has a good yard for play, and the boarding mother en
courages the neighborhood children to play here rather than elsewhere. Occa
sionally she allowed Randolph to go down town and to the movies.
On one
such occasion he took a cake from a bakery and two rings and a box of rouge
from the five and ten cent store. He was punished for this, and he promised
never again to touch things that did not belong to him.
TTls experience in the boarding home has been too short to justify an opinion
as to its success, and yet the indications are favorable.
NORMAN F.

Native white; parents native white.
MunicLi\mcourt?ffAprii 6, 1928: Truancy; committed to State school for boys.
April 9, 1928: Order recalled and case dismissed. Probate court, May L 1928.
Parental neglect; committed to custody of State department of public welfare.
Family at time of disposition: Parents divorced; “ other peeping’ house for
widower with 16-year-old daughter; brothers 18, 5, sisters 14, 7, with mother,
sister 15 in State school for girls.
Norman is a stockily built lad with light hair and blue eyes. Although a little
nervous when first interviewed, he appeared normal in health and mental
al>Mrs.* F. was deserted by her husband about six years before the time of the
interview. She obtained a divorce but was refused mothers’ aid, and, therefore,
made her home with her invalid mother, so that the latter could take care ox
the children while she worked. Unfortunately, her mother seemed unable
to manage the children, who took advantage of her lameness and ran off to do
ag

T)1.0£lS0Ci#

•

Meanwhile the family were known to the following social agencies: Salvation
Army, 1923; baby-hygiene clinic, 1924; hospital dispensary, 1927; social-hygiene
clinic. 1927; eye-and-ear clinic, date not reported; probation officer, 1924; over
seers o f the poor, November 17, 1924, to April 30, 1928. Through the last they
received town aid— $8 a week in groceries, their rent, and some clothing— until
April 30 1928. A t that time the overseers of the poor learned that Mrs. F. s
boarder had died and left her his estate, whereupon they discontinued aid.
Shortly thereafter they received notice from Mrs. F.’s grocer that the fam i y
had moved. Mrs. F. said that she had received nothing, as the will had not yet
been probated, and that in any event she expected the estate to be completely
absorbed by debts. So, after the death of her boarder, she found work as a
housekeeper for a widower and his 16-year-old daughter and is now living on
his farm with four of her children.
Douglas, her 18-year-old boy, is also working on the farm. He was before
the municipal court in November, 1921, on a charge of truancy. He pleaded
guilty and was committed to the State school for boys, but the sentence w as
suspended and he was placed on probation for two years. In February, 1922»
he was brought before the municipal court on a charge of breaking the condi
tions of his probation and sent to the State school. He has recently been dis
charged from the school and has apparently been doing well on parole. Hilda,
the 15-year-old sister, is at present in the State school for girls, to which she

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METHODS OF DEALING W IT H DELINQUENT CHILDREN

was committed by the municipal court in February, 1927, on a charge o f “ being
found in manifest danger of falling into habits of vice or immorality.”
Early last spring the school-attendance officer visited the fam ily (who were
at that time still living in the city) in order to discover the reason for Norman’s
truancy. He concluded that Mrs. F. was not giving Norman the proper super
vision and that the child would be better off in the State school for boys. W ith
the cooperation of the municipal board o f children’s guardians he brought a
charge of truancy against Norman in the municipal court and obtained his com
mitment to this institution.
No record appears of Norman’s detention, but Mrs. F. reported that he was
detained in the police station from Friday until Monday. She was under the
impression that he was not locked up during the day but was allowed to go about
with the janitor.
In the meantime the State school refused to accept Norman, on the ground
that his truancy had not been of sufficient frequency to come within the
definition of “ habitual truancy” (see p. 83) required for commitment. The
court recalled the mittimus but did not issue a mittimus for the alternate
sentence, presumably because the boy was considered too young for jail com
mitment. H is case, therefore, was dismissed by the municipal court, and he
was temporarily placed in a boarding home by the agent o f the municipal
board of children’s guardians.
On May 1, 1928, the agent of the municipal board brought Norman’s case
before the probate court, alleging that he was being neglected by his parents.
The probate court committed him without further investigation to the custody
o f the State department o f public welfare.
The agent of the State department of public welfare has not removed Norman
from his first boarding home. She has concluded that, although the house
itself is in need o f repair and is almost inaccessible in bad weather, the board
ing parents are doing so well with Norman that the disadvantages o f the loca
tion are more than balanced by the good influence of the home. Norman is in
the third grade. He attends school regularly, responds well to the boarding,
home discipline, and seems cheerful and happy.

