The Problems and Needs of Negro Youth as Revealed by Delinquency and Crime Statistics

Abstract

Delinquency as a term refers to any juvenile misconduct as might be dealt with under the law. Crime implies intentional injury done to others for one's own advantage. It involves human beings in whom community feeling, for various reasons, is not sufficiently developed. Now for the last few centuries the tenor of the public mind toward those who transgress the law in any obvious way has vacillated between that of harsh criticism and blame on the one hand, and maudlin sentimentality on the other. Neither the young nor the old were spared; neither attitude contributed one whit to the solution of the problem. Let the punishment fit the crime embodies the gist of the treatment dealt those who were unfortunate enough to run afoul the law. And during those times the eight-year-old boy who stole a pig was hanged along side the septuagenarian who took a paltry piece of tart. The changes that have come about since the beginning of this century have been revolutionary. They have tended to spring from waves of interest set in motion by the juvenile court movement, which was crystalized into its present form by the passage of an Illinois law on April 21, 1899. This was the first piece of legislation to bring under one jurisdiction-that of a court especially organized for children's work, all cases involving delinquent, neglected, and dependent children. This was less than a halfcentury ago. However, the roots of the juvenile court idea extend far back into English jurisprudence. That ancient institution, the English High Court of Chancery, keeper of the King's conscience, in applying the principles of equity to cases in which rigid rules of law and order alone would not bring justice, was called upon to exercise the perogative of the Crown as parens patriae in behalf of children whose welfare and/or property were in jeopardy. In America the power of the State as parens patriae was exercised through its representative, a court of chancery jurisdiction, which assumed control and protection over the person and property of minors. This was affirmed in several cases which arose in various ones of the states in the 19th century. During the last two decades the trends in treatment of delinquency have been toward an individualization of the child and his particular difficulty, and a consideration of delinquent behavior itself as simply a form or variation of the stream of life's activities. Healy and Bronner have given a series of studies' which, in all probability have provided us with our most valuable information both on the nature of juvenile delinquency and on the delinquent himself. They have