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Atlanta has one of the most rapidly declining juvenile-crime rates in the country—along with some of the strictest judges. Chief Judge Tom Dillon insists that offenders be tried within ten days after they are indicted. "A child's memory is short," says Dillon. "The sooner facts are presented after the offense has occurred, the better it is for everyone, most of all for the child."
With hard-core juveniles isolated, it will be easier to deal with the more manageable majority of delinquents: runaways, truants, vandals, petty thieves. Most do not have to be confined, and they should never be put in the same jails or homes with rapists and murderers. When all types of criminals are mixed in the same place, the lesser offenders come under the influence of the hard core and emerge more dangerous and violent.
Some juvenile courts make the punishment fit the crime precisely. The thief is forced to make restitution; he may go to work for the person whose property he has stolen or destroyed, or he may take some other job until the money is paid back. In Seattle, lesser offenders are put to work in hospitals, state and local agencies and community service projects. When restitution has been made, they are eligible for full-time jobs with social service programs. In Memphis, Judge Turner occasionally orders parents to subsidize their child in some correctional institution. Says he: "That puts more responsibility on parents to keep their kids out of trouble."
Next to enforcing the law, nothing is more important than mobilizing the support of the community to fight crime. Like guerrillas, criminals have to live off the land; if it is not congenial, they will move elsewhere. In Memphis, some 900 concerned adults have volunteered to help with probation by befriending and advising problem youths. "The role model is a tremendous factor in youth crime," declares Judge Gelber. "The potential for great change is there. If a pimp can get to a kid, so can Walt Frazier."
A growing number of black leaders, including Chicago's Jesse Jackson and New York Mayoral Candidate Percy Sutton, are trying to organize blacks in community crusades against crime. Last week people in Harlem led police to two youths who had used a sawed-off shotgun to kill a taxi driver. Says Lewis Mitrano, assistant district attorney in Philadelphia: "The black community is increasingly supporting the efforts of police because it's the black community that suffers most from youth crime and violence. This attitude has done more to combat crime than all the federal funds that have gone into social projects, important as they are."
The social programs that seem to work best are those that aim to reassert the youths' individual responsibility. "It's a cop-out to blame their problems on anything but themselves," declares Michael Major, 30, director of a youth program in Providence called Junction, which has had a better than 50% success record in getting its kids out of crime; the usual success rate is much lower. Among the many roads to self-reliance, Major