What contributions did Jane Addams make to juvenile justice?

Answer 1

Jane Addams wrote a whole book on the subject of juvenile delinquency -- it is called The Spirit of Youth and the City Streets. The University of Illinois Press publishes a paperback edition. But she would not have described the book's topic as "juvenile delinquency." As the book's title shows, she believed in youth's passion, optimism, curiosity and adventuresomeness, and blamed the streets of the city for not offering more positive ways for youth to be youth. Her settlement house, Hull House, in Chicago,did offer those positive ways -- clubs and classes of every kind, ways to make new friends, and to find mentors.

Louise W. Knight, author of Citizen: Jane Addams and the Struggle for Democracy (University of Chicago Press, 2005) and Jane Addams: Spirit in Action (Norton, publication date August 30, 2010).

Answer 2

Jane Addams together with the women of Hull House and other Chicago progressive activists succeeded in establishing the first juvenile justice court in the world. This court provided not only a separate venue for considering juvenile crime, but provided social workers and other professionals to help juveniles. The goal was to change the social conditions that led to crime, in order to provide young people with the chance for a better future.