Legal and Judicial Battles Affecting Runaways

THIS article traces the history and development of the events leading to the current debates on the validity of the juvenile court by examining the "child savers," or those reformers who instituted the first juvenile court; the "constitutionalists" who insist upon due process and other procedural rights for children; the "revisionists" who advocate the adversary system of juvenile justice; and the "abolitionists" whose position is to remove runaways and other status offenders from juvenile court jurisdiction or, at the extreme, to abolish the juvenile court altogether.