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In the second edition of the book titled 
The Cycle of Juvenile Justice, the late

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Thomas J. Bernard and Megan Kurlychek
assert that there is a cyclical pattern

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in juvenile justice, where the same 
sequence of policies has

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been repeated over three times in the 
last two hundred years.

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In fact, the authors argue that future 
policy changes regarding juvenile justice

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can actually be predicted by closely 
examining the cycle.

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The authors also argue that the 
behaviors that we describe as juvenile

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delinquency today first appeared
in the United States in Western Europe

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around 1800 and persist to this day. 
They attribute juvenile delinquency to

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urbanization, industrialization, and the 
breakdown of traditional social controls.

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The authors contend that since 1800 
there are numerous aspects of juvenile

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delinquency, which have stayed the same.
For example, they assert that young

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males have always committed more crime 
than members of other groups.

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While the overall incidence and rate of 
crime may change, what remains

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constant is that young people, especially 
young males, are disproportionally

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involved in crime. In their book, Bernard 
and Kurlychek also point out that there

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are special laws only juveniles are 
required to obey.

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These laws are typically referred 
to as status offenses.

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Status offenses have been around for 
over two hundred years.

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Examples of status offenses, according 
to the authors include truancy,

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running away from ones parents, 
underage drinking,

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and refusing to obey ones parents. 
The authors contend that juveniles are

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still required to obey special laws, 
even in those states which have

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decriminalized status offenses. 
They assert that status offenders may be

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redefined as criminal offenders so that 
they might be processed through

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the juvenile courts. 
The authors argue that there have

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been separate laws for juveniles for 
centuries in attempts to changes these

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laws have only resulted in new laws or 
new approaches to control certain types

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of behaviors in juveniles.
Bernard and Kurlychek also maintained

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that for the last two hundred years,
juveniles for the most part, are often

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punished less severely than adults.
They trace this back to the code of

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Hammurabi, which was written over 
four thousand years ago.

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Here juveniles were treated more 
leniently than adults.

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Also, they examined Roman law with the
twelve tables, were there was absolute

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immunity from punishment for children
below a certain age.

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Today according to the authors, in most 
states within the U.S,

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young offenders below the age of eighteen 
are sent to the juvenile court.

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Nevertheless, there are states which 
have lowered the maximum age for

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juvenile court jurisdiction. 
For example, in New York and in

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North Carolina, if a juvenile is over 
fifteen years old he or she will

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be tried in an adult court. 
Also, it is important to point out that

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even if a juvenile commits a crime, 
if the offense is serious enough or if

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he or she has committed multiple offenses 
the juvenile could be waived

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to an adult court. 
And, in some states certain offenses,

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which are very serious, such as murder 
may automatically be waived

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to an adult court. 
In these cases, the defense attorney will

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then try to get the case transferred back
to the juvenile court.

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There are also other aspects of juvenile 
delinquency which have remained

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unchanged for the last two hundred years.
The authors assert that older people

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tend to believe that the current group 
of young people commit more frequent

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and more serious crimes than
juveniles in the past.

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They refer to this phenomenon as the 
myth of the good old days.

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The authors assert that whether juvenile 
crime is high or low many people tend

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to believe that it is worse than before.
Therefore, people always tend to

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believe that we are right in the middle 
of or on the verge of a juvenile crime

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wave, regardless of what the actual 
reality might be.

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Bernard and Kurlychek also argue that 
many people blame juvenile justice

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policies for the supposed juvenile crime 
wave as either being too lenient

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or too harsh. 
This explains both the creation of the

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first juvenile institution as well as the
development of the juvenile

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justice system. 
For example, prior to 1825,

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there was no juvenile institution. 
Instead, there were only adult facilities

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to send juvenile offenders to.
So naturally, judges, juries,

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and prosecutors wanted to avoid sending 
juvenile offenders to adult institutions.

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As a result, many juveniles got off 
scot free.

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People were very critical of this which 
eventually led to the creation of the

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first juvenile institution in 
New York City in 1825.

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The first juvenile court, in Chicago, also
emerged in a very similar manner.

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It was established in 1899 because 
the adult courts were believed to be

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too lenient with juveniles. 
As a result, of the creation of the

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juvenile court system, more youths 
were subjected to the control and

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supervision of the adult court system. 
It is worth mentioning again that the

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author attribute juvenile delinquency 
to the transition from agricultural

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societies to modern industrial societies.
In the United States and in

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Western Europe the transition occurred 
at about the same time in the early 1800s.

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Interestingly, when other nations made a 
similar transition, juvenile delinquency

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also occurred. 
For example, as countries in Africa,

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Asia, and Latin America underwent 
modernization during the

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latter part of the 20th century, they too,
confronted the problem of

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juvenile delinquency. 
Again, this is a phenomenon which no

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country really experienced as a 
traditional agricultural society.

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Population growth coupled with 
urbanization put juvenile offenders

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into close contact with potential victims,
and immigration created culture conflict

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which also led to crimes,
and industrialization increased the

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number of movable goods which led to a 
significant spike in property crimes.

