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shocking facts about deliquency, together with a new and penetrating theory of
its origins. Significant remedies are suggested, in line with the
psychological
Few
the whole question of juvenile delinquency into the open, where it belongs!
(Continued on back
flap)
From
Ti
PreTinger
a
i
JU
JUibrary
Jailbait
THE STORY OF JUVENILE DELINQUENCY
by
WILLIAM BERNARD
GREENBERG
PUBLISHER
New
York
Copyright 1949, by
GREENBERG: PUBLISHER,
a corporation.
Published in New York by GREENBERG: PUBLISHER and simultaneously in Toronto, Canada by AMBASSADOR BOOKS, LTD.
All rights reserved under International
right Conventions.
Manufactured
in the
INC.
To Davey
who made
it all
the
way
back.
Note
Contents
1.
STATISTICS OF SIN
2.
THE
3.
SCHOOL SCANDAL
21
4.
35
5.
THOU
46
6.
ST. PAUL
7.
8.
SEX EXPLORATION
103
9.
119
10.
CRADLES OF CRIME
139
11.
UNREFORMED "REFORM"
154
12.
ANTICIPATING DELINQUENCY
178
13.
WHOSE BLAME?
190
14.
WHOSE SHAME?
206
JUVENILE PROSTITUTE
AND STEALING
67
87
Statistics
of Sin
WHILE THE
her
down now,
officer," the
"Watch out
where Nanette's
nails
The
officer's wrist
streamed blood
to dress her."
"No guy?"
"Two. Both over fifty. Found one hiding in the shower bath.
The other was
say, you'd be surprised! Had to let 'em go."
The desk sergeant wearily made notations and shooed the cops
.
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"How
and thirty-nine
cents!
She started to
cry.
Impulsively, the sergeant stepped down from his desk to console the child. Nanette looked up at him. With desperate inspiration she slid
"Listen!
well,
any-
"
thing
The
He
felt
a surge of warm,
guilty passion.
Nanette
is
She stands
"You
little
child,
he slapped her
slut!"
a juvenile delinquent.
for sin, but whose sin?
exactly.
it.
But
We
From
the estimate that for every child delinquent who actually comes
to the attention of the police, perhaps ten remain uncaught. Well,
in a typical post-war year, roughly 100,000 delinquency cases are
On
STATISTICS OF SIN
this basis, the number of boys and girls annually guilty of delinquent behavior cannot be less than a million!
Now there are, between the ages of ten and eighteen, some
We
No
"When we
figures
chilIf,
as
We
cannot be positive.
One
lies in
and growing
larger.
the lack of
any
the F.B.I, and the Children's Bureau try to fill the bill, but not all
juvenile courts and police bureaus report to them. Nor do the
reports observe uniform statistical standards.
Some
courts
list
Who
girls
it
below seventeen. As
for delin-
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quency"
is
society.
Juvenile delinquents have always been with us. They have been
with all societies. But the problem did not seem to reach really
World War
II.
1939 there had been hope that we were successfully coping with delinquency. But at that time the slow downward trend
of the previous decade sharply reversed itself. By 1943, all the
Up
to
is
Those were the years, you remember, when San Diego reported
delinquency up 50 percent for boys, 355 percent for girls. Indianapolis court officials publicly confessed panic before the rising tide
of delinquency; Atlanta magistrates nervously advised calm.
Cleveland, Norfolk, Brooklyn and Pendleton, Ore., were among
the cities reporting murders by schoolkids. Arson flamed across
the country, destroying a munitions plant in New Jersey and
in California; the F.B.I, complained of more trou-
movie theaters
STATISTICS OF SIN
ble from juvenile saboteurs than from
famous old
enemy
5
spies!
Students at a
New
geles,
New
hysteria seeped down, with crime appearing, so to speak, in dia6-year-old Philadelphia child crawled under movie seats
pers.
publicly despaired:
"The
hell
that seems to be
our philosophy. Definitely the problem has grown too large for us
"
to handle adequately!
