Impact of the Child Savers on the Emergence of a New System of Justice for Juveniles

With the establishment of mechanisms of social control, e.g. ways through which the middle and upper classes could gain control over the children of the lower classes, it was just a matter of time before this somewhat informal system would be developed into a more formal one. The child-saving movement was one of the most powerful grassroots movements in the history of the U.S. Along with the establishment of houses of refuge, mandatory schooling was put into place, and the state came to be seen as a legitimate source of parenting, to take the place of parents who were viewed as unable or unwilling to manage unruly children. The creation of the first separate justice system for children was in 1899 in Cook County, Illinois (Chicago). This system, however, had been set in place long before it was formalized. As noted above, although some viewed the child savers as having their hearts in the right place, others argue strongly just the opposite. The new court was to extend the underlying philosophy of the movement to get control over what was viewed a major threat to "good" society. In this new system, a new language was created to address the new "juvenile" offender. These youthful offenders were not be called "criminals" as were adults who broke the law. These offenders would be "taken into custody" as opposed to being "arrested." This new "juvenile" would be "adjudicated a delinquent" as opposed to being "convicted." He or she would serve time, if need be, in a "juvenile holding facility" as opposed to being placed in a "jail or prison." All of these new terms were a direct holdover from the child-saving movement and the progressiveness of these reformers and their belief that children should be treated differently from adults.