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For over a century, America's legal system has made substantial reforms to change its treatment of adolescents. Every day, we see that our legal system treats adolescents differently from their adult counterparts. With regards to driving privileges, voting rights, and the ability to drink, our laws recognize that adults and adolescents are different and therefore require a different set of standards. America extended this treatment to the realm of juvenile justice in 1899, when Cook County, Illinois, created the country's first juvenile court. Originating in this court was the overarching purpose of America's juvenile justice system--rehabilitation of juvenile offenders. Though over a century has passed since the creation of America's first juvenile court, only recently has the law begun to treat juveniles differently from their adult counterparts. In the past decade, landmark Supreme Court decisions Roper v. Simmons, Graham v. Florida, J.D.B. v. North Carolina, and Miller v. Alabama have implemented constitutional shields for juveniles against the death penalty, life without parole, and improper Miranda waivers. In implementing these safeguards, the Supreme Court has employed new scientific understandings of juveniles, as well as common sense, to conclude that juveniles are different from adults and should be treated differently by the law. Though the Supreme Court created safeguards for juveniles in death penalty and life without parole circumstances, situations still exist that threaten the lives of juvenile offenders. Illinois accountability theory is one such situation. In Illinois, accountability theory is the mechanism by which the State can convict an offender of a crime which they did not actually commit. In Illinois, an individual who exhibited more than "mere presence" at the scene of the crime can be convicted of the same crime and sentenced in the same manner as the individual who committed the crime. Given the recent landmark Supreme Court cases, new scientific findings relating to the psychological understanding of juveniles, as well as simple common sense, accountability theory should not be used to prosecute juvenile offenders in Illinois. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses judicial intervention and juvenile corrections reform measures in the U.S. as of July 2012, focusing on a case study of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia class action lawsuit Jerry M. v. District of Columbia. Attempts to reform a juvenile justice system are addressed, along with an examination of a juvenile corrections lawsuit in the District of Columbia based on allegations that the system has fallen below the constitutional and statutory standards which govern its operations.

The article focuses on the impact of sexually violent person commitment laws on juvenile sex offenders in the U.S. The violation of the rights of the nation's youngest offenders by a state's criminal, juvenile and mental health laws is demonstrated by Illinois. Juveniles charged with sexual assault do not receive jury trials which in turn violates their rights to due process. The protection of a jury trial is needed by juvenile offenders as they face severe consequences when charged with violent sexual offenses.

The article examines the enforcement of the Extended Jurisdiction Juvenile Prosecution (EJJ) blended sentencing law in Hennepin County, Minnesota. The legal framework for judicial waiver is described. The offender and offense variables that influence prosecutorial charging and judicial sentencing decisions are identified by analyzing 504 youth cases against whom waiver and EJJ motions were filed between 1995 and 1997. The subsequent juvenile court processing is examined. The impact of the change in the law on prosecutorial and judicial policies is evaluated.

The article focuses on the Polish prison system. In the territory formerly belonging to Prussia the prisons were subject to the authorities charged with the duty of public prosecution, in the territory formerly belonging to Austria, to the judicial authorities and in that formerly belonging to Russia the prison authorities were separated and autonomized. At present the total number of prisons amounts to 333. They are divided into three classes in proportion to their population. Education is obligatory for the juveniles and those adult prisoners who are sentenced to terms of over one year and are not yet 40 years old and have no certificates of having ended their education in four classes of a common school. Teaching in the prison schools is given in accordance with the curriculum of the common schools, elaborated by the Ministry of Confessions and. Public Instruction. The prisoners' work, as the most important measure of the penitentiary policy is applied in Polish prisons in the bounds of possibility.

This article points out that there is a growing demand for psychiatric clinics to serve juvenile courts and other agencies that handle delinquent and pre-delinquent children. It is being recognized that these clinics should be a fundamental part of the court's machinery for the investigation and adjustment of problem children. The clinic personnel should be composed of a psychiatrist, a psychologist, at least two psychiatric social workers, a clinic secretary, and clerical service. The psychiatrist should be the director of the clinic. The usual formal training in clinical psychiatry received by a state hospital physician does not equip him to understand and treat conduct disorders in children. The breadth of training and experience upon the part of the director in the application of psychiatry to the study of human behavior will determine the quality of work done and the results accomplished.

