ent aid to give the
family a fair chance to get on its feet or for advising them or bringing
such influences into their lives as will ensure their rehabilitation. He
is charged with a most difficult task for which he has had no
experience or training, which he must handle with the greatest economy
and for which he receives little compensation either in salary or public
esteem. Very commonly his election is due to political strength rather
than special personal fitness. The case of the poor is commonly regarded
as a necessary evil to be handled with as little trouble as possible,
rather than as an opportunity to give such help to the unfortunate that
further assistance may be unnecessary and that they may become an asset
to the community.

Cases of delinquency involving only misdemeanors or minor offenses are
tried before a justice of the peace or local magistrate. Usually these
officials are men with no legal training and with little understanding
of the causes of delinquency or of how delinquents should be treated in
order to give them a fair chance to become normal citizens. The usual
attitude is one of determining the offense and meting out just
punishment for it. Furthermore, the local justice frequently avoids
handling a case which may involve him in difficulties with his
neighbors, unless he is forced to do so. Not infrequently juvenile
offenders are sent to reformatories where they come into contact with
worse characters and are hardened rather than reformed, whereas if they
had been placed on probation under proper supervision and under
satisfactory home conditions they might have lived decent lives.

In most of our cities juvenile cases are now handled in special juvenile
courts, which have shown the futility of the old methods of legal
procedure in the treatment of juvenile offenders. In this court the
judge is assisted by probation officers who are trained as social
workers and who investigate the home conditions and other influences
surrounding the child for the information of the judge, who then handles
the case in whatever manner seems best in order to get at the facts and
to bring the child to a real desire to "make good." The case is heard
privately, without the ordinary rules of legal procedure, and the whole
attitude of the court is more like that of a father than of the ordinary
judge who inflicts punishment according to the gravity of the offense.
It must be evident that one person handling numerous