Memorandum Issued
Juvenile Delinquency
BY THE ROYAL MEDICO-PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION The Royal Medico-Psychological Association was recently invited to prepare a memorandum for tfr London County Council Committee on Juvenile Delinquency. The Sub-committee entrusted with the preparation of this memorandum considered that they would most profitably? (a) formulate the principles governing normal social development as generally accepted by th? psychiatrist;
discuss the relationship between psychiatric ill health and delinquency;
outline the part played by Child Guidance and Psychiatric Clinics in treating Juvenile Delinquency!
(d) suggest how the problem may be most usefully met. In view of the topical importance of the subject and the frequency with which the psychiatrical!) informed are invited to elucidate these questions to interested lay bodies, it has been thought useful to publish these observations.
In the child of normal endowment and potentiality the mature pattern of social behaviour depends upon the pattern of behaviour established in early family relationships. Normal behaviour presupposes that the child in the home should have met firstly with stable and secure affection. This is a biological need without which he cannot develop normally. In its absence, relative or, rarely, complete, he will be liable to a wide variety of neurotic disturbances. For his social development the most important of these is that, lacking affection in his early years, his capacity to return affection is atrophied, stunted or distorted. Yet it is only through the child’s affection that he can rightly be influenced to conform to parental standards. In the early years the child’s motive is to retain the approval of the mother and father who give him love and security and whom he loves in turn. As he grows older it is from those in the home and outside whom he loves, admires and desires to emulate that he forms the standards that will later govern his own life.
These truisms to the psychiatrically minded are sometimes disputed or underestimated by those who, coming from a normal home themselves, usually deal with normal children. Affection for a child in his own or a substitute home is fortunately so general that its immense biological role in development may be overlooked, much as the need for oxygen might be overlooked by the uninformed who had never seen or experienced suffocation. Rebuke or punishment does not of itself provide a motive for the child. It only underlines withdrawal of approval. The strict but loveless home may produce a severe delinquent.
This primary need of the child cannot well be overemphasized. The moral aspect is als?. implicit in that the child will adopt the values oi those whom it loves, admires and desires tf emulate, and rebel against the code of those who owe but deny it affection. Thus a chiW may be emotionally stable and well adapted t? parents who are themselves antisocial in outlook and so become a delinquent.
The second biological need of the child and youth is stimulus and outlet appropriate to it5 maturing need for physical activity, to imaginative and creative ability, and to its intellectual capacity. Educationists are famili^ with these needs. They are denied by ovef’ crowded homes, lack of play facilities, faulty educational methods, failure to provide social!) acceptable outlets for the instincts of youth, and by ignorance and lack of understanding imagination in adults. These needs are met i*1 the home with space for play inside and outsidein modern adequately staffed nurseries, nurseO’ schools and schools, and by the agencies tha1 provide for the play, social activity and educflf tion of youth in all its aspects. Without sud1 provision it is useless to condemn the substitute outlets that children and youth find for them’ selves. Undoubtedly privation in this sphefe is of itself conducive to antisocial behaviour $ those who are otherwise well and in no need psychiatric treatment.
The third need of the normal child is that i* should meet with stable and reasonable authority in the home and school and, where appropriate’ outside. While in turn this need is appreciated by those who are concerned primarily witjj normal children from a healthy background,jt may be disputed at least by implication by some Psychiatrists and educationists. Concerned Primarily as they are with deprived and restricted children who have experienced or brought upon themselves an excess of authority, the psychiatrically minded may be too liable to disapprove of all authority. This spreads alarm and despondency among parents and teachers and brings discredit on psychiatric opinions. Yet reasonable authority plays an important role in normal development.
While the three needs outlined are common to all children, they are interrelated and treatment ?f an individual disturbance must be based on accurate diagnosis.
The deprived, over-restricted and neurotic child needs uncritical affection and tolerance of his disturbed behaviour. Only then will he become capable of complying with normal standards. On the other hand, the robust child of doting and indulgent parents may need control and authority, but unless this is applied by someone whom he may eventually like and admire, and unless his need for normal outlets ls met, rebellion may be the only outcome. While it is not suggested that a child who behaves antisocially is of necessity neurotic or m need of psychiatric treatment, it is nevertheless the case that deprivation in one or more of the three primary needs outlined may result either ln a healthy child who behaves antisocially, a neurotic child, or a child who is both antisocial and neurotic. Delinquency may, therefore, be but the incidental and occasional expression of a wide range of emotional disturbances and behaviour disorders. It is a legal definition applicable where the symptom is antisocial conduct that, on discovery, leads to a charge. *t is profitless to attack the problem of delinquency without considering the individual delinquent child, or to deal with the delinquent child and ignore the emotionally sick and the antisocial of which he happens to be but one example. We must make provision for meeting the whole field of emotional and neurotic disturbance in childhood. This of necessity must involve also taking into account the homes and backgrounds of these children, the social hmitations, the ignorance and the unhappiness that lead to these disturbances. For this we need adequate psychiatric and child guidance facilities. We need, too, increased investigation jn this field. Scientific social investigation is but in its infancy and should be facilitated and encouraged. The knowledge already possessed should be disseminated and measures and powers recognized as effective by health authorities, educationists and social agencies should be fully implemented.
For clarity there has so far been considered the child of normal endowment whose delinquency reflects faults in home or school environment. Provision must also be made for those children who are handicapped by heredity, illness or eccentricity, which isolates them from their fellows. Such children are peculiarly prone to react adversely to unfavourable conditions. Physical handicaps even of a minor degree may interfere with the child’s relatioaships in home or school, deprive it of legitimate outlet and lead to compensatory phantasy that may end in delinquency. Unrecognized intellectual handicapping may deprive the child of approval in the home where he irritates or the school where he meets with rebuke, and only by antisocial conduct can he then acquire compensatory prestige. The intellectually superior may find himself placed among those who are intellectually his equal but physically his superior and so he, too, may suffer and rebel. Furthermore, children may be unequally endowed emotionally, in character and in temperament. The stable, secure personality may meet equably the stresses that lead to neurotic and behaviour disturbance in those of less stable personality. Finally, certain illnesses such as epilepsy or encephalitis may limit in some cases the child’s capacity to respond to normal influences and render him more prone to delinquent behaviour. The particular function of the psychiatric or child guidance clinic is to investigate the physical state, the emotional conditions, the intellectual and the educational level and the social background of a disturbed child, to diagnose the condition and prescribe the remedial measures indicated. In undertaking treatment the clinic usually deals with the child and the home, but must work in co-operation with health and educational authorities and with social agencies. In varying degree the staff of a clinic contribute to the dissemination of knowledge of the needs of the normal child. Psychiatric and child guidance clinics are inadequate in number and in personnel. Successful treatment should signify the stabilization of the child in his own home. Where this is found finally to be impossible, the maladjusted child may require placement in a suitable hostel or school. The shortage of such schools allows many children to drift into delinquency when they may require to be dealt with by the Courts. February 1950
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