The Beginning of Juvenile Justice, Police Practices, and the Juvenile Offender

The public is being asked to make many important decisions which will affect the structure, jurisdiction and function of the juvenile justice system. Before making these decisions, it should have more facts about the present system and the proposed changes. The aim of this study, is to provide some of the needed information. This article, the first publication of the study, concerns the juvenile offender's initial contacts with the juvenile system, his relations with the police and the consequences of these relations.

Thus far, this stage of the juvenile justice system has received far less attention than any other aspect of the system. The subject of the juvenile offender's relations with the police includes many topics. It concerns not only police discretion but also such problems as arrest, search and seizure, interrogation, fingerprinting and photographing of juveniles, expungement of police records, confessions, and detention. The last two topics are so large that they will be covered in other articles; the other topics are included in the present article.