If you have issues viewing or accessing this file contact us at NCJRS.gov. /if-"'- ~ J VIOLENT JUVENILE Cf~I~iE " " HEARING BEFORE THt!~ SUBCOMMITTEE ON JUVENILE JUSTICE OF THE COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY UNITED~b STATES SENATE NINETY-SEVENTH CONGRESS FIRST SESSION ON THE PROBLEM OF JUVENILE CRIME JULY 9, 1981 Serial No. J-97-48 E)rinted for the use of the Committee on the Judiciary U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE WASHINGTON : 1981 ~:___..------~ COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY [97TS CONGRESS] STROM THURMOND, South Caroli~,~.,'Chai/~an CHARLES McC. MATHIAS, JR., Maryland JOSEPH R. BIDEN, JR., Delaware PAUL LAXALT, Nevada EDWARD M. KENNEDY, Massachusetts ORRIN G. HATCH, Utah ROBERT C. BYRD, West Virginia ROBERT DOLE, Kansas HOWARD M. METZENBAUM, Ohio ALAN K. SIMPSON, Wyoming DENNIS DECONC1NI, Arizona JOHN P. EAST, North Carolina PATRICK J. LEAHY, Vermont CHARLES E. GRASSLEY, Iowa MAX BAUCUS, Montana JEREMIAH DENTON, Alabama HOWELL HEFLIN, Alabama ARLEN SPECTER, Pennsylvania VINTON DEVANE LIDE, Chief Counsel QUENTIN CROMMELIN, Jr., Staff Director SUBCOMMI'I'rEE ON JUVENILE JUSTICE ARLEN SPECTER, Pennsylvania, Chairman JEREMIAH DENTON, Alabama HOWARD M. METZENBAUM, Ohio CHARLES McC. MATHIAS, JR., Maryland EDWARDM. KENNEDY, Massachusetts ~ BRUCE A. COHEN, Chief Counsel MIRIAM MILLS, Counsel WILLIAM W. TRAEANOR, Professional Staff Member (II) U.S. Dep~:rtm( nt of Justice National Institute of Justice This document has been reproduced exactly as received from the person or organization originating it. Points of view or opinions stated in this document are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official position or policies of the National Institute of Justice. Permission to reproduce this ~d material has been granted by Pub i ic Doma in/u_._S_._S_e_~a_t_e_ r to the National Criminal Justice Reference Service (NCJRS). Further reproduction outside of the NCJRS system requires permis- sion of the c~t owner, CONTENTS ..... -" ~' -j, OPENING STATEMENTS Specter, Hon. Arlen, a U.S. Senator from the State of Pennsylvania, chair- Page man, Subcommittee on Juvenile Justice ................................................................. 1 Denton, Hon. Jeremiah, a U.S. Senator from the State of Alabama ..................... 2 CHRONOLOGICA[~ LIST OF WITNESSES Sliwa, Curtis, founder and director for the Alliance of Guardian Angels, New York, N.Y .................................................................. 3 Fattah, Sister Falaka, director House of Umaja P'l~'iiaclelphiaF;aiaccompa~ nied by Darnell Childs and Albert Jones ................................................................ 16 James, Thomas S., director, New Pride, Denver, Colo .............................................. 31 Lauer. Charles A., Acting Director, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquen- cy Prevention, U.S. Department of Justice, accompanied by Douglas Dodge, program manager, Violent Offenders Program; and James C. Howell, Na- tional Advisory Committee Coordination ................................................................ 42 Brzeczek, Richard J., chief of police, Chicago, Ill ...................................................... 78 Martin, Robert J., chief probation officer, Mobile County Youth Center, Mobile, Ala .................................................................................................................... 90 Gladstone, Hon. William E, administrative judge, Family-Juvenile Division, llth Judicial Circuit, Dade County, Fla .................................................................. 95 Wolfgang, Marvin, professor of sociology and law, University.of Pennsylvania. 132 Strasburg, Paul, commissioner, Department of Juvenile Justice, New York, N.Y ................................... Miller, Jerome, director" N'a'iioiiai~ie~'t'e";o;Fiii~'ti'~uiioi;s~U'iiii$'n'a'i.iq~: 154 Washington, D.C ........................................................................................................... 167 ALPHABETICAL LIST OF WITNESSES AND MATERIAL SUBMITTED Brzeczek, Richard J.: Testimony .................................................................................................................. 78 Prepared statement ................................................................................................. 84 Dodge, Douglas: Testimony 42 Statement before the Subcommittee on Human Resources Committee on Education and Labor, [-louse of Representatives, March 3, 1981 ................ 72 Fattah, Sister Falaka: Testimony .................................................................................................................. 16 Prepared statement ................................................................................................. 