In many of the Western States the widowed mothers’ compensation, or pension laws, have been extended to cover children of delinquent, injured, or crippled fathers, and sometimes even of fathers imprisoned in penal institutions.
Some States also have other provisions which reduce the number of dependent children. In Washington a man who deserts his family is put to work and his wages are paid to his wife and children. This seems more sensible than the law which imprisons the man, and lets the State support him, while his wife has to support herself and children. In Kansas, the wages of a prisoner are given to his family. In California and Illinois, the father must help support the illegitimate child.
The care of dependent children is work for which women are especially fitted by both training and inclination. In Colorado, the State Home for Dependent Children must have two women on its board of five members. In the State Industrial Home for Girls, three of the five members of the board must be women.
The Problem of the Delinquent Child is one that needs the greatest care and expert attention. If the dependent child is an appealing figure, the delinquent child is an indictment of a community. He is usually the product of neglect, of overcrowding, of bad living conditions, and of defects in the educational system.
To treat the child offender as if he were grown up and responsible, and to punish him in the same way as an adult, is to make a criminal of him. The manner in which his first offense against the law is handled, often determines the future of such a child.
Children’s Courts: It used to be common for children of all ages to be detained with older, hardened criminals indiscriminately, exposed to contamination and disease, and to try them in an open court-room with all other cases. The modern policy is to try all cases against children, with the exception of murder, in special courts.
The entire policy of a children’s court is based on prevention instead of punishment, to make friends with a delinquent child, to show him the danger ahead of him, to watch over him like an older, wiser friend, and to help him to keep straight. The terror and disgrace of an open court-room are replaced by a quiet, friendly talk in the judge’s room.
A large number of all children who are arrested are ungovernable or disorderly, children who have run away from home, or who are associating with dissolute or vicious persons. Another large class comes into the courts because of improper guardianship; neglected children, or those exposed to physical or moral danger. These cases are not classed technically as delinquents, but are tried by what are known as special proceedings.
The total number of children arraigned in the children’s courts of New York City in 1916 for delinquency was: boys, 5,929; girls, 150; in special proceedings, boys, 3,893; girls, 2,972, a total of 12,944. The largest percentage of cases for any offense for boys was petty larceny, and for girls was sex offenses and incorrigibility.
In 1916 the Police Department of New York City made in its report an analysis of juvenile arrests, showing the nature of the offense, the age, sex, nativity, occupation, and employment of the child. The largest number of arrests were for offenses against property. Practically half of all the delinquents were native-born children of foreign-born parents.