About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline
LOG IN
LOG IN

8 St. Louis U. L.J. 59 (1963-1964)
Contributing to Delinquency

handle is hein.journals/stlulj8 and id is 61 raw text is: CONTRIBUTING TO DELINQUENCY GILBERT GEIS* The juvenile court movement in the United States, inaugurated in Illinois in 1899,1 has been characterized by quite broad and quite vague definitions of acts which are said to constitute delin- quent behavior.2 The juvenile court statutes of most states include a wide sweep of derelictions, embracing murder and similar hei- nous crimes, applicable to both adults and juveniles, as well as such curious and ill-assorted acts as knowingly frequents a house of ill-repute or bucket shop, habitually uses vile, obscene, or vulgar language, or smokes cigarettes.3 For any of these and similar acts, the underage perpetrator can usually be sent to a state training school for a period extending to the onset of his majority; in many instances, therefore, the juvenile offender may be deprived of liberty for a considerably longer period than would be possible for adults convicted of an equivalent offense. The rationale underlying this patent unfairness is that the treatment of the juvenile offender is not criminal in nature,4 but rather is undertaken to restore the youth to law abiding ways in a manner consistent with the kind of enlightened treatment that should have been afforded by his parents. Juvenile hearings are not synonymous with criminal proceedings in spirit, it is said, and therefore need not measure up to them in literal standards. Due process guarantees may be omitted in juvenile hearings if it can be demonstrated that the proceedings, despite such omissions, were reasonably fair and afforded some semblance of decent regu- larity.5 Numerous difficulties surround the application of the criterion of fairness as a measure of the adequacy of juvenile court hear- * Professor of Sociology, Los Angeles State College. 1. Laws of Illinois, 1899, p. 31. 2. For a summary of juvenile court laws, see SUSSMANN, LAWS OF JUVENILE DELINQUENCY (rev. ed. 1959). 3. From a list in Rubin, llhat is Juvenile Delinquency? in CRIME & JUVENILE DELINQUENCY 46, 49 (2d ed. 1961). 4. The pioneer decisions are Commonwealth v. Fisher, 213 Pa. 48, 68 Atl. 198 (1905); Mill v. Brown, 31 Utah 473, 88 Pac. 609 (1907); In re Sharp, 15 Idaho 120, 96 Pac. 563 (1908). Ruling state decisions are gatheied in Pee v. United States, 274 F.2d 556, 561 (D.C. Cir. 1959). But note Warren, C.J.: To determine whether a law is penal or not inquiry must be directed to substance and . . . a statute that prescribes the consequence that will befall one who fails to abide . . . is a penal law. . . . [Elven a clear legislative classification of ,a statute as 'non-penal' would not alter the fundamental nature of a plainly penal statute. Trop v. Dulles, 356 U.S. 86, 95, 97 (1958). 5. Pee v. United States, op. cit. supra note 4, at 559. 59

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Short-term subscription options include 24 hours, 48 hours, or 1 week to HeinOnline.

Purchase Access

Contact us for annual subscription options:

Contact Us

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

Log In

profiles profiles most