The Juvenile Offender's Perceptions

Abstract

An important aspect of juvenile court proceedings concerns the impact of the expertence upon the child. The author studied the perceptions of the juvenile offender in court by interviewing 265 boys in three metropolitan juvenile courts before and after their court appearance. Before-and-after comparisons were ob tained on semantic differential ratings of potency and evaluation of self and judge. These are related to background factors (socio-economic class, family, and age), perception of participa tion in the court process, and perception of interest of the judge. Other perceptions are related to the personal characteristics of the judge.