NCJ Number
131772
Journal
Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology Volume: 82 Issue: 1 Dated: (Spring 1991) Pages: 125-132
Date Published
1991
Length
8 pages
Annotation
A judge who spent eleven years in the Juvenile Court of Allegheny County (Pa.) reviews his ideas about delinquency and its causes and cures.
Abstract
He originally felt that firm discipline was all that was needed to straighten out delinquents, but soon concluded that discipline was only part of the total equation. He noted that the system was too immersed into cases to inquire into what works which prompted him and other judges to establish the National Center for Juvenile Justice in 1973. His goal, and his measure of successful juvenile justice, was to prevent juvenile delinquents from entering the adult criminal justice system. As a judge, he had found disruptive home life and poor performance in school to be common factors in the lives of juvenile delinquents. This judge has blasted critics who sit in their ivory towers advocating absolute intolerance as well as those at the other extreme who intentionally do nothing about truancy or incorrigible behavior. The title of this article goes back to President Bush's opinion on the value of broccoli in relation to one's personal preference. Much like the broccoli question, arguments over the causes of delinquency are similarly a matter of opinion which will never be changed until the entire character of the delinquent is understood. 10 footnotes