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SITUATIONS AFFECTING THE DELINQUENCY PROBLEM
No attempt was made in this survey to study the causes o f juvenile
delinquency in Maine ; yet the case histories indicated that defects in
the school attendance and child labor laws or in their enforcement,
inadequate prosecution of adults contributing to juvenile delin
quency, and inadequate or insufficiently supervised facilities for
recreation were not infrequently connected with specific delin
quencies. These situations should be considered carefully, for no
program for the care of juvenile delinquents would be complete
without some attention to preventive measures.
E N F O R C E M E N T O F SCH O OL A T T E N D A N C E

School attendance in Maine is compulsory for “ every child between
the seventh and fifteenth anniversaries of his birth and every child
between the fifteenth and seventeenth anniversaries who can not read
at sight and write legibly simple sentences in the English language
and every child between the fifteenth and sixteenth anniversaries who
has not completed the eighth grade of the elementary school.” 1 To
enforce this law the school committee of every city or town J shall
annually elect one or more persons to act as attendance officers to
investigate all cases of nonattendance, the compensation of the officer
to be fixed by the committee.2 It is further provided that “ the
attendance officer has the same control over pupils of compulsory
school age in private and parochial schools as over pupils in the public
schools.” 8 The 17 communities visited by the agents o f the Chil
dren’s Bureau employed 4 full-time and 18 part-time officers; o f the
latter, 11 were school janitors, 3 were law-enforcing agents, and 4
were otherwise engaged.
The extent to which these officers enforce the compulsory education
law can not be measured by their annual reports showing the number
o f truants returned to school. Some indication o f the type o f work
done in some localities in the past may be derived from the statement
o f one attendance officer that before her appointment the school
enrollment had never been checked against the school census, with the
result that some children o f 14 and 15 years of age had never
attended school. Similarly, in another county, an attendance officer
reported having found a community in which only 5 o f the 34 chil
dren o f school age were enrolled and attending school.
The methods o f enforcing school attendance in the public schools
vary in the different communities. In a few communities the attend
ance officer makes daily rounds of the schools to check up on all
absences, following this with such home visits as he sees fit. In most
communities, particularly those employing the services o f janitors,
it is customary for the teachers to inquire o f a child’s sisters, brothers,
neighbors, and friends concerning his absence; i f such reports are not
satisfactory, or if the absence continues, or if the absentee is a subject
for suspicion, the principal sends for the attendance officer, who
1 Rev. Stat. 1916: ch. 16, sec. 66, as amended by Laws of 1927, ch. 37.
aExtracts" from the Maine School Laws in Relation to Compulsory Education, p. 8.
Published by the State Department of Education, Augusta, Me.

