Social legislation and social activity

by American Academy of Political and Social Science

It is in the handling of these “delinquent” cases that the Judge has the most delicate and difficult tasks imposed on him. Sometimes the boy or girl is charged with some trifling offence, and the investigation made by the probation officer shows that the child is not really bad. The probation officer goes to the child’s home; if he attends school she calls on his school teacher; if he attends Sunday school she communicates with the Sunday school teacher; if he works, she goes to his employer, and endeavors in every way to ascertain what the child’s previous life has been and what his home surroundings are.

Sometimes it is apparent that even where the child is not depraved or incorrigible, it is best for his sake that he shall not be returned to his home. A single case will serve as an illustration.

Recently, a boy of thirteen was arrested for larceny. He was guilty. His father was a drunken brute. His mother was a hardworking, honest woman, but in the household she was a mere drudge, without voice or influence. The father sent the boy upon the street to steal. The Judge before whom the case came, heard the father and mother. The father promised to behave himself. The mother begged to have the boy returned to her. He was sent home, and a probation officer appointed in his case. Two months later, the boy was again arrested for larceny. The case against him was clear. This time the Court refused to listen to the pleadings or the promises of the parents, and committed the boy to the House of Refuge. The first time the boy was in the Juvenile Court was perhaps not the first time he had offended. Had we had a Juvenile Court into which he could have been taken when he made his first departure from the path of rectitude he would have been perhaps committed to the Children’s Aid Society, and that Society would have found him a home with some Christian family and his whole life would have been changed for the better. As it is, he has been committed to an institution whose splendid work in reclaiming incorrigibles gives every hope that the boy will yet turn out a good citizen.

What to do with a bad boy is a problem as old as time. If the wisdom of the past had given us one formula to follow, the task imposed on the Judge dealing with “delinquents” would be simple, but the question every time it arises is as new and as difficult as when it was first presented. That some boys would be better off if severely punished, the first time they lie or steal, is undoubtedly true. That the way of the transgressor is hard ought to be taught both as a moral precept and an actual fact. Still, the question in every case is, how shall this boy be handled? With the best motives and after the most careful and patient inquiry, the Judge can at best but guess. To send the boy home from Court after his guilt had been confessed or established, and do nothing more, as was frequently the old way, was often to give rise to the belief on the part of the boy that the law is not stern but lenient, and that after all, to steal, to be caught, to be convicted and to face a Court is not a serious but a trifling matter. To his companions the released boy was often a sort of a hero. The bad effect on him reached to all who were of his age and class and knew of his lucky escape. On the other hand, to refuse to send the boy home left but one alternative, to commit him to prison or to the House of Refuge.

Whether committed or sent home, the boy was given but little chance in comparison to that which the Court can, under the Juvenile Court Act, now extend to him.

This brings us to consider the probation officer.

The act says, Section 6:

“The Court shall appoint or designate one or more discreet persons, of good character, to serve as probation officers during the pleasure of the Court; said probation officers to receive no compensation from the public treasury. In case a probation officer shall be appointed by any Court, it shall be the duty of the Clerk of the Court, if practicable, to notify the said probation officer in advance when any child is to be brought before the said Court; it shall be the duty of the said probation officer to make such investigation as may be required by the Court, to be present in order to represent the interests of the child when the case is heard, to furnish to the Court such information and assistance as the Judge may require, and to take such charge of any child before and after trial as may be directed by the Court.”

Section 9 is: “In the case of a delinquent child the Court may continue the hearing from time to time, and may commit the child to the care and guardianship of a probation officer duly appointed by the Court, and may allow said child to remain in its own home subject to the visitation of the probation officer, such child to report to the probation officer as often as may be required, and subject to be returned to the Court for further proceedings whenever such action may appear to be necessary; or the Court may commit the child to the care and guardianship of the probation officer, to be placed in a suitable family home, subject to the friendly supervision of such probation officer; or it may authorize the said probation officer to board out the said child in some suitable family home, in case provision is made by voluntary contribution or otherwise for the payment of the board of such child, until a suitable provision may be made for the child in a home without such payment; or the Court may commit the child to a suitable institution for the care of delinquent children.”

It is just here that the Juvenile Court Act, in my judgment, offers its greatest good and opens up a new chance to deal intelligently with the case of a delinquent. Instead of making the child promise to be good, and sending him home, the Court places him in charge of a probation officer, and then lets him go home. Sometimes the result is that, for the first time a boy is given a fair chance in the battle of life to make something of himself. Many of the cases of delinquents brought into Court exhibit weakness, incapacity, and sometimes a worse condition on the part of the parents. Their offending is sometimes passive, sometimes active. The probation officer becomes the boy’s watchman and his friend, guarding him against himself, and, in some cases, against his parents.