History of Juvenile Justice

1776-1826 Gangs begin

Jun 10, 1776

Starting out children mainly boys would be the ones in trouble because once they left home they found themselves on the streets stealing food to eat and sleeping in alley’s, just to survive. Ganges got started in the 1790’s to the 1820’s them homeless boys would congregate on the fringes of crowded cities where they could survive by robbing travelers or doing odd jobs for people. Five Points District because it was where five streets intersected into one in New York.

Houses of Refuge 1817-1845

May 10, 1825

Society for the Prevention of Pauperism of New York became the first group in America to call attention to neglected children between the ages of 10-18. In 1825 the House of Refuge opened its doors in New York City and became the earliest child-saving institution in the county, It was the first to house children and adults separately.

1850-1856 The Rise in Girls

Jun 10, 1856

It was said to believe that if these girls needed a strong mothering environment and teaching of morals for them to become good mothers also. Illinois and Ohio avoided an urban area setting but yet a rural setting for the girls because it was said that the city was the root of all evil and social problems and offered too many temptations to unsupervised children. But in 1856 the first girl’s reformatory was opened in Massachusetts State Industrial School for Girls.

Late1899 Juvenile Court Act Establishing

Jun 10, 1899

The child-saving movement at the turn of the century to use the power of the state to save children from a life of crime,. 1899 Illinois approved the passage of the Juvenile Court Act establishing the first official comprehensive system of juvenile justice. This gave the momentum to the development of the modern juvenile justice system.

1874-1899 Laws Authorizing Seperate Trials for Children

Jul 10, 1899

Building on what the Elmira Reformatory experiment had in Massachusetts of 1874 and the Rhode Island in 1892 together passed laws authorizing separate trials for children. It wasn’t until early 1899 most states gave the criminal justice system jurisdiction ever neglected and dependent children and the ones that were called delinquents due to the fact that they were convicted of crimes. It was then that the first juvenile court was somewhat established.

1949 Lombroso and Sheldon

Jun 10, 1949

Cesare Lombroso was the one who had created the positive school he believed that one could recognize a “born criminal” by studying the body measurements and physical traits that a boy would have. A partner William Sheldon collected the physical measurements of 200 boys at a Boston reform school. But he soon found out that mesomorphs did not determine that a person was a delinquent but gave a predisposition that he or she were going to become a delinquent.

1950 Mass Media influence

Jun 10, 1950

Once again Juvenile delinquency was on a rise, and during hearings on the problem Estes Kefauver a now-familiar refrain was heard: “blame the mass media.” It was the Historian James Gilbert suggests that “The 1950’s dispute over mass culture was protracted and perhaps more universal and intense than at earlier periods.”

1956-1973 Body Types

Jun 10, 1956

Sheldon and Eleanor Glueck tested Sheldon’s hypothesis by comparing 500 identified delinquents with 500 non-delinquents in a controlled experiment. Their findings were that body type in itself could not incline individuals to be delinquent behavior but was one of many factors that led to delinquency.

1985 - Late 1990’s

Jun 10, 1997

Between these times the number of youths under the age of 18 in adult prisons more than doubled. In the past 9 years 45 states have passed legislation making it easier to prosecute juveniles as adults, they were motivated to make these decisions by the high profile crimes. As young as 10 could still be prosecuted as adults.

2001 ABA studied the young girls arrested

Jun 10, 2001

This was soon to be the fastest growing segment of the juvenile justice population of girls under the age of 18. By 2001 of the 38 states that authorized the death penalty 18 had established and age of 16 as a minimum age, 5 had set it at 17 and 15 set it at 18. 17 of the juveniles executed since 1976 committed their crimes before they turned 18.

Late 2009 life without parole

Oct 10, 2009

109 people (juveniles) were serving sentences of life without the possibility of parole for non-homicide crimes committed while under the age of 18. There was as least 2500 were serving life without parole for murder or participating in a crime that lead to murder. Germany and Italy were in Germany however the maximum juvenile sentence is 10 years and 24 years in Italy.

Today

Jun 10, 2012

There is a process in which juveniles have to go through no matter what offense it is that they have committed. Police Contact is where it all begins when they determine whether a crime has been committed; intake, detention, arraignment, evidentiary hearing, disposition hearing, waiver to adult court.