“Beware of the Cat on the Corner”
This chapter dissects the effectiveness of antidelinquency efforts—from national to local levels. In the 1950s, the decade of delinquency, the United States committed fully to curbing juvenile delinquency in a way comparable to the Progressive-era child-saving efforts, which led to the establishment of the juvenile court system. Shifts in youth behaviors dominated popular discourse at midcentury, and youth crime emerged to the forefront. Considering that youth criminality intersected race, class, gender, and region, as confirmed by the United States Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency in 1953, many people took interest in prevention efforts. In New York City, various agencies and organizations, both formal and informal, put forth efforts to combat youth crime as they saw fit—some more successfully than others—and they ranged from large institutional endeavors, such as the Harlem YMCA, to on-the-ground organizing by the youths themselves, such as the Harlem Young Citizens Council. Even with all the crime and delinquency prevention efforts that emerged, the number of youths arrested, especially black youths, continued to rise, and although this pointed to a function of policy and practice as opposed to changes in behaviors, it reestablished race as the basis of youth criminality.
The senate and treaties: The development of the treaty-making functions of the united states senate during the formative period. Ralston Hayden, Ph.d., assistant professor of political science, university of Michigan. New York: The macmillan company, 1920. pp. 237, xvi. university of michigan publications.
