The Children’s Court for the trial of juvenile offenders of both sexes under sixteen years of age was opened for business in this city September, 1902. The law organizing this branch of the judiciary was passed by the Legislature the preceding winter. The building where this Court is conducted is situated at the corner of Eleventh Street and Third Avenue.
Five days in the week from 10 a. m. till 2 p. m., children of all colors, creeds and nationalities are brought here in charge of the officers of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children—better known as the Gerry Society. They are the custodians of all children from seven to sixteen years of age under arrest for crime. The Penal Code declares that children under seven years of age are incapable of committing a crime and are therefore exempt from the operation of this law.
The Origin of the Children’s Court
For several years the Howard Association, of London, England, has been advocating the establishment of Children’s Courts in that city for youthful offenders, but for a long time nothing came of it, as the English mind is slow to act on all such innovations, especially in a case like this, where the law which has stood for hundreds of years has to be changed. The same Association has also recommended the appointment of special magistrates to deal with truant children and their parents. But juvenile courts and probation officers have been in operation in Massachusetts for nearly a dozen years, longer indeed than in any other state in the Union, and with marked success. In Chicago the Children’s Court has been in existence since 1901, Milwaukee 1901, Philadelphia 1901, St. Louis 1901, and Washington, D. C., 1901. There has also been a Court for child offenders in Buffalo, N. Y., since 1901. By an agreement between the magistrates and the Children’s Society Judge Murphy has given two afternoons a week to the trial of juvenile offenders, making a court house out of one of the Society rooms.
The following year the Children’s Court was opened in New York, and then only as an experiment, as few persons were found ready to believe that it had a future. Indeed, many members of the bar discouraged its advent and thought it a foolish and expensive institution. At best, this Court was only a venture in the line of trial experiences, but before many months had passed everybody competent to judge pronounced it an unqualified success.
During the first year of its existence no less than 7,447 youthful offenders were before it, for nearly every crime on the calendar except homicide. While this Court is in business, the visitor who is present, is impressed with the quite orderly behaviour of all present and the kind and humane treatment of the attendants toward the children.
The Special Sessions judges, who sit on the bench by rotation, take a deep interest in the young offenders and as each case comes along tries hard to straighten out the domestic “tangles” which are so common where parents and children get mixed in their testimony. It is gratifying to know that this city does not furnish a large number of the “Wild West” boy toughs and fewer still of the Jesse Pomeroy class of criminals. While it is true that a large number are untruthful, depraved and devoid of moral sense, yet they are not beyond the reach of kindness and good treatment.
Crime among the children of the poor is largely the result of social conditions. Bad homes, negligent and intemperate parents, sickness and poverty will account for most of it. And the fact that we have not ten times more juvenile offenders than are on record is owing to missions, chapels and Sunday Schools scattered all over the city.
Almost every session of the Court is full of pathetic scenes and experiences where mothers and children shed many tears. The object of the Judge is to find out the truth in each case, and in this he often spends hours of patient labor.
After a thorough investigation we take it for granted that a child is found guilty. The ruling motto of the Court is to deal leniently with a first offender. If he has a good home and parents who will care for him he is paroled, but if his home is of a vicious character he is sent to an institution where he will be cared for and learn a trade. The main object of the Court is to save the child from a degrading home influence and put him in a place where he can work out his own salvation either on a farm or in an institution.