NCJ Number
166080
Date Published
1987
Length
189 pages
Annotation
Based largely on dormant session laws, overlooked cases, and 19th century secondary sources, this study focuses on the legal evolution of children's laws in New York State, although the legal evolution traced cuts across State lines.
Abstract
The study is divided into six chronological chapters, but there is considerable overlap among the chapters. The first chapter briefly traces the origins of legal principles that involve children, and the second chapter addresses New York's history prior to the Civil War. Chapters three and four cover the late 19th century developments, and chapters five and six analyze the development of the separate children's court system and the early 20th century refinements of delinquency and child protective legislation. The book concludes with a summary account of developments after 1935, including the enactment of the 1962 Family Court Act and the procedural "revolution" sparked by the 1967 U.S. Supreme Court "Gault" decision. The book demonstrates that the contemporary juvenile and family law, procedures, and practices that have been under attack did not constitute a radical departure from the past, but were the product of steady, progressive development over most of the Nation's history. The study shows that very early on, society's organized response to child misconduct contained many of the features that currently are frequently identified as the defects in the system. Diversion from the adult criminal justice system, indeterminancy of sanctions, judicial and administrative discretion, and a close working relationship between courts and child care agencies characterized juvenile justice long before the first special court was created in Illinois in 1899 and New York adopted its counterpart in 1922. 592 footnotes and an appended chronological table of events