The domestic relations court for the Borough of Brooklyn, New York City, has put out a report of its work for the
four months ending December 31st, 1910, these being the first four months of its existence. Judge Edward J. Dooley says:
“That the predictions of the opponents of a separate domestic relations court, that its organization would serve to promote more antagonism in the family, that it would tend to harass the husband, father and provident relative unnecessarily, have not been fulfilled. Statistics show that the number of cases brought herein since September 1st last, a period of four months, has been 574, which would be at the rate of 1,722 cases for the year 1910, for abandonment and non-support in the borough of Brooklyn. The number of cases of abandonment and non-support in the borough of Brooklyn for the year 1909 was 1,907, thus actually showing an apparent decrease of 185 cases of non-support for the year 1910, as compared with the year 1909.
“The provisions of Chapter 168, Laws of the year 1905, of the State of New York, which provides that the abandonment and non-support of a minor child or children is made a felony and extraditable has been put in execution, and it can be said that on a meritorious case the negligent father who actually abandons and neglects to support his minor child or children will be pursued to the extreme boundaries of these United States, arrested and brought into the jurisdiction of this court to stand trial for such desertion and non-support.
“No statistical information can be obtained as to the amount of money received in the magistrates courts of the borough of Brooklyn for the year 1909, but from my personal knowledge I venture to say that less than $1,000 was received therein to be applied to the benefit of neglected wives and children during the year 1909, or any year previous thereto, within the last decade. For four months, from September 1st to December 31st, 1910, inclusive, there has been paid into the hands of the probation officers of this court, the sum of $4,968.45 or at the rate of about $15,000 a year.”
Something of the spirit in which the domestic relations court was conceived, and of the end which it was designed to further, may be glimpsed from the following
paragraph from Judge Dooley:
“To make the improvident and negligent husband and father, as well as those who are liable for the maintenance of the dependant relatives, namely, the grandparents, parents, children, grand-children and relatives of a poor person of sufficient ability, realize the obligations that the law has cast upon them, to advise and admonish in the first instance as to their duty to their dependants, and to punish if advice be not followed, has been the rule and practice of the court. In other words, it is not a tribunal constituted for vengeance, spite, anger or petulant temperaments, to give vent to their wrath, but rather for the calm, cool and considerate treatment of each individual case in order that the greatest good may be accomplished to those entitled to its consideration and help, and that the basic foundation of the state, to wit, the family unit may be maintained if possible.”
The total number of persons arraigned in the court during the four months in question, including those transferred on September 1st, 1910 from the various magistrates’ courts, was 881 only two of whom were women. Forty of these were convicted. 379 were discharged, and the cases of the remaining 462 were still pending at the close of the year. As to the nature of the offenses charged, 795 were accused of abandonment of wives and children, and 86 of failure to support poor relatives. The following table reveals some aspects of the probation system as used by the court:
| Number of persons placed under probationary oversight | 198 |
| Completed probationary period and discharged with improvement | 23 |
| Completed probationary period and discharged without improvement | 4 |
| Re-arrested and committed | 14 |
| Absconded or lost from oversight | 3 |
| Pending on probation | 154 |