Sheppard, Ben J.

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The Linacre QuarterlyVolume 33 | Number 1 Article 9February 1966Social-Medical Problems of Youth: Viewpoint ofthe Juvenile Court JudgeBen J. SheppardFollow this and additional works at: http://epublications.marquette.edu/lnqRecommended CitationSheppard, Ben J. (1966) "Social-Medical Problems of Youth: Viewpoint of the Juvenile Court Judge," The Linacre Quarterly: Vol. 33 :No. 1 , Article 9.Available at: http://epublications.marquette.edu/lnq/vol33/iss1/9tion going . in education that we must reco1 ze and do something about. . . '.leer numbers demand attention a1 d one large school is cheaper to build than three small ones. It could be that a particular student is better known by a grad­uate-student dormitory counselor because the university is so con­cerned about the monster of size than if he attended a college of 900 where personal contacts were pre­sumed rather than promoted. But the struggle is with us, in education, not to let children become faceless I.B.M. numbers. In conclusion may we state the moral and religious problems of to­day's youth, in the school setting, are much as they have always been, with variations in degree in some instances. The cult of conformity and of relativism in values is cer­tainly more pronounced than ever before. Teachers wish that more parents would be willing to act their age, be parents, and place demands on their children. Young­sters really want to do the right thing, and they hunger for good example, inspirntion and guidance. Woe betide the teacher or counselor who tries in any way to criticize the example set by a student's par-20 ents for hi·· them out c' wonderful knows the cannot repi not want t­children tt confidence profound child is ur immortal. standing, Pi less book, C of educatior ing. "Uncle above all str look, a pre, It is a mb,. awareness, silence and other. To u under' i.e. tt out with th< direction, to understand i that we conf tialities throu relationship , You ask fo young peoph best teachers. . . he will defend �:reat loyalty that �cc, even though he '" wrong. Teachers ,Jarents and most do· fhey do try to give _;rea t gift of having them - trust and ;ect - because e ach 1e and his spirit � give them u nder· 2 Babin in his price­is of Faith1 , speaks hrough understand­anding someone � 1g for a certain out· �e and relations hip. ·c of humility and·ndship and trust,solute hope in the crstand is to 'stand.·npport. It is to setlther in a common·ompany him . · · to :o listen so intently n the other's paten· !! the quality of_ th! establish with him. 1clp in working with , fhey are their own ,isten to them. lBabin, Pierre. ( ,sis of Faith. New York: Herder and Her,,,·�. 1963. p. 163. · LINACRE QUARTERLY ial-Medical Problems f Youth -VIEWPOINT OF THE JUVENILE Co ,T JuDGE THE HONORABLE BEN J. SHEPT • .D, M.D. s Note: This article has not edited. It is being publishedtapttl when given at the Confer­• on Medical Care of the FamilyaChicago, November 5, 1965. Theadlor is a doctor, a lawyer and afll1ge with the wit and _the home­fl" philosophy of a Will Rogers.}I am away from . the "ivy halls" • I'm just judging. We �ave a Wg juvenile court, a domestic rela­iln court in Miami. We have a population of more than a million which is nothing to Chicago. . . So I speak from practicalities anly-l've dealt with youngsters Gffl' the last six to seven years liare I became the judge · of the jm!nile court. I was the Medical l!aminer for Dade County for three )'In and I took care of the county jlil until the time I became the judge, so I've had a spectrum of -1ing with delinquent and non­oonforming children. , t · my workthat bothers me mos m ·1 is the breakdown in the fam1 yl d family morale because mora s an h I see children in court w o. are 95% from the culturally deprived,if r° can coin a new phrase,. cul-ll deprived areas and 5%tura y k I prac-from the upper brae ets. . . . Coral Gables which is where tice m · much the economics structure 1� higher and do most counselmg withchildren. h t Now if I were to tell you t a . the last four weeks I had f�ur m Id girls fifteen to sixteen-year o d brou ht in by their parents _an_ thesf girls were pregnant ( this is into my medical office because they Id 't come into the court) I wou n · I've had wouldn't be exaggeratmg. l d dfour oung girls from so-cal e goo E ·1� . I've had youngsters fromam1 1es, . f the Coral Gables area Ill court . orshop-lifting, stealing bobby-pms,stealing handkerchiefs. Parent sOne of my pet phobias i s  !he WOrd teenager. This is somethmg I. decry-'- I decry because I be­� it has psychiatric connota­tbls, and the kids feel they have lo act in a certain way as they IIOuld act when you speak about a � billion dollar yearly spend­� by this group of adolesce�ts; children act this way. The thmg could well afford to buy the store. This is the thing that bothers me.Where are we falling down? Where is the family falling down? . h I've come to the conclusion t at the only thing to say fo_� t�e f�e�choice of husband or w1 e is ·t a the husband or wife seeks the psy-h l . l equivalent. I feel veryc o og1ca k definitely that I would li e a returnto the old European system where the parents at maturity have �elec�fdthe husband and selected t e _ w1 e . Ck. Sheppard is Judge of the Juvenile and � Relations Court in and for Dade �. Florida. He is also a member of die Catholic Physicians' Guild of Miami. 