Juvenile Delinquency in an English Middle Town by Hermann Mannheim

Author:Hermann Mannheim [Mannheim, Hermann]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Sociology, General
ISBN: 9781136267437
Google: hbmAAAAAQBAJ
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2013-08-21T05:49:19+00:00

Chapter 3

Methods of Treatment Used by the Juvenile Court

37. GENERAL OBSERVATIONS. In a study written at the beginning of the Second World War,1 the present author, after stressing the likelihood of a considerable rise in juvenile delinquency and adult crime as a consequence of the war, pointed out that, as compared with the war of 1914-1918, the methods of dealing with anti-social conduct had greatly improved. With regard to juvenile delinquency, in particular, the need for a more constructive approach had become well recognized, and there was little danger that certain undesirable tendencies noticed during the First World War, such as an increased and indiscriminate use of corporal punishment and fines at the expense of probation, might recur. Although it is still too early to express any definite opinion on the matter, a few facts with regard to juvenile delinquency would seem to stand out fairly clearly already now. To put it in a nutshell: First, the expected rise in juvenile delinquency did actually happen, though fortunately not quite to the extent feared six years ago. Secondly, the methods of treatment employed have, on the whole, taken the more enlightened course then anticipated, and, although this is in itself certainly not enough to secure a satisfactory state of affairs, it is gratifying to see that at least no excessive decline in the use of probation has taken place and that the rise in birchings did not last long.

From the figures given in Tables 2 and 28, it would be difficult to discover any peculiar features that would distinguish the policy in matters of treatment employed by the Cambridge Juvenile Court from that used by many other English Juvenile Courts. As in the country as a whole, probation has become by far the most important instrument, at least for indictable offences. As shown in Table 28, 51 per cent. of all juveniles charged with indictable offences in England and Wales before the last war were dealt with by probation, and although the figure had gone down to 44·5 per cent, in 1941, there has been slightly less deterioration in subsequent years (44·6 per

TABLE 28 METHODS OF TREATMENT APPLIED BY JUVENILE COURTS

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