Some Thoughts on Juvenile Delinquency
- Author:
Hamilton-Pearson, M.B., Ch.B. (Aber.)
Physician to Children’s Department, Tavistock Clinic for Functional Nerve Diseases. Clinical Psychologist to West End Hospital for Nerve Diseases, &c. The problem of the delinquent child is a growing one; the past few years have seen not only a steady increase in the number of juvenile offenders but a definite increase in the seriousness of the offences committed. The conduct of the youth of a nation must be, to a large extent, an index of the social stability and commercial prosperity of a given nation. Where a country has had years of civil peace and development, allowing of possibilities of personal advancement and the quick absorption into remunerative occupation of the school- leaving youth of the country, juvenile crime is at a low ebb. When a nation, following the emotional stress of a great upheaval, has had a prolonged period of trade depression, where remunerative occupation is scarce even for skilled tradesmen, the untrained youth of the country sees no future. The energy of youthful minds, which normally should be used in the service of the country, must find an outlet, and consequently the records of juvenile crime increase.
Of the subsidiary sociological factors tending to the increase, one might take first the decline in the apprenticeship system. It was an excellent system. A boy changed the discipline of school life for the more excellent discipline imposed by the learning of a craft. The unstable transition period between boyhood and manhood was bridged in the finest way possible. There is no better teacher of self-control, self-reliance and self-confidence than the practical learning of a trade. At present there is no provision for this dangerous transi- tion period, except a year or so longer at a school learning unpractical things in which in the majority of cases interest, if it ever existed, has been lost. It would be infinitely better for the individual, and, through him, the future prosperity of the country, if every boy leaving school, with no definite occupa- tion to go to, were in some form conscripted for a period, and not only trained in drill but given occupational training as well.
The laxity of home discipline is another factor which is frequently laboured, and the parents are held to be at fault. The home discipline of to-day is certainly feebler in quality than it was, say, twenty years ago, but in a great many cases is the blame altogether attachable to the parents? The point of view advanced below may throw new light on this part of the problem.
Generally speaking a child educated to a certain degree beyond the standard of parental education definitely tends to get beyond parental control. This follows logically on the basis of the child’s own personal experience. It is superior to either parent in certain branches of acquired knowledge, which in the school environment?the child’s immediate means of gaining experience? are of the first importance. Such superiority must, consciously or unconsciously, lead, at the least, to a suspicion, if not to definite contempt for parental advice in other spheres. Consciousness of greater knowledge in one direction, to a mind unchastened by the hard facts of experience, breeds the belief in greater capacity in all directions. It is impossible to say that this form of intellectual snobbery is the cause of all cases of uncontrollable children. But to anyone who has studied delinquents it will be apparent that it is the root cause in very many cases.
The chief difficulty lies not in the recognition of the condition, but the dealing with it. PrevenFion would be most salutary but would call for a definite reorganisation of our educational system and its ideals, at present beyond the scope of practical politics. Punishment is worse than useless, as it tends to breed ideas of unfairness, and in that way increase the feeling of the individual’s superiority. There is nothing like a spell of hard physical work to reduce the swollen idea of personal importance. It is best if such work is undertaken in the service of others, and as part of the common work of a group, for example, in camps, where each individual has to do a turn of menial duty as well as work which calls for intellectual ability. Organised bodies, such as the Scouts, could do good work in this way if part of their organisation were set apart to work with delinquent cases.
The increasing state of congestion of our large cities is provocative of a definite amount of juvenile delinquency. Children, boys especially, at one stage of their development, tend to band themselves in organisations to seek adven- ture, either real or imaginary. This is a necessary phase, because it teaches many things?adaptability, the power to observe and plan, how to command others, etc. Where there is comparatively unlimited open space such bands fulfil their function and disappear without any marked effect on the ordered life of the community. In areas as congested as London there is practically no outlet for the activities of these gangs, except in ways which are illegal. There is no doubt that in the first instance the band desires the fun of planning a raid, and the excitement of carrying it out. Whatever is stolen has secondary value in relation to the desire for adventure. It is later that the object becomes primary and the planning and adventure a necessary means of achieving the object. To give this necessary developmental phase scope to fulfil its function should be the aim of any attempt to deal with it. The general lines of any scheme should be based on the adequate provision of open spaces, the extension of existing organisations which appeal to the adventure side of boyhood and give it legitimate outlet, and the encouragement of organised games of every descrip- tion. This sounds too extensive a programme ever to be practical. In my opinion, however, it is one of the objects to be worked for and achieved if the moral health of the nation is to be safeguarded.