1-vAlY, 1966 f t nage divorceThe percentage o ee 0 and separations is well over 5 to21 60%. W,· attributing maturity to these y 1gsters which they do not have. Now I wi�h I knew the answer other than "with the family." When I received a list of points to discuss one of them was the increase in crime and matters of like nature, and why are we having the high rates of delin­quency. I wish I could answer that especially from the families where we should expect better. I think very often of a television show I s a w  r ec e n t l y  i n  which Jackie  Gleason (who is  about the only one I watch-everybody in Miami watches Jackie; we have decided to give him the town; he's our most important import) said something that I couldn't help but remember. He said when he was a boy and the family went out, the entire family went out as a group, and he was laid on the bed to go to sleep. When he woke up at 1 o'clock in the morning and probably found twenty overcoats on top of him, this was when the parents came to take him home. Now I feel very definitely that the cause of delinquency, and its increase, is centered about the fam­ily. There is something in the rela­tionship between the parents; there is something in the relationship of the child to the parents, the lack of communication, the breakdown in the line of talk that leads to this adolescent seeking his own friends and seeking to get away from his family. The automobile has be­come sort of a caste symbol; you've got to have a car to be anybody. I recently had a very horrible 22 experience ir,. al Gables where one of the 11 -rs wanted me to use our infltt to get her child in to one of so-called service clubs in hig' 11001. She'd gone to the princi· ,nd she'd gone to the School r :l, not to protest against these ic sororities but to get her chil 11to one of these sororities, an ,anted me to use my influence see if I couldn't get the princ l of the school to permit this cl to join this group because if her tld didn't join th� group then sr .vould not be dat· ing, she woul ·1ot be asked out.She would b( social outcast in a school of , ,ut 4,500, one of our better sch• ,. About 600 chil­dren belong t . hese clubs. I sat down and ex.pl ,ed to her that my older girl ( whe: . first came to Coral Gables in '47 , didn't have much in the way 1, 1 igh schools) had finished public 1001 at St. Teresa's and trans fen� to Coral Gables High. She \. , t through Coral Gables High d went through medical schoo. Jy original plan 1 must tell yot.. ,11y original plan when I took r law degree. My wife was the rse and my older d�ughter was ;·. ,,ng to be. a veter· inarian and m_ younger daughter was keeping cr;,, pany with a mar· tician, so I thov ht the whole group would move to,,a small town andwe'd have it licl·('CT. Nobody couldbreak in on us -- particularly � you were in the Jjfr, insurance busrness,.I explained tu the mother care·fully that my older child had gon�through the same school and ha never had the advantage of aclub. This sam(; woman's older boyLrNACRE QUARTERLY W been in more police difficulty• I could Possibly extricate himfan; and I spent many a night eslricating him. One term was used that is used amstantly in our detention home, 11111 that is the tenn "head shrink­"·" These children in our detention lanes and in our youth hall are afraid to go to a psychiatrist; and they resist it. We have a guidance dlnic attached to our children's court; they resist it and fight it. They say, "Why do I have to go to • this head shrinker." Those are the exact terms which we hear five and six times a week. Why do I have to go to see this head shrinker? I ask my self very often, why do "'send them? We send them be­cause of parental attitudes, and I'm sure the Doctor will agree with me that when parents come into court they tell me all their child needs is r hild's a psychotic whi \ I doubt·.-:ry much.'Nhy is it that our sense of valuesis so destroyed? I had a case of rape on a fifteen-year old girl in court several weeks ago, in a high schoolI psychiatrist. I had a case recently involving two boys who attacked two other boys from Miami Beach. They saw these two youngsters � home from a sandwich liq, and with a big heavy belt IIOUnd their fists, proceeded to waylay these two young adults 111d hammer them with the heavy hackle. The mother and father of Clle insisted that all that child needed. was psychiatric help. In GIiier to placate them and to keep peace with their attorney, I ar­� for a psychiatric interview; � I can assure you this boy is C' to the training school regard-in South Miami. The boy was there with about six witnesses who werewilling and ready to swe�r th�t they had been intimate with thisairl· therefore it could not havebee� rape, they claimed. Unf?rtu­nately the father was a prominentbusiness man and our laws are soantiquated that when we �o ha�e these transgressions the iuveml_ecourt can't do anything because thiswas a young adult involved; wehave to transfer it to the criminalcourt, and the criminal court law­yers because of the darn newspap:rs,news media, will not hear anythingin chambers, especially if they're up for re-election. So rather thanface the publicity which wouldcome with a case like this theydropped the charges against thisboy and as far as the cure, the girl is being sent out of town to a school so that she will no longer be con-fronted with people who knowabout the incident. of the psychiatric results, unless 1 }llycbiatrlst tells me frankly thisI wish that I could pass some sort of law as I see it in my com­munity now, where there would be but one working parent and that oneparent would be home at all hoursto be with the children. Unfortu­nately, the two cars, the two tele­vision sets, and all that sort ofthing necessitates the both pare�ts working, and one of the most mis­used evils of our time, the baby sitter, has come into . prominence."I've got my child with a good baby'-uuT, 1966 23 sitter; the1 _.re I can take off for a week or and never mind my youngster.'