This article presents information regarding the catamnestic study of the juvenile offender. The revolution brought about in the science of criminology by the positivistic school of Italy has passed its acute stage and the reaction noted in all quarters is the result of the recognition of the danger of replacing pure reason, by sentimentality, which the positivistic school carries with it. The constant increase of recidivism, however, is sufficient evidence that society does not properly take care of its criminals. The cause of this is well known. In the course of time we have come to appreciate the fact that little in the way of reformation can be done in the mature habitual criminal, and if anything is to be accomplished in the way of prevention of crime, people must direct their efforts in behalf of the juvenile offender, the future recidivist. Now, criminality is generally conceded to be an expression of a diseased personality and there is no reason why the same principles which served to advance knowledge of psychiatry should not be employed here. It is with this object in view that the following cases are here reported.

This article discusses the frequency and nature of delinquent behavior committed by adolescents never arrested or committed to institutions. This phenomenon has been regarded by criminologists as an important but unknown dimension of delinquent behavior. The informed layman is aware that only a portion of delinquent behavior is followed by arrest and conviction. The picture of delinquent behavior obtained from official records only and particularly the punitive action of the courts is known to be incomplete and biased. The following tentative conclusions regarding the extent of juvenile delinquency in the non-institutionalized population are warranted. Delinquent conduct in the non-institutionalized population is extensive and variable. Such conduct reported by institutionalized and non-institutionalized students is similar to delinquency and crimes as treated officially in sex ratio and the offenses for which boys are most often arrested are generally those which they most often admit committing. Differences on the delinquency scales and in the commission of individual delinquencies are greater between high school and training school girls than between high school and training school boys.

In this article, Professor Lopez-Rey appraises some of the principal components of the prevailing approach to the problem of juvenile delinquency. Contrary to the opinions held by many members of the professional groups concerned with this problem, Professor Lopez-Rey contends that there are serious flaws in the theories of "maturity" and "maladjustment," which theories are fundamental to the methods of treatment and legal concepts prevalent in this field. As a result, he holds that the modern approach not only has failed to meet the problem but actually has aggravated it. He considers that little headway will be made in reducing juvenile crime until it is recognized that violations of the law by young people are reflections of prevailing materialistic patterns of life in society and not simply the result of immature or maladjusted personalities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study ascertains what sort of offense sequence patterns were followed by adult recidivists who began their official criminal histories prior to age eighteen. The literature of juvenile delinquency emphasizes that many adult criminal careers start with juvenile delinquency. This study is concerned with those whose criminal activities continue into the adult years. Pursuant to this objective, a grid charting technique was devised to show just how such criminal sequences develop from initial juvenile offenses, and what sort of offense sequences follow. This paper is an outgrowth of a study made by the writer in 1952 of 319 official criminal histories of recidivists in Indiana prisons. These 319 cases were drawn from inmate files of the Indiana Reformatory and the Indiana State Prison. The information was compiled from U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation records, case summaries, and community reports. Only cases were drawn which showed a prior criminal history, and these were selected on a random sampling basis.

The article presents information on recent developments in the field of law and order. Announcements have been received concerning the release of the 1945 Yearbook of the National Probation Association. It has been given the title "Social Correctives for Delinquency," using the word delinquency in both the adult and juvenile senses. A glimpse of the table of contents shows the range and the pertinence of the contributed material. The first section, "The War and the Offender," contains two articles covering respectively the army and the navy rehabilitation programs. Two psychiatrists discuss the veteran who has been mentally or emotionally affected by the war: Dr. Harold S. Hulbert and Dr. Harry L. Freedman. Out of the widespread interest and concern of the people of Washington with the problem of juvenile protection, a Legislative Interim Committee was created by the 1945 session of the Legislature to investigate as fully as possible all problems relating to juvenile delinquency and to make recommendations for legislation concerning the subject matter investigated.