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SITU ATIO N S AFFECTIN G T H E D E LIN Q U E N C Y PROBLEM

scours the streets and calls at the home in an effort to find and return
the child to school. In some communities the police are called upon
to hunt for children. County probation officers may serve as schoolattendance officers, but none of these officers seems to have undertaken
any responsibility for school attendance.
Although attendance officers are responsible for children attend
ing both the public and parochial schools, the latter usually do their
own attendance work. The methods used in the parochial schools
are very similar to those o f the public schools. In one o f the large
French parochial schools, having an enrollment o f 1,700 pupils,
the principal from time to time gives a list o f “ truants ” to a Frenchspeaking police officer, who either investigates the cases himself or
calls on the police matron or public-school attendance officer to do so.
The lack o f cooperation between private and public schools is a
serious factor in defeating good attendance enforcement. The law
states clearly that children shall not be excused from attending
public day school “ until a certificate showing their names, resi
dence, and attendance at such private school, signed by the person
or persons having such child in charge, shall be filed with the school
officials o f the town in which said children reside.” Nevertheless,
local departments o f education fail to keep an accurate file o f all
local children and merely assume that children not recorded in their
files are attending parochial schools. As parochial schools have
the same attitude, it becomes possible for children to fail to attend
either public or parochial schools 'without being missed by either.
O f course, if such children make public nuisances of themselves,
they are soon picked up by the police. But if they stay quietly at
home to keep house and enable their mothers to work, or if they
themselves succeed in finding employment, their failure to attend
school is likely to be overlooked. (See the case stories o f Mildred
E., p. 54, and Clarice W., p. 56.)
The difficulties arising from this lack o f cooperation between
public and parochial schools are augmented by the children’s prac
tice o f transferring back and forth between the two. These constant
transfers are in themselves conducive to truancy. Each change
necessitates a complete readjustment to the school curriculum, and,
as it often involves a demotion, the child is likely to lose interest in
his class work -and to think up ways of avoiding it. A transfer to
give a pupil a new chance may be exceedingly beneficial to him, but
these casual, undirected transfers, made whenever the spirit moves,
are productive o f nothing but restlessness and irresponsibility. (See
the stories o f Yvon S., p. 46, and Harold R., p. 61.)
Although the statutes define as a habitual truant any child who
“ without sufficient excuse shall be habitually and willfully absent
from school or shall fail without such excuse to attend school for
5 day sessions or 10 half-day sessions within any period of six
months,” 4 the schools frequently make their own interpretation o f
what constitutes truancy. In several communities, for instance,
school principals reported that they did not consider as truant boys
whose indigent home conditions necessitated their remaining out o f
school for several weeks each fall to dig potatoes, or girls who stayed
at home from time to time to supervise younger sisters and brothers.

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JUVENILE DELINQUENCY IN M AINE

(See the case of Michael Y., p. 41.) Thus even when the schoolattendance officer is performing his duty to the best o f his ability,
individual pupils iftay be seriously irregular in their attendance
without coming to his attention.
R E G U L A T IO N O F E M P L O Y M E N T O F M IN O R S

The obvious intent o f the Maine child labor law is to keep the child
in school until he is 15 years of age or until he is 16 unless he has
completed the eighth grade; to enter any occupation during school
hours he must obtain a work permit showing that he has met these
requirements.5 As school attendance was found in some places not
to be rigidly enforced, however, some children under 16 obtained em
ployment without work permits by claiming to be over 16 years of
age. For work carried on outside school hours the law provides a
minimum age of 14 and requires a permit for work in connection
with manufacturing or mechanical establishments, bowling alleys, or
pool rooms, but not for other work.
Like the child labor laws o f many other States, the Maine law fails
to cover “ street trades ”—selling or distributing newspapers, maga
zines, and handbills and bootblacking, junk collecting, and similar
occupations in which .a child works on his own account.6 The city
o f Portland, however, like a number of other cities interested in pro
viding for their own needs, has an ordinance placing certain restric
tions on the employment of childj-en in street work. This ordinance
was passed in June, 1906, and, as supplemented by rules for adminis
tration made in 1926, provides as follow s: 7
1. No license for the selling or offering for sale of newspapers in
public street, square, or grounds, or in any public place, shall be
issued to a child under 10 years of age without permission of parent.
2. Licensee must be of good moral character.
3. No newsboy of school age shall sell during school hours.
4. No newsboy under 15 shall sell after 9.15 p. m.
5. No newsboy shall sell papers on street cars or other public con
veyance.
Even these limited provisions were not found to be strictly
enforced.
So far as could be ascertained, no other Maine cities have ordi
nances relating to street trades, and children may carry on their little
business enterprises without fear of being questioned as to age.
Some o f the Maine case studies show that frequenting streets and
alleys alone or with chance companions in the pursuit o f business
sometimes leads to the formation o f irregular and irresponsible habits
and even to actual delinquencies. The best specific example o f this
is the case history o f Harold R., page 61.
5 The educational requirement for obtaining a work permit may be waived in case of
children of subnormal mental capacity under a permit issued jointly by the commissioner
o f labor and the commissioner of education. For the text of the foregoing provisions see
Rev. Stat. 1916, ch. 49, secs. 20—21, as amended by Laws of 1927, chs. 137 and i71 (the
latter o f a later date) ; sec. 23, as amended by Laws of 1919, ch. 190; and secs. 24-31.
By a law passed in 1917 (Laws of 1917, ch, 248) the words “ attendance officer ” were
substituted for the term “ truant officer ” in all statutes.
6 For a discussion of laws relating to street trades see Children in Street Work, by
Nettie P. McGill, p. 47 ff. (U. S. Children’s Bureau Publication No. 183, Washington,
1928). See also State Laws and Local Ordinances Regulating the Street Work of Chil
dren, a tabular summary of regulations in effect in the United States, by Ella Arvilla
Merritt (U. S. Children’s Bureau Chart No. 15, Washington, 1929).
7 State Laws and Local Ordinances Regulating the Street Work of Children, pp. 22
and 23.

