Answer:
Step-by-step explanation:
Prior to this law, all persons, regardless of age were processed in the adult criminal justice system. The Juvenile Court Law of Illinois was designed to eliminate every vestige of a criminal procedure from the management of juvenile delinquents. The law was expressly framed to avoid treating a child as a criminal. Toward this end, the proceedings were divested of all the features that attached to a criminal proceeding. Instead of a complaint or indictment, a petition was suggested; instead of a warrant, a summons. The child was not to be arrested, but was to be brought in by the parent or guardian, or by a probation officer. The bill expressly prohibited keeping a child in any jail or enclosure where adults were confined. When the child was brought into court, the inquiry was with reference to the condition of the child. Instead of a prosecutor, there was a probation officer, who was there not to convict the child but to represent the child's interests. Instead of a jury of 12 men, there was either a jury of six men or no jury at all. The child was not to be convicted, but was to be found dependent, delinquent or truant, or discharged. The child was not to be sentenced to a reformatory or prison, but committed to the care of a probation officer or to the care of a friendly institution. All the proceedings were to be informal. This book further examines the results obtained by the operation of the juvenile court, a day in the juvenile court (June 10, 1901), juvenile court laws adopted in other States, juvenile probation, Illinois Juvenile Court Law in force July 1, 1907, and samples of juvenile court forms in use in the first decade of the 20th century in Illinois.