The article discusses various issues related to criminal law in the U.S. According to a snippet, juvenile delinquency should not be regarded as a totally new problem in wartime. True there is a statistical increase of about ten per cent among the boys and regrettably, some thirty-five per cent among the girls. The war has simply served to intensify the reactions of the young people to conditions which have existed for some time and which one has not as yet solved in their more harmful phases. The average youngster today is undoubtedly receiving less parental care and affection than formerly and also receiving less moral and spiritual guidance. According to another snippet, in a recent English court case, in which a verdict of murder was quashed on appeal, a Lord Chief Justice gave a judgment of great importance. Counsel for the condemned man stated that the trial Judge, in his summing-up, commented on the fact that when cautioned by the police the appellant did not deny the charge but said that he would take advice.

This article focuses on the need and effectiveness of psychological treatments as a alternative to juvenile detention, citing the success story of the related reorganization of the Juvenile Court of Lucas County, Ohio, started in September 1937 by Paul W. Alexander, newly elected judge. In the process of reorganization, one of the first moves was the installation of a professional staff. A psychologist, experienced in the Juvenile Court field was placed in charge of the building, the name of which was changed to "The Child Study Institute." The question of morale of the children during the period of detention has been suggested to be important. In consultation with the chief probation officer and the chief psychologist, the judge determined upon the installation of a privilege system. The idea had been used in correctional institutions with varying degrees of success but never had it been applied to temporary detention. A total of more than five years' experience with this plan has shown significant reduction in the case of indiscipline, violation of laws, and escapes from the building. Another measure of the value of the privilege system was found in the improved morale of the children while they were in the building. It is opined that privilege has given correctional personnel the opportunity to observe the individual's reaction to responsibility and has been an important aid to predicting reaction to proposed plans of treatment.

The article focuses on the trends of German treatment of juvenile delinquency. Since National Socialist doctrine repudiates the conception of training or education in penology, it was only natural that there should be suggestions for changing the rules of procedure against youthful offenders. As for those regulations which are directed specifically to juvenile cases, there has been an increase in the tendency to restrict the range of exemptions from legal responsibility allowed when the offender, because of the stage of his mental and moral development, was unable to understand the character of the deed at the time it was committed. This tendency was noticeable even before 1933. At the same time, the provisions of Sections 6 and 9 which enable the judge to refrain from punishment in less serious cases have begun to find new favor after a brief decline in their use since 1931 and they applied more than one-fifth of all convictions in 1936. Prisons for youths, like the other prisons, show a distinct tendency towards overcrowding, largely because of the prolongation of prison terms. On August 15, 1936, according to official figures, the average population of the prisons for youthful offenders was already 86.1% of the normal capacity.' In some cases the normal capacity was exceeded or virtually reached.

The article discusses a survey of juvenile probation in 65 counties of Pennsylvania. The period of time covered by this study is from 1922 to 1933. During this decade, investigators of the Pennsylvania Department of Welfare filed frequent accounts of the operation of the juvenile courts and probation departments in all counties of the State. The accumulation of these reports resulted in a unique chronological account of the systems as they developed, and formed the basis for this study. After study and discussion of these 65 county reports a general descriptive sheet was compiled for each county, and was verified with the investigator for the Department in order to assure correct interpretation of the original descriptions. The separate county findings were then grouped according to class of county. Material regarding number and salaries of officers was obtained by questionnaires. The article presents a brief topical resume of the most important findings of this analysis. The recommendations at the end of this paper incorporate also the results of an intensive field investigation of four typical Pennsylvania counties.

