Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 9.djvu/15

 THE AMERICAN

JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

VOLUME IX

JULY, 1903 NUMBER i

SCHOOLS FOR DEPENDENT, DELINQUENT, AND TRUANT CHILDREN IN ILLINOIS.

HAVING in a preceding article 1 given an account of the two reform schools and the reformatory which Illinois has had, I shall in this article discuss the schools for dependents, delin- quents, and truants which this state has established, and sum- marize some of the results thus far attained in work among juvenile offenders.

I. SCHOOLS FOR DEPENDENTS.

In 1879 an act was passed by the legislature to aid industrial schools for girls. This act provided that seven or more persons, a majority of whom must be women, who had organized or might organize under the general laws of the state relating to corporations, for the purpose of establishing, maintaining, and carrying on an industrial school for girls, should have, under the coporate name assumed, all the powers, rights, and privileges of the corporations of the state, not for pecuniary profit, and should be exempt from all taxes, provided the consent of the governor were first obtained. The object of such schools must be to pro- vide a home and proper training school for dependent girls, and " every female infant who begs or receives alms while actually selling or pretending to sell any article in public, or who fre- quents any street, alley, or other place for the purpose of beg- ging or receiving alms, or who, having no permanent place of

'AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY, March, 1903, pp. 644-54.