tween parents and children. Some offer direct psychological and psychiatric treatment for the child. Others offer economic or employment aids for the family. Still others offer wholesome recreational activities and special educational opportunities. In addition, there are educational, religious and civic organizations in the community which are creating programs of supervised activities for young people. If we take a careful look at our communities we will be amazed at the many different kinds of resources which are there to serve our young people. Consequently, we are teaching the members of our Juvenile Bureau to carefully investigate and examine all aspects of each case that comes to their attention. We do not ask them to carry out treatment but instead to make some intelligent judgments about what the trouble is. We then require that they make immediate referral to an agency or organization that handles the problem as the officer sees it. We further require that the officer check back to see what progress is being made with a particular case. If the agency is not equipped to handle the problem or if other more serious problems are involved, the officer may then make appropriate referrals to other agencies.

By cultivating this close working relationship with all the treatment and organizational resources of the county it is hoped we can deal with the cases that we find before the problems get out of hand. In any case, this approach is far more positive and constructive than simply carting the juvenile offenders off to court, or, what is even worse, ignoring the early signs of delinquency until the problems really get serious. By active case finding and proper referral we are in a position to give these youngsters a real chance when that chance will do them the most good.

The fourth main area of work for our Juvenile Bureau has to do with community organization and education. As police officers we all too often meet juvenile offenders who have been lost in the gaps between the different organizational resources that exist in our communities. They are children whose problems no one has taken seriously enough to follow them all the way through to a successful conclusion. The cause may be of two kinds. Either there are no adequate resources in the community to help the child, or those resources that do exist are not well enough coordinated to properly handle all parts of the child's problem. As police officers we daily pass through communities where new building projects are sprouting up out of the farm lands and the prairies in our suburban areas. The pressure to build and provide adequate and comfortable housing for the citizens of our county outstrips the ability of these new communities to deal with the many social problems the new residents bring with them.

There is a great deal of difference between a genuine community and a lot of new houses for people to live in. For a community has churches, schools, playgrounds, recreation center, and well-developed civic organizations which tie together all of the people of the community and provide the machinery with which the people can act as a unit to solve their common problems. Where this machinery does not exist, unwholesome conditions and serious problems run their course unchecked. In other more developed areas of the county, the community resources are there, but they are not alerted or coordinated to attack the delinquency prob

lem. It is for this reason that we have made the problem of còmmunity organization against delinquency one of the main jobs of the Sheriff's Juvenile Bureau. We feel that we are in a position to be helpful in this respect. We clearly recognize the consequences when resources are inadequate or proper coordination lacking. We feel we can do a great deal to alert local communities to the dangers present under these conditions. We can help acquaint leaders in the community with the kinds of resources that are required for doing an effective job. We are hopeful that we can create better coordination of the resources of the local community by helping to create community councils on youth problems. We can help the local communities get expert assistance in developing their community resources and in organizing such councils. We are presently in contact with leading figures in a number of local communities with a view to doing this kind of job. The Sheriff's Juvenile Bureau stands as a resource to any community in the county that needs help in developing a strong program of delinquency prevention. We will not only assist in initiating local community action but will maintain a continuing relationship with these community organizations through our case finding and case referral activities. We will in all instances work in close cooperation with the local police departments of these areas.

The really basic idea on which we are developing our new program of juvenile work is that the problem of the juvenile offender must be solved in his home community. We do not feel that we can really beat down the rising tide of juvenile delinquency until we have set up the right kind of resources within each local community to deal with its own problems. We are, therefore, especially anxious to alert the citizens of the county to this need and to assist them in developing the machinery that is required to do the job. In our minds it is absolutely necessary that we exhaust all possibilities for dealing with cases in the local community before we turn to that final desperate measure of committing children to boys' schools, reformatories, or detention homes. For this, in our experience, amounts to an admission that somewhere we have failed.

From what we have just said, it should not be suggested that these new preventive activities are of greater importance than an all-round efficient job of law enforcement. Perhaps no one recognizes as clearly as the policeman the sense in which loose and dishonest enforcement creates the conditions under which juvenile delinquency and disrespect for law develop.

Recently, we had a case of a father of three children who spent virtually all of his spare time drinking in a tavern. The mother was left without food for the children, and the family was on the verge of losing its home even though the father made excellent money as a skilled maintenance man. The father regularly came home drunk and beat up the children so that there was a feeling of constant fear and insecurity in the home. In this case, our police officers through proper enforcement procedures were able to crack down on tavern regulations, thus taking one step toward restoration of the father to his family. It is in such ways as this that strict and honest law enforcement can provide the framework within which successful prevention activities can be carried out. We recognize that our actions in this case did not solve the problem. There were basic problems within the fam

ily that needed to be solved by trained professional caseworkers, but prompt law enforcement set the conditions under which such successful treatment might be further pursued. It is in this sense that we see the traditional law enforcement activities of police officers tying in directly to the newer preventive activities which we are now developing. When law enforcement is neither strict nor honest the juvenile offender is the first to know about it. The disrespect this can develop in the minds of young people can play a very important part in the development of a delinquent

career.

We recognize quite well that we cannot do this job alone. With this in mind, we are putting a great deal of stress on coordinating our activities with those of other police departments in the city and throughout the county.

We have already taken steps to contact these other departments with a view to making an all-out and vigorous attack on the delinquency problem. We stand as a resource to these other police departments in the county in whatever way we can. We are trying to create in the Sheriff's Office of Cook County a model lawenforcement program, and we are encouraging local departments to develop juvenile bureaus with aims and duties similar to our own.

