抄録
Many pre-delinquents in Japan are handled by the police without being referred to the court.
The writer participated in an observation of the methods which the police use in handling these pre-delinquents at a youth center administered by the juvenile department of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police.
The police act in two ways (1) Quick and spontaneous advice is ginen by the special patrol squads at the place where the youth is found to have commited a wrong-doing, or at one of the sub-stations where he is brought without being coerced. Parents are often called in order to take the 'wrong-doer' home, (2) Counseling over a period in given by psychologists at the youth center for maladjusted youth or for worried parents who voluntarily appear. The former method in a kind of shock treatment for the wrong-doer and a way of letting the parents know about his wrong-doing. This way appears, however, to be ineffective, except in the case of an incipient wrong-doer and for parents who are ready to improve their home environment by themselves. As a consequence, stress has been increasingly placed on the latter method.
