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Che Librarp 
 
 of the 
 Ciniversity of Worth Carolina 
 
 Collection of sPorth Caroliniana 
 Chis book was presented 
 
 by 
 MiDIW (Coulee 
 
 Co 364 
 IN TS 
 
 
 
JAMES AND FRED 
 
 Being the Case History of Two 
 Youths Who Were Arrested 
 for Stealing, and Who 
 Are Above 
 
 Juvenile Court Age 
 
 (ONE 
 
 1920 
 PUBLISHED BY 
 STaTE BOARD OF CHARITIES AND PUBLIC WELFARE 
 RALgEIGH, N. C. 
 
 
 
REPORT OF COUNTY SUPERINTENDENT 
 OF PUBLIC WELFARE 
 
 The investigation in the cases of James and 
 Fred is presented for the consideration of the 
 County Superintendents of Public Welfare be- 
 cause we believe a careful study of the same 
 will be helpful-in several ways. 
 
 1. Though this investigation was made for 
 the mayor, it is a good example of the informa- 
 tion that should be gotten by the probation 
 officer when a child comes into the juvenile 
 
 court and placed in the hands of the judge be- | 
 
 fore he makes a disposition of the case. 
 
 2. It shows the clear and simple manner in | 
 
 which such material should be presented to the 
 
 judge, and is arranged in a way to become a 
 
 part of the permanent record of the case. 
 
 3. A way is suggested in which the County 
 Superintendent of Public Welfare in his work 
 of chief probation officer, co-operating with the 
 
 mayor or other police judge, can give valuable — 
 assistance in the cases of children who are over — 
 
 sixteen years of age, but who frequently need 
 
 the remedial care and supervision of probation, 
 There is no essential difference between the | 
 character of an investigation of the case of a 
 
 child under sixteen, and therefore within the 
 jurisdiction of the juvenile court, and a youth 
 
 above sixteen, as in this case, in the jurisdic- 
 
 tion of the adult courts. 
 
 For obvious reasons the names are fictitious 
 
 and the name of the County Superintendent 
 omitted. The County Superintendent was as- 
 sisted in working up these cases by an expert 
 from this office, and the principles involved are 
 endorsed by Mrs. Johnson, Director of the Chil- 
 dren’s Bureau of this office. 
 
 As case history this material can be criticized | 
 as not being verified by the investigator. We | 
 
 have only the boys’ statements of the case, and 
 whenever it is possible all information gotten 
 
 in this way should be verified from other | 
 sources in order to make a satisfactory case | 
 
 history. R. F.. BEASLEY, 
 State Commissioner Public Welfare. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
REPORT OF COUNTY SUPERINTENDENT 
 ; OF PUBLIC WELFARE 
 
 In THE MATTER OF 
 JAMES BURKE AND FRED BROWN 
 Report submitted by 
 
 Co. Supt. of Public Welfare 
 S1rR:— 
 In accordance with your request of recent 
 date, I am submitting herewith a report in the 
 matter of James Burke and Fred Brown, ar- 
 raigned before your Honor on the 19th day of 
 
 _this month, and charged with larceny of suit- 
 cases and other things. In accordance with the 
 spirit of the intentions of the State of North 
 Carolina as expressed by the progressive Legis- 
 lature of 1919, which established Juvenile 
 Courts and Probation and thereby virtually 
 adopted the principle of individual treatment of 
 offenders, and in strict adherence to that spirit, 
 the following report is made separately for each 
 defendant. It is only in respect to the overt act 
 and nature of charge that they may be consid- 
 ered together. In other respects they are sepa- 
 rate persons with separate histories. 
 