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SITUATION'S AFFECTING THE DELINQUENCY PROBLEM

PROSECUTION OF ADULTS CONTRIBUTING TO DELINQUENCY OF
CHILDREN

Maine has no law providing for the prosecution of adults on the
general charge of “ contributing to delinquency ” of children, and
action against adults must be taken on specific charges, under a
series of laws, covering “ crimes against children,” which apply only
to offenses committed against children under 16 years of age, as
follows: Mistreating a child by abuse, neglect, overwork, or extreme
punishment; 8 admitting or allowing a child to remain in a disor
derly house, house o f ill fame, gambling place, place where intoxi
cating liquors are sold, or other place injurious to health or morals;
offering tor sale, selling, or giving intoxicating liquors to children;
selling or giving cigarettes, tobacco, liquor, or narcotic drugs to
children; giving or furnishing children with firearms or dangerous
weapons; and employing, exhibiting, or training children in beg
ging or soliciting or receiving alms, or in illegal, indecent, or immoral
exhibitions or practices. The law defining and punishing exposure
o f a child with intent to abandon him applies only to children under
the age o f 6. The law with regard to rape or assault with intent to
commit rape applies to all females, with special penalties in case of
girls under 14 years o f age; and the law with regard to carnal knowl
edge, other than by rape, by a person over 18 applies to female
children between the ages of 14 and 16.9
Laws relating to contributing to delinquency usually include omis
sions to perform duties toward children as well as acts promoting
delinquency. Thus an adult may commit an offense against a minor;
he may fail to fulfill a duty toward a minor; and he may cause, or
tend to cause, juvenile delinquency or dependency.10 The court deal
ing with delinquent or dependent children is in the best position to
know about the adult’s relation to the child’s delinquency and o f his
possible menace to other children. It is, therefore, the logical court
to have original jurisdiction over all cases o f parents or other per
sons causing or tending to cause delinquency o f children, perhaps
cooperating with other courts if it seems desirable to deal with the
adult on a serious, specific charge.
The case studies show that in some localities little attempt has
been made to prosecute parents or other persons committing offenses
against children. In two cases criminal prosecution had been insti
tuted against older men involving young girls, but in two similar
cases no action had been taken, and in other cases no investigation
had been made to determine whether any adult should have been
prosecuted. The history o f Annette Q. (p. 63) is an example of
cases in which some steps were being taken toward prosecution o f an
adult; the story of Irma and Gladys I. (p. 37) is an example of
neglect to prosecute the adult. One or two judges reported that
they had taken action, with considerable success, against parents in
truancy cases.
In a few communities school officials, recreation workers, and
others in direct contact with children were considerably disturbed
8Since this survey was made the State legislature has also passed a law providing for
punishment of a parent found guilty of failure or neglect to support a child (Laws of
1929, ch. 207).
9Rev. Stat. 1916, ch. 120, secs. 16, 22, 27, as amended by Laws of 1917, ch. 106,
secs. 28—37.
10See The Legal Aspect of the Juvenile Court, p. 19.

