Juvenile Delinquents and Their Treatment

The juvenile court as the major device for deal ing with young offenders has roots in the English common law, which distinguished between adult offenders and the young, who could not sufficiently distinguish between right and wrong to be held responsible for their illegal actions. Even today, however, the definition of juvenile delinquency is tautological: the delinquent is he who has been adjudicated as such by a court of proper jurisdiction, and juvenile delinquency is any act, course of conduct, or situation which might be brought before a court and adjudicated as such. Many juvenile cases are settled by the police without going to court, and others are handled by the court unofficially. Court procedures resemble regular criminal proceedings, but there are a number of im portant differences, some of which suggest constitutional ques tions. Guilt is not generally considered an issue; a greater effort is made to discover why the youth has come into the hands of the court, regardless of whether or not he is delin quent. In most juvenile court hearings, no counsel appears for the child, and case law holds that he is not entitled to counsel. In most states, the child cannot demand jury trial. Broadly, it can be said that due process is not strictly followed. Also, the validity of corrective measures can be questioned. The extent of juvenile delinquency and its recent growth sug gest the desirability of a thorough and objective reconsidera tion of the means and the methods hitherto employed in deal ing with young law violators.—Ed.