Delinquency Among Children: With Special Reference to the Juvenile Court

There is only one source from which we can actually learn to know and understand the feelings of any child, and that is from the child himself. We need to know how to observe and how to listen if we would understand what a child is feeling and how to help him. And we need to realize that he is a person entitled to the same respect as an adult. The caseworker, who meets the child as a stranger and as the symbol of the thing he fears and dreads-placement-needs time, patience and sensitivity if the worker is to have the opportunity to know him and hence to prepare him for what lies ahead. There are no short cuts and no compromises here. When we attempt them, the child pays the bill for our failure.