NCJ Number
176604
Date Published
1997
Length
224 pages
Annotation
Based on his involvement as a teacher in Chicago's juvenile detention center school, his knowledge of the juveniles in his charge, and his observations of the juvenile court's processing of these same juveniles, the author presents his impressions of how the juvenile court lives up to its initial expectations.
Abstract
The juvenile court in Chicago, the first in the world, was founded in 1899 by Jane Addams and the women of Hull House. Educators and reformers themselves, they wanted to understand the causes of delinquency: the forces that create criminal behavior and the role of poverty and social isolation in the lives of juvenile delinquents. Their goal through a separate processing of juvenile delinquents was to offer such children an opportunity to heal and find a way out of a life in crime. After profiling this original intent of the juvenile court, the author contrasts this intent with his observations of how juveniles whom he knows have been treated by the juvenile court. Based on these observations, the author concludes that as the juvenile court approaches its centennial, it has become by all accounts an "unfit parent," unable to see children as full and three-dimensional beings, to solve the problems they bring with them, or to meet the complicated needs of their families. The gap between the crises faced by families and youths in trouble and the capacity of juvenile court to address them is vast and growing. The law is a blunt instrument. As a solution to most problems, it is severely limited, and the law's intervention often causes more harm than good for those juveniles submitted to its harsh sanctions. Reforms typically do not go far enough or deep enough. The structural problems of the system -- its massive, unwieldy size, its isolation from the community it serves, its lack of resources to do the job it is mandated to do, and its descent into narrow and technical legalism -- go largely unaddressed. Perhaps this is because it is too easy to continue with the familiar rather than wrestle with what is required to meet the multiple needs of juvenile delinquents as well as the families and communities that have failed them. Notes and 12 references