How
right he
was
And
in
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The predominat-
one!
we reap
delin-
the whirlwind.
any better?
Everyone assumed during the war that "morals" were bound
to slide. The restraints were off! Things will improve, we said,
prediction seemed
what
Judge
for yourself.
The
F.B.I., in 1946,
it
showed a
announced a ten-year
more
serious crime."
STATISTICS OF SIN
major offenses was twenty-one years. All too often today's delinquent grows into tomorrow's hardened criminal. Juvenile delin-
quency
is
itself,
to a graver one.
And
by a
offenders, those
many
same
psychiatric worker in
social
New York
affected parents,
Now the infants have matured, with the disturbances ripening into delinquent behavior."
What
Some
is
the answer?
No
modern
For
social problems.
if it is
its
own
juveniles,
own
child, it is also
2
The
A MAGISTRATE
juvenile
OF
NEW
Prostitute
of
and poised
Two years before, she had organized her "ring" an accomplished and efficient "madam" at fifteen!
Yes, at that tender age the enterprising Carol had rounded up a
few
men
youngest apprentices to the oldest profession. There was no streetwalking or anything like that. Carol made the appointments. She
girl
to the store or
collect in advance,
girl.
room
of his establishment
sum
from her own share, of course, but from that of the assigned
girl.
Carol kept her kids busy. Some testified that they entertained
three or four men a night. "Carol would get from $1.50 to $2
each, and pay us out of that," explained one 14-year-old pupil at
P.S. 60,
turning
on Twelfth
Street.
This
so
three days.
One
tip-off
when
In a slum neighbor-
The
skill
and energy.
She
girls
"X" on
for
an
conducted by a religious
organization. The judge, with that optimism which all must have
who work with adolescents, told the schoolgirl offender:
."
10
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is
released,
girl of
her ob-
After
all,
how
else
Our
its
own
its
own
characteristics.
And may
re-
cures.
classification begins
On
trial,
law in
shall persist.
it is
a stubborn one.
Classical
and modern
full of instances,
literature, as well as
wise.
marriage of
girls of
and
We may accept
this as right
11
issue involved
much
not so
damage due
to sex repression.
money
is
involved
or other goods
the
is
her years.
Fortunately, exploitation of children by adult procurers is not
in this country. Most sex involvements of even criminal
common
motives.
among
example, a heavily rouged procuress of forty-seven years was arraigned for soliciting in the streets for a number of schoolgirl
brothel busy wants more for his money than a skinny schoolkid.
the kind of roue who wants a skinny schoolkid generally
And
does his
own promoting
as
we
shall see.
As adolescents approach
cept in a legal sense, between woman and juvenile. More important as a threat to juvenile morals, probably, is a certain type of
enterprise which does not sell sex as such, but uses
it
as a blandish-
ment.
We
infest every
tease.
12
JAILBAIT
cram these
places.
inflamed importunities,
many
girl
of liquor
and nudity-
offers to
unwary
and after
luring
them from
their
homes make
capital of their
charms.
One
place to spend the night. She told the man she approached who
happened to be a city detective "It was good while it lasted.
We sold ties and things from door to door around colleges, and
my own
business
little
money."
Other girls, when caught up in such rackets, strenuously object.
As in the case of Dora.
Her boss, an elegant dresser of forty-six, one day found himself
The charge
told
whether she had any close ties, whether she had family assistance
or was really dependent on a job. Out of six candidates that day,
she alone was hired.
Introduced to a
man
called
only "the
and was
told to sell
13
my
hand over
bodies to
the
day, I
first
make them
stop
or not.
home.
me
asked
and
Then
told
.
to.
to his room.
me
Dora
"After a while,"
lot
make some
failure.
The boss
sales.
He complimented me on my
want
to
progress
remember.
."
