Social legislation and social activity

by American Academy of Political and Social Science

The act deals only with juveniles, and only with those under sixteen years of age, and of juveniles under sixteen only with the unfortunate and the erring. By its terms it applies to “dependent or neglected” children, and “delinquent” children. The first class, the act says, shall include any child who is destitute or homeless or abandoned or dependent upon the public for support, or who has not the proper parental care or guardianship, or who habitually begs or receives alms, or whose home, by reason of neglect or cruelty or depravity of the parents, is an unfit place for such a child, or any child under eight years of age found peddling on the streets.

A “delinquent” child is one who “violates any law of this state, or any city or borough ordinance.”

The Court’s jurisdiction may be invoked by a petition, which must be verified by affidavit, stating that the child therein referred to is either dependent or neglected or delinquent.

Upon the filing of the petition, the Judge may issue either a summons or a warrant. The former requires the party having the custody of the child to produce it in court. The latter imposes the duty of bringing the child into court upon the officer armed with the warrant. Pending the final disposition of any case, the child may be retained in the possession of the person having it in charge, or in some suitable place provided by any association having for one of its objects the care of delinquent or neglected children.

As a matter of fact, very few cases are brought into court upon either summons or warrant. The Judge holding the court finds, upon the day fixed for the hearing of juvenile cases, that he has, perhaps, twenty-five cases on his docket, and to him they are all new cases. Most of them originated in the magistrates’ courts or in the station-houses.

The parent or parents of a child or children, for instance, may have been arrested for drunkenness or vagrancy. The magistrate hearing the case sends the parents perhaps to the House of Correction, and then something must be done for the immediate care of the children. They are turned over to the Children’s Aid Society or the Society to Protect Children from Cruelty. On the day for the hearing of juvenile cases, the children will be brought in by the Society’s agents, and a petition will be filed setting forth briefly the facts.

Sometimes the children are abandoned or homeless waifs turned over to the Society by the police.

The Judge sitting in the Juvenile Court proceeds to inquire carefully into each case. He has the assistance of the prior examination into the facts of each case by the Society’s agents. Sometimes the power of the Court is invoked to compel the attendance of relatives, or even of parents. After a careful hearing, the case of each child is decided, and a decree made. The testimony heard is taken down in a short narrative form by a stenographer, and then typewritten and filed for future reference. If the Judge is satisfied that the parent or parents of a child ought not to have the custody of the child, but are able to contribute to its support, he may make an order requiring the payment of such sum as the circumstances warrant. Children are sometimes turned over to relatives, and sometimes to a charitable society, regard being had always to the religion of the child in selecting the society.

Delinquents generally come into court from the magistrates’ courts; sometimes directly, sometimes from prison.

Now that the act is being better understood, and its benefits more generally appreciated by the magistrates and the police, a probation officer is usually advised when a “delinquent” is taken into custody. The hearings are generally held by the magistrate at the station-house, and in a large number of cases, perhaps in a majority of cases, a probation officer is present to hear the testimony against the child and to set on foot an investigation not only of the charge on which the child is held, but as to his or her previous record and home life and surroundings. It is earnestly to be hoped that all our police lieutenants and police magistrates will speedily come to appreciate how greatly the probation officer can assist them and the Court, and will let no case be heard without having previously notified the nearest probation officer.