 JAMES BURKE 
 
 After the first denial of any knowledge of the 
 theft of the suitcases James made a clean and 
 full confession, in the course of which he volun- 
 tarily admitted other petty larcenies, not known 
 to the police. He merely made a clean breast 
 of it all. James is not quite 17 years old. He 
 was born in Philipe, West Virginia, August 23, 
 1903. At six years of age he was taken by his 
 parents to Ohio, where his father went into the 
 
 _ business of vulcanizing. The boy was kept in 
 school until twelve years of age; at that time 
 his father died and his mother married again. 
 
 | 3 
 
The boy was bright and active and got inter- 
 ested in a show that was visiting the town. 
 Against the wishes of his mother his step- 
 father agreed to have him go on the road with 
 “Silas Green’s Show.” The boy stayed with 
 Silas Green for about four years, taking part in 
 dancing and singing exhibitions during the 
 summers and working on and off at vulcanizing 
 during the winters. He developed the roaming 
 habit inseparable from the life of show people. 
 When he left Silas Green about a year ago he 
 was receiving a weekly wage of about $22.50.) 
 Thereupon he joined show companies in suc- 
 cession, first as cook boy, then as fruit vender, 
 receiving in the first instance $10 a week and 
 maintenance, and in the second instance $18 a 
 week with a percentage on sales. He had in- 
 jured his hip in the moving of one of the shows. 
 and was incapacitated for further development | 
 as a dancer and show man, so that the past. 
 year’s record shows a down-grade process in) 
 respect to occupation and income. 
 
 He quit the show business about three or four 
 months ago and for about two months con- 
 tinued on odd jobs and looking for permanent 
 employment. About this time he began picking 
 up things from time to time as his means would | 
 give out. There is nothing to indicate that he 
 has even at this time as yet developed ‘“pro- 
 fessional standards or practices of the under- 
 world,’ nor does he seem to have associated 
 permanently with thieves and pickpockets with| 
 whom he did in fact come in contact at differ- 
 ent shows. He was evidently not considered by 
 them as of their own cast and was not per- 
 mitted to join them when an occasional impulse 
 would drive him in that direction. 
 
 James Burke’s acquaintance with Fred Brown 
 dates back about six months when they met one 
 day by accident. They did not see each other 
 again for some four months. Their second meet- 
 ing was also accidental, not prearranged. The 
 joint undertakings in connection with the theft) 
 of the suitcases appear to have been a groping, 
 bungling affair of novice type without even ele- 
 mentary knowledge of how to dispose of stolen 
 goods, which is the first principle of successful 
 professional stealing. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
James is bright, active, and has made most 
 of his elementary education. He is well grown 
 and has a sense of moral responsibility which 
 came out again and again in the course of my 
 interview with him in a number of ways, as, for 
 example, in the instance of his first confessed 
 attempt at. stealing when he took the entire 
 supply of wooden rings from the booth of a 
 showman, thus depriving him of his means of 
 running his booth; aware of the predicament 
 
 'of the showman, who could not obtain other 
 | rings in town, James voluntarily returned the 
 rings. Physically, he is in good condition, as 
 shown by physician’s report appended, and his 
 history is fairly free of sex complications. 
 
 He says that he knows the vulcanizing busi- 
 ness and can easily make a living at it. He 
 appears satisfied that the criminal life he was 
 about to enter does not pay, either financially 
 or otherwise. He has high self-respect and is 
 good material to build on. He is proud of a 
 good reputation with his fellow showmen. He 
 seems in the right state of mind to make an 
 effort not only to regain his freedom, but also 
 to start an honest life afresh. 
 
 FRED BROWN 
 
 Fred Brown was born October 20, 1903, in 
 | aadie een County, North Carolina. His father 
 thas been in the sawmill business, and conse- 
 |}quently has traveled about with his family dur- 
 ling Fred’s entire childhood. His schooling, 
 }therefore, was irregular and rarely more than 
 j}one year at the same place. He has not devel- 
 oped any permanent local or personal ties be- 
 cause of the nomadic life that the sawmill 
 man’s family necessarily led; nevertheless he 
 stayed in school until about twelve years of 
 age, and for the following four years or so as- 
 sisted his father at his work. The crisis in the 
 boy’s life occurred when his mother died some 
 itime ago and his family began to break up. He 
 ‘has two older sisters married, a younger sister 
 ‘nine years of age lives with an uncle, and an 
 ‘older brother who is in the show business and, 
 ‘though unmarried, permanently removed from 
 ‘the family. The only ties, therefore, namely, 
 
 5 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 his immediate family, were broken and Fred 
 was set adrift. At his older brother’s sugges- 
 tion (brother 25 years old), Fred joined him 
 in conducting his show booth and stayed with 
 his brother about six months. At the end of 
 six months his brother gave up the booth as no 
 longer profitable, and Fred was again set adrift. 
 He held several jobs for short periods, includ- 
 ing two months as waiter in a cafe at................ 
 