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In the United States, the juvenile justice
system was created to capture young

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underprivileged people and shape and mold
these individuals into productive people,

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so that they would not steal the property
from the wealthy members of society.

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The authors argue that universities and 
colleges were used to mold young people

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from the middle and upper 
class segments of society.

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While the juvenile justice system, 
on the other hand,

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was used to mold young people from the 
lower classes who were deemed

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to be the most dangerous. 
The first juvenile institution was created

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in 1825 in New York by powerful 
protestant middle age men who had grown

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up in quiet and orderly small towns. 
As America made its transformation from

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a rural to an urban society, these men 
believed that young immigrant youths were

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creating havoc in the cities. 
When youths were caught committing crimes,

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they also noticed that judges and juries
often refused to convict them and it

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would entail sending a young person 
to the penitentiary.

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So as a result, youthful offenders often 
got off scot free.

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These wealthy protestant men decided 
to build a juvenile institution which was

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focused on reform rather that punishment.
When this facility was built, it even

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took in juveniles who had not yet 
committed any crime.

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Most of these juveniles were committed 
to this house of refuge until they were

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twenty one years of age. 
Again, virtually all of the juveniles who

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were cited within this institution 
were immigrants.

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The children of Irish Catholics soon 
came to dominate the population inside

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the house of refuge. 
Eventually, there was no more room

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inside this institution. 
So youths were sent to work on farms

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in the newly settled states such as Ohio,
Indiana, and Illinois.

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These young immigrants were essentially
indentured servants until they

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turned twenty one.
They were taken from their families

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and either confined in a facility or 
placed in homes which were hundreds

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of miles away and they were made 
to work for their keep.

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The natural parents of these youths were 
not typically told of their

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children’s whereabouts. 
In their book, Bernard and Kurlychek

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point to an 1838 Pennsylvania Supreme 
Court case which they referred to

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as the Case of Mary Ann Crouse. 
In this case, a girl was sent to a

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Philadelphia house of refuge, even though
she had not committed a crime.

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Her father argued that the state had 
no right to confine his daughter;

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however, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court
rejected the father’s arguments and ruled

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that it was legal to help Mary Ann because
of the state’s role as parens patriae.

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This is a Latin phrase which means parent 
of the country.

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The court held that the state had an 
obligation to take over as this

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child’s parent. 
And because she was not being punished,

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this child was not entitled to 
any due process protections.

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This case essentially affirmed that 
children could be held in houses of

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refuge until their twenty first birthday,
even if they had not committed

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an actual crime. 
In 1868, thirty years later the Illinois

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state Supreme Court ruled that a young 
juvenile who had committed no crime could

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not be held in a reform school. 
The court concluded that the juvenile,

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whose name was David O’Connell, 
was being punished rather than helped.

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The court held that it was illegal to 
send poor children to reform schools

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unless they had committed a 
felony offense.


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It was not long after this decision that
reformers went looking for a new basis

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to control poor immigrant children. 
Reformers always sought to expand state

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power rather than limit it. 
So after the O’Connell decisions declared

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that it was illegal to confine juveniles 
who had not committed a crime in

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houses of refuge, social reformers created
the first juvenile court.

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The juvenile court which had civil rather 
than criminal jurisdiction would be used

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as a tool to control children who were 
deemed to be among the dangerous class

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that threatened the status quo. 
Bernard and Kurlychek argue that while

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the first juvenile institution had been 
founded by men, the first juvenile court

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was largely the result 
of the work of women.

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These women were the wives and daughters 
of prominent Chicago politicians

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and businessmen. 
These women went to the city council

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and state legislators and lobbied for 
major policy changes in the

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handling of juveniles. 
After the O’Connell decision, these

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reformers wanted to find a way to 
control poor immigrant juveniles,

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even those who had not yet 
committed a crime.

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And these reformers were able to 
accomplish their objective by removing

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children from the jurisdiction of 
the adult criminal court and establishing

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a juvenile court which was not 
criminal in nature.

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Rather, the juvenile court was social 
welfare agency and children who had needs

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of any kind could be brought into 
the juvenile court.

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After the first juvenile court was 
established, the law provided court

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workers with virtually unlimited power 
over poor children.

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And because the juvenile court was a 
civil court rather than a criminal one,

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young people brought within its 
jurisdiction did not enjoy

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due process protections.
The juvenile court returned to handling

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juvenile offenders as it had handled them
before the O’Connell decision.

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It established a new basis for the old 
practice of sending poor children to rural

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institutions for their own good, 
even if these children had not

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committed an actual crime. 
As long as the case worker thought it was

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in the best interest of the child it was, 
once again, no longer necessary for that

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child to have committed an actual 
criminal offense.

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The few due process safe guards that 
have been providing the juveniles under

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the O’Connell decision were wiped out by 
the establishment of the new

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juvenile court. 
This pattern would go uncontested

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for the next seventy years.
It was not until the mid-1960s that

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the U.S Supreme Court would make key
rulings which would provide juveniles

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with important due process safeguards.