· I put the baby sitter right alon6J.de the television set as being one of the evils of this era. I don't think kids have changed very much in the last years. We're trying to recognize, we're making up problems to solve for them but I can remember, I was born and brought up in New York City and I can remember the groups who hung around and were paid to swoon every time Frank Sinatra came to the theater in New York City. We had our groups; we had our families; but I can say this: On weekends or on Saturdays and Sundays the family went out as a unit. The family went to church as a unit; the family picnicked as a unit; and the family was together. If I were to be asked the prime cause for juvenile delinquency the first and uppermost cause in my mind is the breakdown in family communication and relations and mutual respects - that's the first and uppermost cause in juvenile delinquency, the breakdown. It was stated that children want to know that they are loved. This is the truest thing that has ever been said. They want to know that they are loved and they are secure. I do not feel that any child minds being punished when he knows that the one at the other end of the stick is someone who loves him. They hate for it to be 24 someone th, ) not respect and love. I have nc ,acea nor penicillin shot for ju·, delinquents. The greatest thi: at has come  out of W ashingtor c of the few things in the last vears, has been the developmen • · the pre-pre-schoolkindergarte1 · 1 my opinion. The development the pre-pre-school kindergarter · nd I think this isgoing to hei ur youngsters when they start in he age of three and get the envir nent that they can't get from the homes normally. 1 feel that ve1 ,trongly seeing as I do that 75y ,f my case load in court comes Jm families in the deprived arc where there is a mother only l the mother being the only sl, Jrt. We are very backward in · . rid a in one respect - I am advi� . al l our dependents to move to '.ifomia because in Florida all ) can get is $81 a month, AFD< 1'm telling them all to go to Cali11 �nia because you can go up to $2. or $260 a mo�th. Some of therr . l' taking my advice. I think it \, . ;d be cheaper fol Florida to sc. · ... ,lize them and se_n them. My ct. · for juvenile  dehnjquency amon., ,, this group _tha�e see now my ure for juvenile · linquenc� is b , �ry difficult one b�t I can see it , ., a cure, and thath15 1 . ts the terminath,r. of parenta ng b. h . · ne of our at 1rt , colonuat10n m O f th states under :nc direction .0 al�government and then starting · ' -r sell that, over agam. 11 you can I'll vote for it. LINACRE QUARTERLYMedical Care of the Aged JEROME H. LwurRT, M.D. In group three we will _incj�de those chronically disabled md1vid­uals who for the most part need constant medical supervision �e­cause of either mental or physical disabilities. I will try to place em­phasis on this group since they pre­sent the greatest problem. Although this group comprises only :hree to five percent of our over sixty-�ve population the facilities for canng for and maintaining them are w�e­fully inadequate in both quantity and quality. The rapidly ex�and­. nd to me dreaded, practice of In view of the ever increasing ;ife apectancy the population explosion i not limited to any particular a�e poup. In 1900 there were app�oxi­ately 3,000,000 people aged s1xty­ive and over. By 1970 this figure ispected to reach 20,000,000. We have all encountered comparatively Jlllllg and alert individ�als with the chronological age of eighty and cmversely we are also seeing peoplewhom we might. class as old who are only aged fifty. Since all people of sixty-five and over should not be considered aged or senile, let us divide this group into three general classifications. _In the first group we have the co�­paratively adequate person. who 1s able to live independently either with members of his family or in his own domicile. He may continue working full or part-time and is well able to care for his own needs. One in this group presents little problem. Financially he may have independent income, friends or rela­tives who may contribute to hissupport, assistance from welfare agencies, Social Security, or retire­ment funds. . In the second group we may include those individuals who needRgnlar, but not constant, medical Clle, who may, with just a moder­ate amount of supervision, maintain themselves, and who may be able to continue with some degree of Interest their hobbies, employment, ._ socla.l activities. -mg, a forced retirement at age sixty or sixty-five is adding gre.atly to_ the her of people in th is classifica -num b . tion. Only a very small num er m t Lippert is Medical Director View Home, Chicago.this group have prepared t�emselves for retirement by developing ho�­bies or interests. The key word m management of people in group three is motivation. We have _all seen highly motivated peo�le wi_th multiple and chronic physical dis­abilities who still find a great deal of pleasure in life and are able to accomplish many s�ccessful �nd gratifying activities wi�� _very little notice of their disabilities. Con­versely we have also s_een t�e unmotivated with only mmor dis­abilities become depressed and grad­ually vegetate and deteriorat: both physically and mentally until they become entirely dependent. Then�mber who are able financially _to·provide medical, nursing, and ancil­lary kacilities within the confines. ofof the their ·homes is very small and m-Pnauuy, 1966 25 

Social-Medical Problems of Youth: Viewpoint of the Juvenile Court Judge

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Social-Medical Problems of Youth: Viewpoint of the Juvenile Court Judge

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