The article provides information on the recent developments related to criminology and forensic sciences. The Metropolitan Police College at Hendon, London, England, is to be equipped with a scientific laboratory under the direction of an expert pathologist. Frank Yee, of the Chekiang Police Academy in Hangchow, China, reports that the Chekiang Police Academy has been amalgamated with the Central Military College, and is the national police institute. At the present time experiments are being conducted with the Army Alpha test for the purpose of ascertaining the mental fitness of candidates. The December 1, 1934, issue of "Fugitives" contains a very interesting and valuable article written by J.I. Hardy, titled "A Method for Studying the Scale Structure of Medullated and Pigmented Animal Fibres." Appropriate photomicrographs accompany the article. Nine resolutions were adopted by the delegates to the Attorney General's Conference on Crime, held in Washington D.C., on December 10-13, one of which provides that a national scientific and educational center be established in Washington for the better training of carefully selected personnel in the broad field of criminal law administration and the treatment of crime and criminals.

This article discusses juvenile probation. There is no present day problem more acute or more compelling than that of juvenile delinquency. Here is a problem upon which your ancient, established profession of the law and my newer profession of social work, social engineering, may and should unite. You seek, through laws and their orderly administration, to do justice to the individual and to establish the security and welfare of all citizens of the State. The youthful delinquent and what to do with him is of compelling importance, not only to those directly dealing with him but to every citizen. Although the delinquent children who become court problems are less than 1% of all children in the country, there is not a single child or one of homes which may not be affected directly or indirectly by the way we treat them. Strange to say although the government compiles statistics on many less important matters we have no complete statistics of the number of children brought before our courts.

This study examines the factors that influence success or failure on parole. Data is based on three thousand cases of youths paroled from the Illinois State Reformatory at Pontiac. The three thousand cases cover a period of slightly longer than the seven years from January 1, 1921 to December 31, 1927. Of the entire 3,000, the number that had failed reached 742, or 24.7 per cent. It might be added that when the violations among the second group were figured regardless of whether the violation occurred before or after the twelfth month, the number breaking the parole agreement was 310, or 31.0 per cent. Violations are of two sorts: technical violations, such as leaving a job, leaving the county, being intoxicated, or in the company of other parolees, and what has been called major violation, or the commission of a new crime. After the rate of violation had been determined as already explained, each factor or characteristic of the individual was correlated with the record on parole. In correlating the record on parole with the type of criminal, it was found that among the first offenders only 12.9 per cent violated parole, while among the habitual and professional group 58.8 per cent failed. In the present study two factors, marital status and use of alcohol, seemed to have little bearing upon outcome on parole.

This article presents the author's opinion on the first United Nations (UN) Congress on the prevention of crime and the treatment of offenders. The fact that the Congress was part of the program and machinery of the UN explains why it cannot be considered, as apparently some expected, as a gathering in which matters would be discussed from an exclusively scientific point of view. Without entirely lacking such a character, the Congress as an element of that machinery examined a substantial part of the program for social defense of the UN, studied the conclusions reached at several regional groups and other international gatherings and made some recommendations thereon. With respect to prison labor, the situation is somewhat different. The project has not as yet been discussed by all regional groups and secondly the Congress itself recommended that some aspects should be the object of further study. Consequently, the Congress expressed the hope that the Social Commission and the Economic and Social Council will endorse the general principles adopted on the matter and recommend to governments that they take them as fully as possible into account in their practice and when considering legislative and administrative reforms. With respect to the prevention of juvenile delinquency the Congress recommended to the Social Commission to take into consideration several actions in the formulation of its social defense work program, including a study of the methods used for the prevention of juvenile delinquency and an evaluative study of the methods and techniques used by special police services dealing with juveniles.

This article presents the author's thoughts on behavior training programs for juvenile offenders in the U.S. Society must protect itself from crime, no matter what the cause or how great its own responsibility, just as it must protect itself from a dangerous encroaching foreign power, from typhoid carriers, or from the dangerous mentally ill. The ideal behind modern treatment of the mentally ill gives us the clue to the aims and methods we must sooner or later adopt in the treatment of delinquents and criminals. Criminal justice may require the segregation of the professional criminal of the Al Capone type for life in order to protect society. It may have to put a desperate and intractable youngster in solitary confinement for a time. Nothing is gained by ignoring the need to deal with a percentage of offenders who are as dangerous as the violently mentally ill. But the aim and the purpose of all procedures of criminal justice must be not punishment in and of itself but rehabilitation, cure, salvage, and, if that is impossible, confinement to protect society and under conditions in which such incurables will not infect the curable. Punishment for revenge must go. It lies at the heart of the ineffectiveness of the administration of criminal justice. Without a change in purpose, spirit and philosophy, new procedures and institutions are just words--new names for the same old methods.

