In 1914 the Children's Court of New York City prepared and distributed a report that offered glimpse into an area of the law about which little had been known, juvenile delinquency and dependency. Progressive reformers were eager to make changes in society and seemed to take a particular interest in documenting the conditions they found. Respecting the treatment of children brought into the court system, they were able to determine that 25 percent of the children appearing before the court had been referred to it for petty offenses; 38 percent were in need of the court's protection because of the lack of proper care or the abuse to which they had been subjected; and 37 percent had been arrested for the commission of serious offenses such as burglary. Of the three thousand children included in the study, 35 percent were the product of "broken homes," where one parent...