Juvenile Delinquency Chapter 1

Almshouses

Colonial-era, locked, one-room buildings that housed many types of people with many different problems, including troubled or orphaned children.

Child- Saving Moment

A 19th Century movement that influenced the development of the juvenile courts and focused on the prevention of delinquency through education and training of young people

Evidence- Based Practices

Approaches to solving problems that are empirically supported by strong research evidence.

Gun-Free Schools Act

Passed in 1994, a federal law that encouraged states to take a tough on crime approach to their schools by introducing “zero tolerance policies.

Incarceration Facilities

State-run correctional facilities that house youthful offenders, typically for longer periods of time.

Placing Out

Failed 19th Century practice for impoverished, troubled, or orphaned children whereby more than 50,000 children from mostly urban East Coast cities boarded trains and were sent to western states to be adopted by farm families.

Probation Officers

Juvenile court employees that supervise youthful offenders who have been adjudicated delinquent.

Superpredator

1990s phrase used to describe a fictional class of impulsive, brutal, and remorseless adolescents who committed serious violent crimes.

Truancy

Act of staying away from school without good cause.

U.S Supreme Court

Highest federal court in the United States that decides cases on Constitutional issues and has jurisdiction over all other federal courts and with state court legal discrepancies.

Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act

Passed in 1994, the largest crime bill in federal history that focused on punishment for crimes and a “tough on crime” approach to adult and juvenile justice.