 Fred’s six years of schooling did not make 
 as much of an impression as the six years of 
 schooling that James had received. He writes 
 poorly and is not very bright. He has less 
 initiative and self-reliance than James and has 
 less experience in taking care of himself. He 
 is more truly adrift than James, despite the 
 fact that he has relatives near by. His attempts’ 
 at stealing represent not so much planned un- 
 dertakings as following the path of least resist- 
 ance. There appear to be no positive bad quali- 
 ties in his make-up, but he needs support and 
 oversight. 
 
 It seems clear that in the cases of both James} 
 and Fred strong, permanent, watchful parental 
 care has been lacking. Their course of life was 
 determined by accidental environment that led 
 in one case through half the United States in 
 an exciting life of high spots, and in the other} 
 case it led from loose family environment to the 
 breaking of all ties and being set adrift. There 
 is no indication in either case that a loose o1 
 criminal life is intended or preferred. They are 
 both still children and need help, control, anc 
 supervision. I cannot in any way bring myselip 
 to regard them as criminals in any sense of thel 
 word. | 
 
 POSSIBLE DISPOSITIONS 
 
 The following disposition of the above case’ 
 seems possible: ; : f 
 
 1. Commitment to a term on the roads or ti} 
 penitentiary. This would result in comminglin; 
 of the boys with mature criminals and vagrant. 
 under the most demoralizing conditions. Ther 
 is a consensus of opinion that this would be th? 
 most successful means of assuring a permanen a 
 life of crime for boys of this age under suc} 
 circumstances. ) 
 
 
 
2. They might be turned loose with a repri- 
 mand. In that case the boys will fail to learn 
 the lesson that they need, and would, moreover, 
 be again set adrift and would almost as cer- 
 tainly get into a life of crime as under the first 
 method. 
 
 38. They might be committed to a modern re- 
 formatory for boys of this type or placed on 
 full probation, as that word is now understood 
 in modern penology. The State of North Caro- 
 lina possesses neither such reformatory nor 
 such a probation. This method, therefore, is 
 not feasible. 
 
 4. Sentence might be suspended in accord- 
 ance with the common-law right of the magis- 
 trate, with the imposition of certain conditions 
 and restrictions which would control and help 
 the boys while permitting them to earn their 
 ‘own livelihood and escape both the stigma and 
 the destructive association of prison life. 
 
 | Should your Honor choose to dispose of these 
 two boys in a manner similar to that described 
 as possibility No. 4, I should, as County Super- 
 tendent of Public Welfare, be glad to offer my 
 services in any way compatible with my duties. 
 According to the law, supervision of cases of 
 this type does not technically come within my 
 jurisdiction as related to the Juvenile Court and 
 Probation. However, my wider duties as the 
 welfare officer of the county permit me to offer 
 the following type of assistance: 
 
 1. I could and should be glad to undertake 
 aiding the boys in obtaining employment and 
 lodging. 
 
 2. I would attempt to find one or two men 
 who would assume the responsibility of keep- 
 ing friendly supervision over the boys. 
 
 3. I could endeavor to get them in touch with 
 wholesome means of recreation. 
 
 4, Should the court impose upon the boys, as. 
 yne of the conditions of the suspension of sen- 
 ence, requirement of refunding losses sustained 
 yy owners of the stolen goods, I would under- 
 ake to collect such restitution from the weekly 
 vages of the boys and require them to report 
 Oo me as often as the court desired. 
 
 7 
 

 
 
 5. I would undertake to notify the court if | 
 the boys failed to make good in order to enable | 
 the court thereupon to make effective the sen- | 
 tence suspended upon conditions. 
 
 6. I would undertake to discover and utilize | 
 any available sources of assistance in reclaim- 
 ing the boys, such as, for example, relatives, | 
 friends of good reputation, church affiliations, 
 etc. 
 
 Yours truly, 
 
 County Supt. of Public Welfare. 
 

 
 | UNIVERSITY OF N.C. AT CHAPEL HILL 
 
 MINT 
 00043605900 | 
 
 FOR USE ONLY IN 
 
 THE NORTH CAROLINA COLLECTION 
 
 
 
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