The article provides information on the function of the Juvenile Aid Bureau for juvenile delinquents in the U.S. It represents an evaluation, a change, a progressive development that is now contributing and will in the future contribute to the solution of the society's problem. Basically this Bureau represents the development of a new type of understanding of our problem, and of a new approach to its solution. Within its program is encompassed, an evaluation of the importance of the individual, of his uniqueness, of his rights, of his duties, and of the effects of our whole culture and personal social relations on his growth. The Juvenile Aid Bureau has definite responsibilities of planning and putting into operation programs designed to prevent delinquency and waywardness, and also securing adequate social treatment for the rehabilitation of juvenile delinquents and wayward minors. These are the two broad purposes of the Juvenile Aid Bureau. Everything that is done, including the work of the Police Athletic League, is directed to meeting these responsibilities. The work of the Juvenile Aid Bureau has been in progress for several years. In 1946, a department order was issued requiring that no arrest be made of children under sixteen years of age except for serious offenses in the felony classification or would come within the category of several serious misdemeanors. All cases, with the foregoing exceptions, must be referred to the Juvenile Aid Bureau and court action is taken only when necessary. This step is an indication of respect for the possibilities of social adjustment under the procedures we have established.

Presents information on a bill pending in Illinois legislature that provides for a modification in the Parental School Law. Work of the committee on Vocational Education of the Illinois Branch of the Parental School; Provision in the present law for confinement of truants 14 years of age or under in the Parental Schools; Enforcement of the compulsory education law; Amendment to the presents law by providing that persons even up to the age of 16 years may be sent to the Parental School; Argument for the parental school as an agent of prevent criminology.

This article assesses the aspects of the Special Treatment Program of the California Youth Authority. In many instances, because of the staff shortage and the meeting of deadlines for board hearings as well as the pressure to process children out of the centers and make room for new commitments, the child can be seen by a clinical team member but once. This is clearly inadequate. It will often bring about misjudgements, and it leads to a marked increase in recidivism. Another important aspect of the ideal diagnostic study is a direct contact with the home of the committed ward, by each team member. While it is true that the investigating parole officer makes a home visit prior to the ward's commitment, it is also a fact that often the parole officer is not well equipped to assess either the personalities of the parents or the atmosphere of the home properly because of lack of training. However, even if he were fully trained, such information reaches the clinic team of a diagnostic center and clinic as secondary information and, therefore, in most instances, is not coordinated with the over-all picture of the child's personality. Since the clinic team member can see a child but once, he has usually no time to contact the home, even though doing this may fall within the province of his work.

The article explores how the newly established dimension of body build in the patterning of delinquency modify the construction, and enhance the usefulness, of screening devices for identifying potential juvenile delinquents. To answer this query it is necessary to review the findings in Unraveling Juvenile Delinquency that pertain to differences in the body build of delinquents and non-delinquents. It will be recalled that for the purposes of that inquiry, 500 persistent male juvenile offenders and 500 non-offenders were matched case for case, by age, intelligence, residence in underprivileged areas and ethnic origin. Although there are difficulties inherent in somatotyping children at a stage sufficiently early in their lives to make preventive efforts most meaningful, it may prove desirable to construct prediction tables for each body type, using as a basis for them those clusters of traits and sociocultural factors that have been found in Physique and Delinquency most sharply to differentiate delinquents from non-delinquents within each predominant physique type. Although it does not appear necessary as yet to refine the already existing prediction tables to include body build, or to construct new tables for each body type, the findings of Physique and Delinquency should be suggestive to those who are concerned with the more effective management of juvenile offenders and with the prevention of juvenile delinquency.

