The Juvenile Court and the Criminal Justice Act
| DOI | 10.1177/002201834801200312 |
| Date | 01 July 1948 |
| Published date | 01 July 1948 |
| Subject Matter | The Juvenile Court and the Criminal Justice Act |
The
Juvenile Court and the Criminal
Justice
Act
THE new Act is a measure which relates to criminal
justice
generally:
it
does
not
contain
any
provisions
relating peculiarly to juvenile courts as such,
though
there
are
many
changes which
they
will share
with
other
courts
of
summary
jurisdiction. As however
the
main problem
in a juvenile
court
is commonly to find
the
appropriate
method of disposal (and rarely to decide whether guilt
is proved)
it
is proposed here to consider
the
extent
to
which
the
new Act, when in force, will enlarge or diminish
the
range of available methods.
The
only provision
by
which anyone
has
proposed
to
reduce
the
range is
that
relating to
the
power to
order
corporal punishment.
The
considerable public
and
Parlia-
mentary
resistance to a similar proposal
in
the
Bill of
1938 has
not
been equalled
by
opposition to
the
present
measure,
and
it
seems likely
that
the
power to whip when
it
does disappear will
not
be much missed in
the
juvenile
courts.
Even
among those who were upholders of cor-
poral
punishment
in theory, there were
many
who found
it
anomalous
that
achild could be whipped for
any
indict-
able offence, while a young person could
not;
others
considered
that
the
delays
and
technicalities
attaching
to
an order for whipping destroyed
any
value
it
might
have;
others again felt
it
unfair to revive in an individual case
apower which in
many
areas
had
been
virtually
abrogated
by
desuetude.
The
changes made in probation
and
the
probation
system
are
of course of especial interest inasmuch as pro-
bation
is appropriate to a greater proportion of juvenile
than
of
adult
offenders. Particularly valuable is
the
provision which abolishes
the
recognizance in probation
cases. A child rarely has
any
money
to
forfeit,
and
any
juvenile who is capable of understanding
that
he "owes
to
our
Sovereign
Lord
the
King
the
sum of
forty
shillings
to be levied on his goods, lands
and
tenements" is
probably
also capable of keeping
out
of
trouble;
but
even a
dull
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