THE PEDIATRICIAN AND THE INDIVIDUAL DELINQUENT

Abstract

The Current Concern over juvenile delinquency has brought this problem more forcefully to the attention of physicians. It becomes important, therefore, in a period when people are charging off in all directions in search of a panacea for the prevention of juvenile delinquency, for us to remain aware of the fact that juvenile delinquency is a symptom and not a diagnosis. Just as headache and abdominal pain are symptoms which challenge the diagnostic skill of the physician, so juvenile delinquency is a symptom which is similarly challenging. The symptom per se never tells us the cause; the cause becomes a matter for further investigation. Those who seek a single formula for the prevention of all delinquency are destined to experience nothing but frustration. We should recall that some very good minds have struggled with this problem over many years. In this field, as in all others, those who are ignorant of history are destined to repeat it. A brief historical note is in order to indicate that the role of physicians in programs concerned with the prevention and treatment of the delinquent is not a new one. A Chicago physician, Dr. William Healy, in 1909 organized the first child guidance clinic in the world in an effort to deal with children brought to the attention of the court because of their antisocial behavior. The establishment of this clinic under medical auspices served as a stimulus for the development of child psychiatry as a discipline. Dr. Healy left behind him in Chicago the Institute for Juvenile Research which has carried on work in the field of delinquency for 50 years; he then went on to found the Judge Baker Clinic in Boston.