NCJ Number
139199
Date Published
1983
Length
201 pages
Annotation
This autobiography recounts the author's delinquent past and his journey through various county and State agencies, psychiatric hospitals, and reformatories.
Abstract
Growing up in an impoverished, broken home, the author turned to vagrancy, truancy, and juvenile delinquency. He recollects how he was a victim of an unstable home life and rigid school system, but he also presents contrasting official records (court transcripts, psychiatric reports, and hospital files) that showed he was uncooperative and violent. He tells how he slowly fought his way out of delinquency, returned to school, and eventually earned a doctoral degree. The author's adult experience as an observer of the juvenile justice system is combined with his early experiences as a client of that system. His personal account highlights the trauma of a psychiatric assessment in a large State hospital, the conflict between recognizing an unsuitable home environment versus the disadvantages of institutional placement, and the relative powerlessness of social work and educational interventions in the face of an unacceptable home environment. The autobiography does not identify any single factor or event as being responsible for the author's successful outcome, nor does it deal directly with socioeconomic and class-cultural forces that shape lives and largely determine the incidence of such phenomena as the generation gap, alienation from school, broken homes, and material deprivation. On the other hand, the autobiography does call attention to the qualities of individual delinquents and to the nature of persons who interact with them. The book uses documentary records, case notes, and assessments to report the official views of authorities and demonstrate the essentially subjective nature of many professional judgments about delinquents and the frequent failure to comprehend the situation from the juvenile's standpoint.