Juvenile courts established around the turn of the century policed the behavior of minors, and the sexual attitudes of females, without affording them the rights extended to adult defendants. Children's presumed criminal tendencies would have been encouraged by Shaw's irreverence, the library bureaucrat feared. Experts warned about a supposed rise in serious crime being committed by young children. A cultural preoccupation with delinquency and fear of rebellious youth was reflected in films like Blackboard Jungle . In fact, youth crime was low in the 1950s, but the self-appointed policers of children and teens are not always deterred by facts.
Juvenile crime is relatively low today.
According to the Department of Justice, violent juvenile crime has declined since the early 1990s and is at its lowest point since 1986. Still, according to a Times survey of teenagers conducted in October, both violence and fear of violence appear to have declined among America's teens. Fear of illicit drugs, however, remains high among adults, especially those who rule the schools. Schools treat students like criminal suspects partly because they view nearly every student as a suspected or potential drug user. Urine testing is becoming common in schools, and courts are sometimes loathe to strike it down.