In dealing with the individual delinquent it is essential, in the first place, that one’s own attitude should be right, that is, to realise that one’s function is not magisterial to condemn or condone on the basis of the evidence of a given delinquency, but to try to understand what is the underlying mechanism of the delinquency. It is only on the basis of such an understanding that it is possible to aid a child towards its own salvation. Every delinquency must be investigated on its own merits. Each factor in every given case must be investigated and weighed with regard to its possible effect. By each factor is meant environmental as well as physical conditions, and their individual 01 combined effect on the child’s psychological development. Whoever undertakes this form of work will early realise that all hope of success must be based on the gaining of the child s confidence most frequently difficult to gain and requiring endless patience in the gaining, very easy to lose, and once lost practically impossible to re-establish. From a practical point of view the best method of investigating any case is, first, to interview each parent separately, and bring out all that is possible about the child’s physical history, habits and so on. It is frequently useful to get several accounts of the parents’ characters and habits. They cannot give a just account of themselves. Then, and then only, interview the child by itself. It is a good rule to make, never to see either parent after the first interview, except where it is absolutely necessary, and then always with the consent of the child. Nothing breaks a child’s confidence so easily as the thought that what it says may be repeated to the parents. Conversation with the child should be on the child’s level of intelligence and should be so directed as to allow of the child speaking freely about itself, its desires, and so on, with an absolute minimum of direct questioning. When the mechanism of the delinquency is clear it is possible to begin to produce such changes in the environment as will permit of the eradication of the delinquent tendency.
Early in the history of every case a thorough medical examination should be undertaken. Many cases of delinquency are based on physical ailments, and can be dealt with satisfactorily only in so far as the physical illness can be ameliorated. Often the physical cause is obscure and can be elicited only after very careful examination. A case I saw some time ago will illustrate this. A boy of 17 brought to me because of outbursts of intense anger and intractability. Investigation revealed the fact that coinciding with the temper outbursts the lad had intense headaches of a bursting character localised to the vertex. Between attacks he was perfectly normal. X-ray examination showed that the pituitary gland was completely enclosed by a bony capsule which prevented the normal fluctuation in gland size and gave rise to the headaches. The two condi- tions, until then unconnected, were “undoubtedly interdependent. Mitigation of the temper outbursts could only be expected with alleviation of the headache, if that were possible, under the abnormal circumstances.
At as early a moment as is feasible with an accurate result?I usually find it possible at the second interview?each child’s mental age should be ascertained. This is information of the first importance in the handling of any case.^ It enables one to gauge the amount of understanding to be expected, and judge “”?ore accurately the delinquent’s responsibility for his actions. The deeds of a fourteen-year-old boy with a mental age of eleven, that is, intelligence equal to that of an average eleven-year-old, could be correctly judged only on the eleven- year-old level. In thought processes, desires, understanding and responsibility for action such a boy is really eleven years old. Many mistakes will be avoided and many disappointments saved if the finding of the mental age is made a routine practice in every case.
In a paper of this length it is impossible to do more than touch one or two fringes of a colossal subject. That is all I have attempted to do, in the hope that it may stimulate thought a little, and, in some degree, indicate the necessity I?r, and the importance and hope of, the early and adequate treatment of the juvenile offender,
Disclaimer
The historical material in this project falls into one of three categories for clearances and permissions:
Material currently under copyright, made available with a Creative Commons license chosen by the publisher.
Material that is in the public domain
Material identified by the Welcome Trust as an Orphan Work, made available with a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
While we are in the process of adding metadata to the articles, please check the article at its original source for specific copyrights.