In conclusion, the main points in the program that has just been outlined are: (1) As police officers, we recognize that leniency in the form of giving juvenile

offenders a pass is a mistaken use of otherwise worthy sentiments. By giving an offender a pass we frequently fail to give him in the true sense of the word, a new chance. Nor on the other hand do we feel that severe punishment will stop a delinquent career. We believe, instead, it is necessary to take intelligent and prompt action to mobilize the resources of the community to deal with children's problems at the earliest possible moment. In this way we hope to give these children a real opportunity to get back on the track.

(2) To achieve this objective, we have created a Juvenile Bureau of well trained men who stand ready and informed about the actions that are required. (3) The Juvenile Bureau continues to discharge those traditional duties for which they are responsible with understanding and efficiency.

(4) We are engaged in an intensive program of case-finding in order that we spot the early symptoms of delinquency and take effective action before it is too late.

(5) We have developed new methods in the handling and processing of delinquent cases which result in the prompt referral of these problem cases to the proper private or public social agencies.

(6) The members of the Juvenile Bureau of the Sheriff's Office are devoting their major effort to the stimulation and development of local community councils for handling delinquency problems. They seek to bring together the resources of the many recreational, educational, and religious and social agencies of the community for a concerted attack on the local delinquency problem. In short, they are attempting to develop the resources for handling the delinquency problem at home.

(7) We are coordinating the efforts of the entire force of the Sheriff's Police with work of the Juvenile Bureau so that honest and strict law enforcement can play its proper part in coping with the problems of juvenile delinquency.

(8) We are actively promoting the coordination and cooperation of all local police departments in the county so that the attack on delinquency will be uniform and complete throughout the county.

(9) Finally, the Juvenile Bureau of the Sheriff's Police is an interested and trained resource which stands ready to help at any time to deal with the problems of delinquency in any county community. With active interest and cooperation by the public this job can be done in a way which will mean a fuller and happier life for all the citizens of Cook County.

STATEMENT OF THE AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION ON LEGISLATION TO PROVIDE FOR THE PREVENTION AND CONTROL OF JUVENILE DELINQUENCY

The American Library Association wishes to submit this statement on juvenile delinquency which has been prepared in the main by Grace P. Slocum, coordinator of work with young adults, Brooklyn Public Library, New York.

Public and school libraries are deeply concerned with the rising tide of juvenile delinquency. The association, which is a nonprofit, professional association of more than 22,000 librarians, trustees and friends of libraries, therefore, heartily endorses legislation which will assist in curbing this great evil.

The library's primary role is that of a preventive agency, because its aim is to provide books and periodicals for young adults which will help them understand themselves and make adjustments to life.

Library services begin with the children and they continue on through young adulthood and beyond. In many cases, libraries have attractive rooms with pleasant surroundings in which boys and girls can be introduced to the type of books and magazines they like deeds of daring, sports, hobbies, science, space travel, and careers of successful men and women. This is one way to assist in preventing juvenile delinquency. The activities of libraries in this field have been limited only by lack of funds.

Librarians have not been content to serve only those children and young persons who have come spontaneously to the library for reading material, but have sought out in the parks, on the playgrounds, and in the classrooms boys and girls who have been reluctant to read, either from lack of interest or from some real or imaginary inability. Wonders in reading improvement have been, and still can be, accomplished by working with the individual child or young adult at the pace he can go in the voluntary setting of the public library. There is close correlation between skill in reading and satisfactory progress in school, just as there is close correlation between doing poorly in school and delinquent behavior. The public library and the school library clearly have parts to play in solving the problem of juvenile delinquency.

Library services for children and young people are found in all areas of cities as branch libraries are maintained in both the privileged and underprivileged parts of town and, unfortunately, delinquent behavior is found in all kinds of neighborhoods. With the passage of the Library Services Act of 1956, library service is spreading more rapidly to rural areas and bookmobiles are reaching young people in remote districts where books have not been known before.

There is still much to be developed, however, in the technique of working with disturbed young people in libraries, as in other agencies. Librarians work with youth boards and councils in many communities. Parent groups and other adults working with youth may find resources in the way of meeting room space, as well as films, pamphlets, and books in their public libraries.

In addition, research projects need to be set up whereby the close relationship that exists between the librarian and the individual reader can be utilized in detecting at an early age signs of potential delinquency. Over a prolonged period of time, certain reactions to situations in books are indications to a skillful psychiatrist of a disturbed youth. Librarians can serve as valuable liaison or referral agents in such cases.

There have been and need to be more projects between libraries and courts in furthering the rehabilitation of young people who have gotten into trouble. Such a project was started a few years ago in the probation office of a large city, but could not be carried through because of lack of funds. A promising start was also made by Mayor LaGuardia's Committee on the Selection of Suitable Books for Children in the Courts in 1938.

If funds for projects to minimize juvenile delinquency are made available under the law, libraries themselves might, in some instances, be considered appropriate institutions to administer projects. There is much research needed to test the effect of reading on the actual or potential juvenile delinquent. more cases, the library can be a vital part of joint projects carried on by several community agencies.

In

In any training programs which may be started under the stimulation of the proposed legislation, it is hoped that provision will be made for suitable books and periodicals. It is hoped, too, that there will be flexibility enough in such training programs to offer the benefits of the instruction in relation to juvenile delinquency to children's librarians and young adult librarians who are already in the front line in the fight against juvenile deliquency.