Methods of Treatment for Juvenile Delinquency

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Methods of Treatment for Juvenile Delinquency

Juvenile Delinquency

A very difficult problem in studying juvenile delinquency is deciding upon an exact definition of the term itself . No two authorities agree in this matter . In a broad sense , juvenile delinquency refers to the antisocial acts of children and of young people under age . Such acts are either specifically forbidden by law or may be lawfully interpreted as constituting delinquency , or as requiring some

form of official action According to one authority , delinquency actually has many different meanings . There are legal delinquents (those committing antisocial acts as defined by law , detected delinquents (those exhibiting antisocial behavior , for example , agency delinquents (those detected who reach an agency , alleged delinquents (those apprehended , brought to court , and adjudged delinquents (those found guilty (Lowell Juilliard Carr 1941

In most juvenile research , the term "juvenile delinquent " denotes a child who has been officially acted upon by the courts or police officers . The age which the term "juvenile " covers varies in different states , ranging from the ages of sixteen to twenty-one , with the majority of states considering individuals as juvenile if they are under eighteen and over six . A Massachusetts law defines a juvenile delinquent as "a child between seven and seventeen who violates any city ordinance or town by-law or commits an offense not punishable by death " Under this law nearly every child within this age range is , or will be , a delinquent-by-definition

History

The early courts dealt only with neglected and dependent children , with children whose custody rival claimants sought , and with children who were charged with specific offenses . In general , dependent and neglected children have had much less to do with the juvenile-court movement than the delinquent child . The movement was started principally as a protest against the inhumane attitude of the criminal law , and the court that administers it , toward offending children , and only incidentally as a protest against the unorganized charity work of private agencies and the unsatisfactory state provision for the care of neglected and dependent or destitute children (Brenda Geiger , Michael Fischer , 1995

Various attempts have been made from the early days of English and American history to save offending children from the rigidity of the common law , but the history of law discloses that such attempts were only sporadic and in many instances have accomplished very little

Stuart Garnett in his book , Children and the Law , tells us that as early as the tenth century , the Saxon King Athelstane not only attempted the reformation of juvenile offenders but enacted a certain law which embodied some of the germs of modern juvenile-court legislation , and especially of probation . 1 But there are few records of any children who were accorded the privilege of this and subsequent statutes . From the tenth century until the reign of Henry VIII very little is known of the law affecting children . All through the Middle Ages , true to the general...