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J U V E N IL E DELIN' QUEST 0 Y IN' M A IN E

over the fact that many children were smoking on the streets and
that no court action was being taken against merchants selling
tobacco to young boys.
In one o f the cases studied a pool-room proprietor was required to
pay court costs for a 13-year-old boy for whose delinquency he was
held to some extent responsible. (See the story o f Louis F., p. 58.)
The law provides that keepers o f bowling alleys and billiard rooms
shall not permit “ any minor to play, shoot, or roll therein without
the written consent of his parents, guardian, or master.” 11 Some of
the police officers reported that they had no difficulty in getting the
owqers to keep on file, subject to police inspection at all times, notes
o f consent from the parents of all minors playing; others reported
that no attempt had been made to keep such a file. Some were con
fident that no minors were playing without consent; others were
very dubious about the whole situation and expressed little confidence
in the consent requirement. The law itself is obviously inadequate,
however, as it fails to protect children whose parents give consent
ignorantly or carelessly. Furthermore, it makes no provision for
children who do not themselves play but who hang around to watch
others play.
PROVISION FOR RECREATION
All the larger cities of Maine have playgrounds, usually on the
public-school grounds. In one or two communities local factories
have also provided athletic fields and gymnasiums for their employees
and, to a limited extent, have made these available to other groups.
In some communities the local departments of education have engaged
school principals to act as playground supervisors during the summer
vacation. Local Kotary and Kiwanis organizations have also helped
in some communities by contributing certain sums of money for play
ground equipment. Smaller communities frequently have less con
sciousness o f the need for special play facilities for children.
Maine’s natural resources— forests, rivers, lakes, mountains, and seacoast— furnish such abundant opportunities for play and recreation
at all seasons o f the year that the equipment so essential to urban
communities may seem superfluous. But opportunities for whole
some play should be near at hand so that the school child can take
advantage of them even when his play time is b rief; they should be
safe so that mothers need not be afraid to let their children use them;
and they should be interesting so that children will prefer them to
organizing mischief or seeking less desirable forms o f amusement
elsewhere. Such opportunities are furnished by equipped and super
vised playgrounds, and it therefore becomes a public responsibility
to provide them.
Other opportunities for recreation are provided by the Young
Men’s Christian Association, the Young Women’s Christian Associa
tion, the Boy Scouts, the Girl Scouts, the Camp Fire Girls, and the
4 -H Clubs, all of which are represented in Maine. The difficulty
with the extension of the work o f these organizations is that their
activities demand a certain amount o f service from paid executives.
The counties that have a concentrated population, as Cumberland
and Penobscot, can usually afford to support three or four such exec-

Rev. Stat. 1916, ch. 32, sec. 5.

