eventually merge and handle the problems now covered by both, and deal with them from a thoroughly social point of view. 8. The Juvenile Court in Other Countries. The juvenile court has had its greatest development in the United States. Canada, however, which really began the system, has established juvenile courts which deal very effectively with her children. There, as here, the courts are established separately in each state or province. South Australia established a children's court in 1895, and New South Wales in 1905, and in the latter state a system of probation was also established. The German government has projected a rather elaborate plan of procedure for the handling of juvenile delinquents. Among the provisions of its code are the following: The term "juvenile" is applied to persons under 18 years of age. In each judicial district a juvenile court is to be established with one judge and two laymen in charge. The public attorney decides whether a case shall be prosecuted or given educational treatment. The accused child may be defended by a lawyer. While awaiting trial the child may be detained in a reformatory. Trials are separate from those of adults. The child may be placed in an institution or on probation. A system of paid probation officers has been established, but it is maintained largely by private societies, although some cities pay the officials from the public fund. The greatest advance in juvenile court legislation in Europe has been made by England, where the institutional care of juvenile delinquents has long been considered a superior form of treatment. The Children Act of 1908, which is an elaborate code covering many phases of child protection, devotes one of its six parts to the juvenile offender. The principal points in the procedure of the law are as follows: 1 1 Children Act, 1908, 8 Edw. 7, Ch. 67, pp. 55-66. Children apparently under 16 are included under the law. The officials may release the accused on a recognizance for such an amount as will secure his attendance at court. Detention homes must be provided. Parents or guardians of children must attend court. In case of guilt the following punishments are provided: The child may be placed under the supervision of a proba- He may be discharged provisionally. The parent may be required to give security for the behavior of his child. Juvenile court hearings must be held in a different building or room than that in which the court ordinarily meets. Children while detained for trial are not allowed to associate with adults. Private hearings are provided except that representatives of the press may be present. The imprisonment of children is abolished. The provisions of the English law took effect in 1909 except the part relating to imprisonment, which was put in operation in 1910. The law itself embodies most of the features common to the American laws. The probation system, however, is still in its infancy, for the tradition of institutional treatment is hard to overcome. France and the Latin countries are practically without juvenile courts, but in Paris children may be placed under the probationary care of private societies. Some advance has also been made in Italy, and children are being treated with more humaneness in the ordinary courts. CHAPTER III THE PROBATION SYSTEM 1. Development of the Probation System. The probation system has been called the "keystone" of the juvenile court, and with reason, because it alone makes the success of the court possible. The court itself is little more than the disposing agency directing what shall be done with the child, but the probation officer is the arm of the law which deals with the child directly. These children are the wards of the state and it is the probation officer who makes the state's guardianship effective. The probation system antedated the juvenile court by many years, Massachusetts having introduced it in 1869; and several other states used it before they established the juvenile court. With the rise of the court, however, the probation system sprang into greater prominence. While the juvenile court itself dates only from 1899, at least 38 states have enacted probation laws and are using the new method of dealing with the youthful delinquent. All the states containing large cities are included among this number. In 1898 Rhode Island passed a law providing for the temporary supervision of delinquents; the Illinois law was passed in 1899; and a number of states made provision for probation in 1903. Since then the system has been rapidly extended. The probation system is being gradually brought under state supervision; already 12 states have adopted a partial or complete system of such supervision. Rhode Island was again the pioneer, and in 1899 placed the general direction of the work under the authority of the state board of charities, which also appoints the officers and fixes their salaries. The small size of the state renders this function an easier one than would otherwise be the case. Other agen cies to which some states have given the control of the probation system are: State Board of Prison Commissioners, Prison Association, Board of Control, and State Probation Commission. Several states, including Massachusetts and New York, have adopted the last method of control. State control in Colorado permits the rejection of local appointments to the position of probation officer. The state of Utah allows its commission to appoint and fix the salaries of both juvenile court judges and probation officers. Other states limit the functions of the state bodies to inquiries into the methods and results of probation work, to suggestions for its improvement, to the gathering of statistics, and to attempts to secure a unification of policy throughout the state. 2. Probation Officers and their Duties. The primary duties of the probation officer are well expressed in the Illinois statute: "It shall be the duty of the probation officer to make such investigation as may be required by the court; to be present in court in order to represent the interest of the child when the case is heard; to furnish the court such information and assistance as the judge may require; and to take such charge of the child before and after trial as may be directed by the court." In some cities a chief probation officer is appointed who has charge of the other officers. In the larger cities the work of the officers is usually specialized and some are detailed to confine themselves to the investigation of cases to be brought into the court. Probationary work may be carried on directly by the following classes of individuals: 1. Paid officers confining their efforts to probationary care of the child. 2. Unpaid volunteer workers whose duties are limited to supervisory work. 3. The judge acting in the capacity of probation officer. 4. The police serving as probation officials. a. Investigating Officials. The delinquent child may be summoned into court after complaint by some citizen or official or he may be brought on warrant. Before the case of the child is settled by the court, a preliminary investigation is made by the probation officer, or in the large cities by the officers detailed for the work of investigating the cases of children against whom charges have been preferred. Such official attempts to present sufficiently complete information to enable the judge to dispose of the case without further evidence. This information is secured in part from the child and his parents directly, but is supplemented and corroborated by neighbors and acquaintances, while school records and employment records are used when necessary. The chief probation officer bases his judgment on the facts presented and the judge in most cases follows the suggestions made. Unless he is skillful in his task, the investigating officer will fail to collect many of the most important facts about the child. A trained worker is most necessary for this work, and considerable skill is necessary to extort the truth from the unwilling subjects of investigation. By giving his entire time to investigation the worker acquires a high degree of skill and increases the efficiency of the probation force. It is also desirable to place the child under the probationary care of some other officer than the one who made the investigation of the case. Better results are usually accomplished. b. Officials engaged in Probationary Work. The work of the judge is less important than that of the probation officers, who carry out the instructions of the court. The judge can only determine what shall be done with the delinquent; the probation officer must endeavor to restore him to a normal moral status. In the first place the probation officer sometimes brings the child to the detention home, although in most cases the police do so if the child is arrested for the first time. If relieved of the task of making preliminary investigations, the probation officer must still be familiar with the facts that have been obtained, in order to supervise the child efficiently, for his duties then have just begun. When a child remains in his old environment and in a majority of cases the environment, including the home, has been responsible for the delinquency the probation officer must become familiar with the influences that surround the delinquent. Although |