On Behalf of Children: A History of Judicial Activism in the Dade County Juvenile Court.

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On Behalf of Children: A History of Judicial Activism in the Dade County Juvenile Court By Seymour Gelber

Through profiles of those who led the movement to achieve justice for children, this book provides a detailed background. Beginning with a brief history of the juvenile court, the first of which the author identifies as Cook County, Illinois, in 1899, the book traces the early courts that were fostered by "idealists and radical thinkers" who "took the high ground, seeking a true emancipation for delinquent and dependent children" to the harsher treatment of jail sentences and reform schools that other groups would endorse.

Judge Gelber's brief accounting of the development of law enforcement in Dade County at the turn of the 20th century describes its "outlying areas were mainly undeveloped, mostly uninhabited, with saloons, gambling and bawdy houses running freely as portrayed in one of those old Wild West movies." Then in 1921...