Children's court

“ We conclude that the constitutional privilege against self-incrimination is applicable in the case of juveniles as it is with respect to adults. We appreciate that special problems may arise with respect to waiver of the privilege by or on behalf of children, and that there may well be some differences in technique but not in principle-depending upon the age of the child and the presence and competence of parents. The participation of counsel will, of course, assist the police, Juvenile Courts and appellate tribunals in administering the privilege. ”

“ While the powers of the Children's Court might be extended or used for this purpose in extreme cases where adolescents are brought before the Court, the best help can come from wise action by parents to prevent their powers of direction and control being undermined through young persons having too much freedom and too many of the material things which are not necessary for their well-being. ”

“ Persons who care for children pursuant to a custody order, and who may be subject to a request for access to the child, are hardly a " 'selective group inherently suspect of criminal activities.' " Marchetti, supra, 390 U.S., at 57, 88 S.Ct., at 707 (quoting Albertson v. Subversive Activities Control Board, 382 U.S., at 79, 86 S.Ct., at 199) . The juvenile court may place a child within its jurisdiction with social service officials or "under supervision in his own home or in the custody or under the guardianship of a relative or other fit person, upon terms the court deems appropriate." ”

“ The result of the new method of boy-control now used by children’s courts is to reduce the number of commitments to industrial schools, reform schools, and other similar agencies of detention and correction from seventy-five to approximately ten in each hundred. Where the environment of home life is bad, the court does not hesitate to remove the child from his home to a place in which he will not be handicapped by such influence. ”

“ The powers of the Court are the widest possible. It can reprimand the child, punish it, postpone sentence, send it to a reformatory, determining where and how the coercive reformatory education shall be effected, can summon the child before the Court at any time, &c. In many of the States, individualisation and classification have been carried so far that the Courts hold special sittings to deal with truancy from school, the case of neglected children, criminal offences, &c. ”

“ Justice FIELD, said: 'The only object of the statute is to protect the children against omission or oversight, which not unfrequently arises from sickness, old age, or other infirmity, or the peculiar circumstances under which the will is executed. When, however, the children are present to the mind of the testator,-and the fact that they are mentioned by him is conclusive evidence of this,-the statute affords no protection, if provision is not made for them. ”

“ Where a pupil is to be charged before the Children's Court the principal should be asked to make a recommendation regarding the future of the child either independently of, or jointly with, that of the Child Welfare Officer. ”

“ The instant case does not present the special considerations that arise where a parent, with or without minor children, leaves a jurisdiction for the purpose of escaping process or otherwise evading jurisdiction, and we do not have here the considerations that arise when children are unlawfully or surreptitiously taken by one parent from the other. ”

“ The juvenile court is a court of law, charged like other agencies of criminal justice with protecting the community against threatening conduct. Rehabilitating offenders through individualized handling is one way of providing protection, and appropriately the primary way in dealing with children. But the guiding consideration for a court of law that deals with threatening conduct is nonetheless protection of the community. The juvenile court, like other courts, is therefore obliged to employ all the means at hand, not excluding incapacitation, for achieving that protection. ”

“ Only the Court officials, those directly interested in the case, and the representatives of the Press may be admitted to these Courts, unless the special leave of the magistrate is obtained. Every effort is to be made, both before and after trial, to prevent the association of children with adult criminals. ”

“ Criminal proceedings against children tend more and more to assume the form simply of the choice of the necessary educational measures. Inasmuch as a coercive reformatory education, when not the outcome of a criminal prosecution, has, in most cases, been prescribed by the Board of Guardianship, it would seem as well that the power to order a coercive reformatory education in the case also of juvenile criminal offenders should be transferred to the law court which works under the authority of the Board of Guardianship. ”

“ The Court of Appeal affirmed, holding that 'child' in Article 2315 means 'legitimate child,' the denial to illegitimate children of 'the right to recover' being 'based on morals and general welfare because it discourages bringing children into the world out of wedlock.' 192 So.2d 193, 195. ”

“ It shall not be a defence to an information or complaint under this section that any child consented to the act.
(b) The Attendance of Parents at a Children's Court Should be Made Compulsory: There is not at present any provision whereby the parents of a child who commits an offence must attend Court. The provision in section 13 (1) that the Justice may require the person having the custody of a "delinquent" child to attend, with or without the child, does not meet present needs. ”

“ There is much evidence that some juvenile courts, including that of the District of Columbia, lack the personnel, facilities and techniques to perform adequately as representatives of the State in a parens patriae capacity, at least with respect to children charged with law violation. There is evidence, in fact, that there may be grounds for concern that the child receives the worst of both worlds: that he gets neither the protections accorded to adults nor the solicitous care and regenerative treatment postulated for children. ”

“ After noting that the statute would have been invalid if applied to adults, the Court said: "The state's authority over children's activities is broader than over like actions of adults. This is peculiarly true of public activities and in matters of employment. ”

“ This practical objection, however, would lose all force, both as regards cases where the accused are under 21 years and those in which they are over 21 years, if the proposed offence by females were restricted to girls under 16 and thus triable in the Children's Court, and not by indictment. The judicial process in the Children's Court is, or can be, such a speedy process that the Crown would not be hampered in making its charge against the male in the ordinary Criminal Court by the possibility that the case would fail if the girl pleaded that she should not be required to answer questions. ”

