A New Approach to Juvenile Corrections

Abstract

In this Year of the Child, it is appropriate to consider the plight of the adolescent offender in this country. Towards the turn of the last century, there was concern to separate the child from the adult offender and to establish separate reformatories for youth. The separation saw the beginning of a special court, Children's Court, in which proceedings against the child were not adversary as with adults, but rather assumed that the State, “parens patriae”, could make good the deficit of parents in providing safe custody. The State acted “in loco parentis” and therefore not against the child.