JUVENILE DELINQUENCY OR JUVENILE JUSTICE: WHICH CAME FIRST?*

Stanley Cohen (1985) maintains that the methods of control, whether exclusionary or inclusionary, are linked with the emergence of a bifurcated population of hard-core, intensely antisocial offenders and mildly deviant but more prosocial offenders. The latter basically is a quasi-normal population that was handled informally before the emergence of a formal criminal justice system and inclusionary programs. It tends to include dissipative, self-indulgent, mild offenders who in adulthood often become dependent on inclusionary programs and the society of other mild deviants for structure in their lives. When applied historically to juveniles in Massachusetts this formulation suggests a steady transformation of established inclusionary programs with rehabilitative goals into exclusionary programs with punitive, retributive goals. It also implies a gradual extension of the definition of delinquency to include more nearly normal populations as additional inclusionary programs are inaugurated.