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SITU ATIO N S A FFECTIN G T H E D E LIN Q U E N C Y PRO BLEM

utives, whereas the counties that have a thinly distributed popula
tion, as Washington and Aroostook, can not support any. Ox course
some o f this work can always be done by volunteers. Indeed, Maine
has few communities in which a clergyman, clergyman’s wife, school
principal, school-teacher, or other individual has not made at least
one attempt to organize a troop o f Boy Scouts or some kind of
club; but even a hardy volunteer, when stranded in the farthest
limits o f the State, needs the advice, encouragement, and apprecia
tion o f the professional recreation worker and the contact with other
groups that this worker represents.
As far as the relation o f these organizations to the delinquency
situation is concerned, the number of children and the character o f
the groups served by these organizations are quite as important as the
type o f service rendered. Very few of the children whose cases were
studied belonged to these organizations. Unless an organization
consciously sets out to supply facilities for an underprivileged group
it tends toward selective membership, and the “ undesirable ” chil
dren—whether their exclusion is based on nationality, creed, family
standards, or personal conduct—have little opportunity to join.
And it is among the excluded groups that delinquencies are likely to
occur.
Portland has met this situation, to a certain extent, with a city
boys’ club. This club extends the privileges o f its game room, read
ing room, gymnasium, shower baths, Saturday picnics, and other
activities in a democratic spirit to as many as 1,000 boys. The or
ganization is so large, however, that it is bound to be very loose, and
many o f the boys take advantage o f it only on rainy days or on other
occasions when their own pursuits fail them.
Some o f the other communities have attempted group organiza
tions in the form o f city baseball teams and hiking clubs, and have
thus offered to at least a few boys an opportunity for wholesome
recreation. In one town several men have succeeded in organizing
a boys’ band, which not only gives its members a certain amount
o f pleasurable occupation but also confers on them an agreeable
prestige, both in the town itself and in the neighboring towns in
which they play. Its membership is necessarily restricted, but,
nevertheless, it includes a relatively large number o f the boys o f the
community.
Each community must face the problem not only o f providing
facilities for recreation but also o f giving adequate supervision to the
local commercial recreation facilities. They must guard and pro
tect young boys and girls who seek amusement in pool rooms and
bowling alleys, in theaters, in dance halls, and in roadhouses. This
task has usually been assigned to the law-enforcing officers. In com
munities having police matrons or policewomen to visit such places,
fairly good standards seem to be maintained; but in some o f the
other communities, the police officers themselves confess their ina
bility to handle the situation, especially as regards young girls.
Each community must recognize its own recreation needs and re
sources. But no community can afford to be blind to the fact that
young people who are not provided with attractive, safe, and suitable
opportunities for play will entertain themselves as they see fit and
that their own selection may not always be wise.

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RECOMMENDATIONS
On the basis o f this study the following recommendations are made
for improving the methods of dealing with juvenile delinquency in
Maine:
1. Special court organization for children’s cases is greatly needed.
Whether this should involve establishment o f separate juvenile courts
or centralizing juvenile jurisdiction in some existing court system is
a question that needs consideration. Procedure in juvenile cases,
however, should be chancery or equity and not criminal in nature.1
2. The court hearing children’s cases should have exclusive juris
diction over delinquent and neglected children under 18 years o f
age2 and such dependent children under 18 years of age as now
come within the jurisdiction of the courts. The term “ delinquent
child ” should be defined to include children who have violated laws
or ordinances o f the State or of any subdivision thereof and children
whose conduct or associations have rendered them in need of the care
and protection o f the State. The court should also have jurisdiction
over adults contributing to the delinquency or dependency o f
children.8
3. Any plan for providing a special court organization for chil
dren’s cases should take into consideration the following factors:
(1) Frequency o f sessions of the court; (2) desirability of using the
county or a district including several counties as the area of juris
diction; (3) opportunity provided for obtaining qualified judges
having understanding o f children’s problems.
Courts to hear children’s cases might be organized in either of the
following ways:
(a) Designation of special judges as juvenile court judges, the
area served by these judges to be extensive enough to make such
specialization possible. The judges chosen should be selected be
cause o f special qualifications for juvenile court work. This plan
would involve the provision of a separate juvenile court or a sep
arate division o f the superior court.
(&) Vesting of jurisdiction in children’s cases in one of the exist
ing courts without providing special judges, special sessions of the
court being held to hear children’s cases. The courts in which such
jurisdiction might be placed are the superior court, the municipal
courts, or the probate courts. The newly created superior court,
1See Juvenile Court Standards, p. 1 (U. S. Children’s Bureau Publication No. 121,
Washington, 1923).
* Provision might be made for waiving jurisdiction over children between 16 and 18
years charged with serious offenses.
8The juvenile court .standards previously mentioned recommended that the juvenile court
be given jurisdiction in addition to the cases referred to above as follow s: Adoption cases;
commitment o f children suffering from mental defect or disorder; violations of school
attendance laws beyond provisions for control by school administration; nonsupport or
desertion of minor children; and determination of paternity and support of children born
out of wedlock. These standards are to be considered as suggestive only and subject to
adaptation to local needs.
88

