ABSTRACT
The problems of juvenile court reform raise questions about the place and function of courts in society; the age of criminal responsibility; the alternative to courts, and the nature of the essential preventive and supporting services. In the juvenile courts we are also acutely aware that one of our aims is to try to insert some positive factors into very bleak situations so as to enable a boy or girl to cope rather better than they would have done if the court had not intervened. For the first part of a juvenile court hearing the emphasis is on crime and proof of crime; while for the second part it is upon causation and treatment. The good and sensible parent in bringing up his children imposes rules, sets limits, teaches good manners, uses authority to help the child to come to terms with his raw emotions, his sudden impulses, his fears, angers and jealousies.