The article presents the author's perspective of the management at a prison camp. At a great inland military establishment near a very large city there are hundreds of court martial prisoners sent to serve terms of less than one year. The brig wards are largely grouped together, and each contains up to 80 prisoners, the more violent and disturbed prisoners being kept in cells. The prison camp management is superior. A medical officer commands intelligently and progressively. Once while visiting the commander he discussed with me the case of a boy who "blew his top." Several officers and chiefs were in the office with us and engaged in the conversation. The boy under discussion had been fretful for days, "off his feed," restless, irritable, sensitive, touchy, rude, quarrelsome, took great offense at trifles, and grew progressively more restless and emotional. Some wealthy quiet day a great university, I very hopefully predict, will conduct a large series of tests measuring the blood chemistry including blood and serum calcium content of fractious prisoners in penal institutions, city jails, and juvenile detention homes before and after calcium gluconate medication and parallel such data with reports on conduct. Until then we have the reliable estimates of the chiefs and of the prisoners who ask for calcium gluconate now lest they "blow their tops."

This article presents the annual report of the Juvenile Court and Juvenile Detention Home in Cook County, Illinois in 1916. The report contains 111 pages and includes the reports of the Chief Probation Officer of Cook County, the Director of Psychopathic Institute, the Superintendent of the Juvenile Detention Home and the attending physician at the Home. The report of the Chief Probation Officer shows that in the course of successive years, beginning with 1912, there has been a continuous decrease in number of children sent to institutions.

This article shares the author's thoughts about the care of delinquent and dependent children in the state of Minnesota. In many respects, Minnesota is better off than other states with regard to the care of delinquent and dependent children. But for some time past, a considerable group of forward-looking citizens in the state has been conscious of numerous gaps and soft spots in both the public and private systems of child care. The said group made a sturdy attempt to impress the state legislature with the need of a child welfare commission to prepare the way for coordinating such work in the fields of legislation and administration.

This article presents the author's reply to a work by Edward H. Stullken on the problem of delinquency and schools in the U.S. I am extremely reassured by the fact that the Academy of Criminology considers this important topic, because its ramifications are very little known. Stullken, in a very scholarly and able fashion, has drawn a large perspective around the many factors of the problem of delinquency and schools. His comments about the application and realization of the overall philosophy of education are extremely important. Treatment of every child according to his own needs would go a long way to reduce, not only juvenile delinquency but adult crime as well. For example, research has indicated that schools without facilities to help individual children contribute the largest percentage of referrals to Juvenile Court. School truancy is the first symptom of the unadjusted school child. The majority of these school truants in our Juvenile Courts are found to be slow learners. With the rigid curriculum and without special help such children are unsuccessful in meeting the requirements of the normal curriculum, and become frustrated, hostile and quite naturally begin to express themselves in delinquent behavior.

The article reports that Governor William A. Murray of Oklahoma recently addressed a message to the state legislature, which in part at least reveals an attitude toward punishments which harks back to days of long ago. After describing the futile efforts of his state to deal with crime and in particular with juvenile delinquency, he states that the Legislature should pass a Juvenile Criminal Malicious-Mischief Act, and, upon conviction, provide that the boy shall be brought into the court, and soundly thrashed with not less than ten, nor more than fifty lashes, with no clothes on the back, except a shirt, by the parent or guardian. For the second offense, the offender should be put into an open courtyard in stocks, with his hands and feet fastened, to take for a day or so the scorn, jeers, and paper wads of his associates. These punishments will greatly affect him much more than a year at the Institution or in jail and the cost for hickories and stocks will be negligible.

This section discusses the program for handling juvenile delinquents and criminals which went into effect in Illinois on January 1, 1955. Under the new system, the recently created Illinois Youth Commission took over supervision of the State Training Schools, including the boys' reformatory and two state training schools for girls and boys, respectively. Important features of the program provide that: (1) judges will impose maximum sentences on youthful felons and sentence them to the commission's custody, (2) discretion as to when youthful prisoners shall be paroled, short of the maximum term, will lie strictly with the commission and (3) at the commission's discretion, juvenile male prisoners may be shifted between the training school and the reformatory.