“ Julian Mack, The Chancery Procedure in the Juvenile Court, in The Child, The Clinic, and the Court (19'25) , p. 310.↑ . See, e.g., Shears, Legal Problems Peculiar to Children's Courts, 48 A.B.A.J. 719, 720 (1962) ("The basic right of a juvenile is not to liberty, but to custody. He has the right to have someone take care of him, and if his parents do not afford him this custodial privilege, the law must do so.") ; Ex parte Crouse, 4 Whart. 9, 11 (Sup.Ct.Pa. 1839) ; Petition of Ferrier, 103 Ill. ”

“ A new offence should be created whereunder boys and girls who are guilty of indecent conduct with one another should both be liable to be charged as delinquents in the Children's Court and the practice of recording the names of boys in the Police Gazette as having been summarily dealt with should cease. ”

“ In the vital matter of taking care of children, much advantage could be gained by a careful study of what has been accomplished in such States as Illinois and Colorado by the juvenile courts. The work of the juvenile court is really a work of character building. It is now generally recognized that young boys and young girls who go wrong should not be treated as criminals, not even necessarily as needing reformation, but rather as needing to have their characters formed, and for this end to have them tested and developed by a system of probation. ”

“ Separated as our issue is from that of the future interests of the children, we have before us the elemental question whether a court of a state, where a mother is neither domiciled, resident nor present, may cut off her immediate right to the care, custody, management and companionship of her minor children without having jurisdiction over her in personam. Rights far more precious to appellant than property rights will be cut off if she is to be bound by the Wisconsin award of custody. ”

“ For this reason such state laws generally provide less formal and less public methods for the trial of children. In line with this policy, both courts and legislators have shrunk back from labeling these laws as 'criminal' and have preferred to call them 'civil.' This, in part, was to prevent the full application to juvenile court cases of the Bill of Rights safeguards, including notice as provided in the Sixth Amendment, [1] the right to counsel guaranteed by the Sixth, [2] the right against selfincrimination guaranteed by the Fifth, [3] and the right to confrontation guarantee b y the Sixth. ”

“ In theory the juvenile court was to be helpful and rehabilitative rather than punitive. In fact the distinction often disappears, not only because of the absence of facilities and personnel but also because of the limits of knowledge and technique. In theory the court's action was to affix no stigmatizing label. In fact a delinquent is generally viewed by employers, schools, the armed services-by society generally-as a criminal. In theory the court was to treat children guilty of criminal acts in noncriminal ways. ”

“ At a minimum, our prior cases recognizing that children are, generally speaking, constitutionally protected actors require that this Court reject any suggestion that when it comes to parental rights, children are so much chattel. ”

“ As upper guardian of all dependent and minor children this Court has an inalienable right and authority to establish what is in the best interests of children and to make corresponding orders to ensure that such interests are effectively served and safeguarded. ”

“ Their real efficacy lies in the main in the provisions which facilitate the taking of evidence of young children, in permitting poor law authorities to prosecute at the expense of the rates, and in permitting a constable on arresting the offender to take the child away from the accused, and the court of trial on conviction to transfer the custody of the child from the offender to some fit and willing person, including any society or body corporate established for the reception of poor children or for the prevention of cruelty to children. ”

“ They also enjoyed the support of Advocate Stais of the Johannesburg Bar, who was appointed by this Court to act as curator ad litem to represent the interests of the children who are the subject of this application and also other children born and unborn who may be affected by this Court’s order. In matters where the interests of children are at stake, it is important that their interests are fully aired before the Court so as to avoid substantial injustice to them and possibly others. ”

“ Where a Juvenile Court thinks that a charge against a child or young person is proved, the Court may make an order on the parent or guardian under this section for the payment of damages or costs or requiring him to give security for the good behaviour of the child or young person, without proceeding to record a finding of guilt against the child or young person. ”

“ The State contends that it has a substantial interest in protecting children who are allegedly victims of child abuse from the trauma of testifying against the alleged perpetrator and that its statutory procedure for receiving testimony from such witnesses is necessary to further that interest. ”

“ The absence of substantive standards has not necessarily meant that children receive careful, compassionate, individualized treatment. The absence of procedural rules based upon constitutional principle has not always produced fair, efficient, and effective procedures. Departures from established principles of due process have frequently resulted not in enlightened procedure, but in arbitrariness. ”

“ For some years prior to the passing of the Children Act, 1908, those interested in the welfare of the young had been trying to secure the hearing of charges against juvenile delinquents in Courts of Justice apart from those of adults. In 1905, several large towns had taken this step. At Birmingham, the first separate Court for children's cases was established in April, 1905, to which was attached the first Probation Officer for children. ”

“ The well-being of its children is of course a subject within the State's constitutional power to regulate, and, in our view, two interests justify the limitations in § 484-h upon the availability of sex material to minors under 17, at least if it was rational for the legislature to find that the minors' exposure to such material might be harmful. First of all, constitutional interpretation has consistently recognized that the parents' claim to authority in their own household to direct the rearing of their children is basic in the structure of our society. ”

“ It had become apparent that numbers of disorderly children, mainly from broken homes, were being brought into the criminal courts for escapades and sexual offenses, placed in jails with hardened criminals and thereby having the possibility of the formation 195of a normal scheme of life destroyed once and forever. Certain women were the first to protest and to act, and the result was the formation of a court for children which dispensed with lawyers and legal technicalities, and treated the child as far as possible as an unruly member of a family, not as a criminal. ”