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RECOMMENDATION'S

although having original jurisdiction over all types of offenses, is
not in continuous session'in any locality. (See p. 2.) Municipal
courts are in continuous session, but several may have concurrent
jurisdiction in certain sections o f a county. The designation o f one
municipal court as the juvenile court of the county, however, would
overcome this difficulty. The probate courts, although having juris
diction throughout the county, are not in continuous session.
4.
In the development of a probation system consideration should
be given to the following problems:
(#) A centralized system of supervision o f all probation officers
should be established.
(5) Only qualified persons should be appointed, and all appoint
ments should be made on a merit basis.
(c) Probation officers should be responsible for making investiga
tions o f delinquency cases prior to hearing, supervising children
placed on probation, acting as referees in the absence o f judges,
providing for detention, and performing other services needed for
children.
($') Special probation officers should be provided for work with
children. Coordination o f juvenile probation work with the services
given to dependent and neglected children by the State department
should be considered when it is not possible for a county to provide
a full-time juvenile probation officer.
(^)
making the decision as to whether men or women probation
officers should be appointed in different localities, the needs of girls
as well as o f boys should be taken into consideration. In a county
o f the size o f Cumberland it is probable that two officers, a man and
a woman, should be appointed.
The probation service provided for juvenile courts should be
adapted to the form of organization of the court hearing children’s
cases. I f a special juvenile court is provided, the probation officers
should be an integral part of the court organization, the judge of the
court being responsible for appointments. • I f an existing court is
designated, the organization o f the probation service would depend
upon the number of children appearing before the court. Thus, if
the court has county-wide jurisdiction and hears only a small number
of children’s cases, it would probably be necessary to combine the
probation work and other work for children in the county. An alter
native to this plan would be to provide a separate probation office
serving several counties.
5.
Children should not be detained in jails or police stations and
bail should not be required. The creation o f juvenile courts with
jurisdiction over all children under 18 years of age would
eliminate one cause o f the present situation regarding jail detention__
tue.binding over o f children to the higher courts. The development
uf local resources, such as boarding homes for the care o f the few
children needing detention, should be one of the responsibilities of
the juvenile probation officers in whose custody all children should be
placed on arrest.
6.
Itinerant mental-hygiene clinics that would assist the courts
and other agencies throughout the State in studying children present
ing conduct difficulties or mentally defective would be of great value

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JUVENILE DELINQUENCY IN M AINE

in Maine. (Several States, including Minnesota, New Jersey, Penn
sylvania, Rhode Island, and Virginia, are providing such services.)
7. The upper age limits for admission to the State school for boys
and the State school for girls should be raised so that any child under
the age o f 18 years needing the care that can be provided by these
schools can be committed to them.
8. Adequate provision should be made for the supervision of chil
dren paroled from the State schools. Assistance in supervising chil
dren paroled throughout the State might be given by probation
officers.
9. The development of foster homes equipped to deal with prob
lem children which might be used as an alternative to institutional
. care would provide much-needed facilities for the care of delinquent
children. I f this work is undertaken by the State department
o f public welfare persons specially equipped to supervise such
homes* should be added to the staff o f the department.
10. The development of a well-considered program of prevention
o f delinquency is needed in Maine. The schools are the most im
portant agency in such a plan, as truancy enters as a major factor
into the delinquency o f children o f school age. Throughout the
State more emphasis should be placed on school attendance. In the
cities well-trained, full-time attendance officers should be provided,
and in the rural districts probation officers should be called upon to
do constructive work with habitual truants. As part o f the attend
ance program, a careful check of attendance with the school census
should be made in all communities. Special classes for retarded
children and visiting teachers to work with children exhibiting
conduct difficulties should be provided in all the larger cities.
The need of greater development of organized recreation, espe
cially in rural districts, was voiced by many o f the persons inter
viewed. Club work especially for boys had been developed in some
communities. Such work should be extended throughout the State
for both boys and girls.

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Full text of Juvenile Delinquency in Maine, Bureau Publication No. 201

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