Juvenile delinquency

The problem of juvenile delinquency has assumed alarming proportions in most modern countries today. Towns and cities from the USA to South Africa, suffer from teenage hooliganism and lawlessness, drink and drug-taking have increased everywhere; gangs of youths, male and female, attack the law-abiding citizen, rob the shopkeeper, or organize their ‘runnels’ or pitched battles among themselves, Juvenile courts are overcrowded with offenders, ‘approved’ schools and borstals full to over-flowing.

And neither government nor schoolmaster nor clergyman nor parent can seem to cure the trouble, or even fully diagnose its causes. Certainly, society as a whole cannot be blamed, affluent as it is in many countries, materialistic as it is in most; while the problem is serious and widespread, it is not one which affects more than a small proportion of young people. The vast majority are both hard-working, moral in outlook, and imbued with a sense of responsibility. Unfortunately, worthwhile young people get little publicity, while worthless ones make the headlines.

With all due respect to the USA, it is probable that the trouble stemmed from the post-war ‘beat’ movement. This American nihilist philosophy encouraged an attitude of personal irresponsibility among young people and rebellion against all forms of established authority. Its tenet was ‘anything for kicks’, therefore drink, drugs, violence, sexual license, and perversion all played their disastrous part, and teenagers became first the victims of drug-peddlers and other criminals and then, the victims of their own vices.

Unfortunately, many of these evils were made fashionable by a spate of moral plays and films, and books. Secondly, the idea of ‘teenagers’ as a class, i.e. young people aged between 13 and 19, was a commercial invention of the American businessman; previously young people were either on the upper-child or the lower adult fringe. But such as the US pride in her young people that to make them precocious and to give them adult status in immaturity was a status symbol in very many families. It was also important for them to have a great deal of pocket money. So the businessman produced a great range of consumer goods aimed specifically at the teenagers — not only clothes and ‘pop’ records but ‘reefers’ and ‘purple hearts’. And where the restraints of home, school, and church were inadequate, the damage was done. But again, we should note that only the minority were affected.

There were, of course, other factors, some of the new. First of all, young people have always ‘rebelled’ against authority, but not often with modern violence. secondly, youthful energy combined with over-indulgence leads to boredom, and much juvenile delinquency stems from this. Thirdly, young people have had a justifiable sense of disillusion about an adult society that solves international disputes by war and holds the threat of nuclear destruction over humanity. A further modern factor a ‘house with a television set’ — and common home activities embracing all members of a family have largely disappeared. Feeling insecure in society, and denied real adult interest, thousands of young people have found what they lacked in gangs — often pathetic little organizations — which exist to dominate other gangs in an area or go to war with authority — the police, and many individual acts of criminality have been due simply to gang-pressure on the boy or girl concerned.

The glare of publicity, the radio, television book, play (such as ‘West Side Story’), magazine, gramophone record; all these have spread the modern teenage philosophy to Britain, the Continent, Africa, Asia, and elsewhere. At best, the problem is a challenge to the conscience of society; at worst, it is a challenge to the police and law-courts, and we must be careful to distinguish between the hard-core young delinquent, who has existed in every age, and the juvenile who is the victim of the gang or of the unfortunate circumstances of his or her background. detention constructive hard labor remain the only answer to the hardcore young criminal; physical punishments may be a deterrent, but they are brutalizing.

Society in every modern land has the responsibility to care much more for the juvenile. This care begins in the home and involves concern, love, and interest by the parents; the school can only supplement, never replace this, and the good social or sports club, though desirable, is no alternative. Secondly, religion and morals must be firmly, yet kindly taught from an early age. Thirdly, bad company, drink, cigarettes, and drugs must be discouraged. Fourthly, perhaps the most important factor of all is that the young person must be encouraged to find a real ambition in life, and help to attain it.