2,1 Gladstone, Hon. William E.: Testimony .................................................................................................................. 95 r~,~repared statement ...................................................................................... 102 ~The Juvenile Offender Survey Project--A Study ~f,!0Q l~ac[c CounLv L-. Juvenile Offenders and Their Families ..................... ,~.....~.....~.;.~.~..~................. 105 Howell, James C.: Testimony ......................................................................................... 42 James, Thomas S.: Testimony .................................................................................................................. 31 f"T',' Prepared statement ...................................................................................... 37 [ Lauer, Charles A.: ¢.~,~ .,~ ¢ [ 1 Testimony .............................................. t.,O-..~....~,........ ~. .............................................. 42 L Prepared statement 48 (lid ' IV Page Martin, Robert J.: 90 Testimony ....................................................... : .......................................................... 93 Letter to Hon. Arlen Specter, June 24, 1981 ....................................................... Miller, Jerome: 167 Testimony .................................................................................................................. 175 Prepared statement ................................................................................................. 3 Sliwa, Curtis: Testimony ................................................................................................. Strasburg, Paul: 154 Testimony .................................................................................................................. 158 . Prepared statement ................................................................................................. ~~Wolfgang, Marvin: 132 Testimony .................... ~ ..'J.~.....~. 137 Prepared statement .............................................................................................. APPENDIX Statement by Dr. Janet K. Carsetti, director, Project READ, Washington, 183 D.C., July 22, 1981 ........................................................................................................ 187 Statement of the D.C. Coalition for Youth .................................................................. Prepared statement of A. L. Carlisle, chairman, Maine Juvenile Justice Advi- 188 sory Group ..................................................................................................................... VIOLENT JUVENILE CRIME THURSDAY, JULY 9, 1981 U.S. SENATE, COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY, SUBCOMMITTEE ON JUVENILE JUSTICE, Washington, D.C The subcommittee met at 9:35 a.m., in room 6202, Dirksen Senate Office Building, Hon. Arlen Specter (chairman of the sub- committee) presiding. Present: Senator Denton. OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. ARLEN SPECTER, A U.S. SENA- TOR FROM TIlE STATE OF PENNSYLVANIA. CHAIRMAN OF THE SUBCOMMITTEE ON JUVENILE JUSTICE Senator SPECTER. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. With some attention, appropriately, given to the news media, we are now ready to begin these hearings. These are hearings of the Juvenile Justice Subcommittee of the Judiciary Committee and we are going to be focusing today on the problem of juvenile crime. It is well known that juvenile crime is a major cause of violent crime on the streets of the major cities and the hamlets of the United States, and that juveniles get into a practice of criminal conduct and then graduate to become adult criminals and, ultimately, career criminals. Our search in these hearings is to see if we can find some answer to intercept the juveniles on their life of crime. There is a repet- itive pattern which many of us have noted of delinquency at eight or nine; truancy at eight or nine, then moving into petty larceny, burglary of vacant buildings, ultimately robbery, armed robbery and then homicide, and then graduating beyond that to adult crime, posing an enormously serious problem in this country. There is a widespread thought that the American people would be as much prepared to pay for a realistic program against violent crime as the American people are willing to pay for a solid nation- al defense. It is with this in mind that we are proceeding with these hearings today. Our first witness will be Curtis Sliwa, who is the founder and originator of the Guardian Angels, a very unique group which was organized in New York City and now has some 18 chapters across the country. In an age when it is impossible to have sufficient police protec- tion and impossible to have a policeman at every street corner and at every strategic spot, self-help groups like the Guardian Angels