Publisher's Synopsis
From the EDITOR'S NOTE.
The juvenile-court legislation which has been enacted since 1899 by many States and by the United States Congress for the District of Columbia is evidence of the unsatisfactory state of the law prevailing prior to that time for dealing with offending children and with adults guilty of offenses against children and also of the inadequate provision for the care of destitute family groups in which there were children.
The law under which offending children or adults guilty of offenses against children were dealt with was the criminal law with all its constitutional safeguards-ju1'y trial, confronting of Witnesses, sworn testimony-and with all its lack of provision for constructive treatment that goes with the individualization of punishment.
Found "guilty" by a jury of his peers, the accused would suffer the penalty; "not guilty," and he went free, without constructive help, however great his need. The accused child had been, with certain restrictions as to age, dealt with exactly as the adult, and the adult accused of offending against the child could be only punished or acquitted. The courts before which these cases were tried were courts of criminal jurisdiction whose rank, whether justices' courts, magistrates' courts, or circuit courts, depended upon the seriousness of the offenses charged. For the care of families in destitute condition there were in a number of States statutory provisions, similar to those in the English' Poor Law, imposing a duty of support on certain relatives and requiring aid to be given by local public officials, of whom intelligent and competent relief could be rarely expected.
These statutes provided for the enforcement of the duty of support by an action generally before the county court or the corresponding tribunal possessing functions partly udicial and partly administrative.
There had also been developed a body of legislation providing for the institutional care of children from degraded homes. These statutes authorize the establishment of institutions to which the children of drunken, immoral parents might be committed. The establishment and conduct of these institutions has often given rise to difficult and delicate situations.
The juvenile-court legislation then deals with a complicated group of pi oblems: That of the offending adult, the accused child, the neglectful and degraded parent, the incompetent or unfaithful guardian, the family that is simply poor. This legislation must contain provisions concerning methods of complaint, of apprehension, and of detention; structure and organization of the juvenile court and its relation to the other tribunals; records, procedure, organization of the probation staff, and methods of disposition of the various kinds of cases; and the relation of the court to the agencies upon which it must depend-charitable, educational, correctional. These new provisions will be to a considerable extent determined by the nature of the old law; and the new legal and social structure which the statute attempts to substitute for the old will not possess unity and simplicity, but will inevitably offer proof of the varied problems giving rise to its enactment.....
