The Impact of the Juvenile Court Hearing on the Child

Abstract

This study shows that the juvenile court hearing has a signifi cant impact on the child involved (particularly if it is his first hearing), rendering at least some children more capable of change during this phase in the delinquency pattern than during any later phase. This change capability seems to decrease markedly with the passage of time. It is suggested that if the change capability is not utilized the child's delinquent tendencies may be strengthened, rendering him less capable of change after the hearing than he was before it. Fear was the dominant emotion experienced by the children both before and during the hearing. The children felt most hostile toward the police and least hostile toward the judge, probably because (1) the children come to the hearing with a more negative stereotype of police than of the judge, (2) the police are more directly involved in uncovering the offense than is the judge, and (3) the judge is less directly accessible to the children and their parents, giving his role a greater aura of mystery than that of the police. Finally, it was found that during the interviews most children experienced difficulty in using abstractions, suggesting that delinquent children may learn to deal with abstractions at a later age (if at all) than non- delinquent children.