INTERVIEW

Interview

Interview

Interviewee

John J. Wilson,

Acting Administrator

Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention

Questions

Can you briefly tell us what Juvenile Delinquency is?

We have confronted with a dilemma that criminology and sociology define “Juvenile Delinquency” differently. Can you tell us how these two fields look at Juvenile Delinquency?

Why we found the need of treating juvenile offenders differently?

During the period of social adjustment following industrialization, do juvenile institutions aimed at alleviating problems of the poor established in the United States?

What intention of early juvenile courts was to provide?

In the early years, at what principles juvenile courts in the United States acted?

Does field of sociology have contributed to this issue?

In United States, who keep records of juvenile delinquency?

Juvenile Delinquency and the Juvenile Justice System

Juvenile delinquency refers to any activity by persons classified as “juveniles” given their age, that violates a criminal law or other legal code. The term first appeared in 1899 when the first U.S. juvenile court was established in the state of Illinois. In addition to the legal definition of delinquency, there are two other types of delinquency definitions: status offense definitions and sociological definitions.

Criminal definitions of juvenile delinquency hinge on the offender's age. If an offender was thirty-six years old at the time he or she committed a criminal offense, that person would be termed a criminal. A person of twelve who commits the very same act is termed a juvenile delinquent. Age is also the pivotal factor in status offenses, a class of delinquent acts committed by offenders that are criminal violations simply because of the offender's age or status. For example, the purchase of alcohol by a fifteen-year-old is a status offense. The offender's age makes the action an infraction of the law. The age of juveniles varies from state to state; for example, in states such as New York, Connecticut and North Carolina, a juvenile is age sixteen and under, while in the majority of states and in all federal districts, a juvenile is age eighteen and under.

Sociological definitions of juvenile delinquency also depend on age and are largely focused on whether there is an infraction of the criminal law. Therefore, deviant actions by juveniles that violate social norms but not legal codes are not considered delinquent. In the United States, sociological explanations of delinquency were developed parallel to the establishment of juvenile institutions. These definitions factor in social influences, such as family, environment, social class, and relationships with peers and authority figures.

During the period of social adjustment following industrialization, juvenile institutions aimed at alleviating problems of the poor were established in the United States. In New York City, Boston, and Philadelphia, “Houses of Refuge” were used to educate and train troubled and poor youth and to separate juveniles from negative influences found in adult criminal institutions. Troubled and poor youth were the first juvenile delinquents of the Unites States. The rationale for such innovations was based on positivism, or a belief that one's social environment influenced behavior rather than one's own free ...