NCJ Number
79181
Journal
Police Magazine Volume: 4 Issue: 5 Dated: (September 1981) Pages: 55-60,62-64
Date Published
1981
Length
9 pages
Annotation
The Los Angeles County Department of Public Social Services' successful effort to remove preteen children from a family, based on the family members' extensive crime records is described.
Abstract
The case was brought primarily under the instigation of a police officer in the youth services division who handled shoplifting incidents committee by two of the family's children, aged 8 and 9. Upon researching the records, the officer found that 17 of these children's closest relatives had been arrested about 400 times. Just before the case went to trial in Los Angeles County Juvenile Court in April 1981, the mothers of the children involved signed a compromise agreement that made their children wards of the court. In doing so, they admitted that they were in and out of jail so often that they were, at that time, unsuitable parents. The agreement permitted the court to evade setting a precedent regarding the 'criminal environment' grounds for removing a child from his/her home. Still, as a result of the publicity of the case has received, law enforcement officials throughout the country may consider applying the same approach to children of 'crime families' in their jurisdictions. Critics of this strategy argue that Los Angeles County does not have a clearly better alternative to the children's own homes for influencing the children's development. The children are currently in an institution for dependent children which is considered by many to be a spawning ground for delinquent behavior.