Then: the boss informed her that when subscription sales were
not up to a certain mark, the best thing to do was to sell herself,
charging as much as she could get. The proceeds were to go
half to her, half to
deal. Either
him
amount each
day.
When
was
fined.
my leaving town, he
bit
of
was
almost always in
a
I
just
money.
debt. A couple of times I couldn't pay my hotel bills and he'd
move me to another place. He told me the first hotel was holding
my clothes as security, but I learned later he had paid the bill and
times, to prevent
kept
late for
14
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tertained
venereal disease.
He
me by
threatened
all
Dora's release from her boss came only after he was arrested.
Here the lure of being "away from home," "on her own," led a
accept a condition
girl to
little
under
this
hotels,
is
certificates
tourist
camp
collects
sin.
With
from each
boys found
Here
is
its
way
visitor.
to the
Some
of the
management
money taken by
several points.
First,
the bell-
or higher employes.
girl,
bringing out
any
case,
way
young
comes
girl to
in
work
15
it
Second,
can be
diffi-
is
was
10.
Her
fa-
Her
moved
to a distant city.
At
12,
people,
is
from
and her
fields.
Far
desires for
He
a brothel.
periences,
On
the
By
this
object.
first
men. The
house, but the management took most of her earnings, reported at $30 to $40 per night. Convinced there was no
future in the brothel, she decided to prostitute on her own.
At
Jean became discouraged by unstable returns, faon soliciting. She was quite ready
to give up her "independence" for comfort and convenience. She made contact with a hotel, with whose call girls
16,
16
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doing
work
all
brought her
at the
many
clientele, steered to
At about
sixty rooms
first
calls
hotel only.
from the
much
and discovered twenty unregistered girls. They also discovered the surprising fact that some
rooms were being rented out four and five times a night.
Goaded by public indignation, the police next raided Jean's
hotel. That was how Jean came to be picked up. When arrested,
she was seventeen, had little money, and suffered from a venereal
infection. In the course of the trial, a chambermaid testified that
Jean was one of a hundred girls similarly available to keep the
at a nearby address,
hotel's clientele
The proceedings
ment derived
traffic.
dollars
room
against the hotel brought out that the manageprofit, over and above regular room rent, from the
Out
who had
The
17
of her delinquency.
orient Jean.
Within two weeks, the father felt obliged to report that Jean
was beyond his control; she kept irregular hours and consorted
suspiciously with men. Soon after, Jean was again apprehended
and,
now
a young
woman, sentenced
to a reformatory.
by itemization
here.
It
chological ones.
How
may
including psy-
trifling,
man? No.
on
Well
his lap?
maybe.
Hardly.
dollar for
Definitely!
is
But what
duct."
of the dismaying
myriad
of cases
is
marked by
conducive to
proper conduct?
At
traffic.
Or a
unsuspicious,
in seduction?
It takes
recruit to prostitution.
two
to
What chance
make
sexual
unknowing
How
is
The technique
Usually
it
is
old,
and
so, generally,
are
its practitioners.
18
JAILBAIT
in the street
him
ously, he really
is
and quite
decent
lonely,
and
flattered
in
need of kindness.
What
else is
child to think?
The
old
man
Of
some
now
He
it is
she in
whom
he
is
inter-
ested.
girl
He
nods
Then
it
merely to his
warm
affec-
at
visits.
or partial capitulation.
for the Casanova.
Or, with
sudden defeat
But, in the case of the failure, the very fear or shame which
blocked capitulation serves as assurance that the child will not
would think
And
money
if
or other satisfactions.
benefactors
or they
must seek
Then he
their
passes them on to
own.
new
19
it.
The
calling
may
or
may
life.
girls of
and
most
besides,
it
be that the kids really didn't have families, with home life as disturbed as it was? Unquestionably this played its part in provoking the hysteria. And what about excitement, adventure? These
too,
One underlying
finery, the
was as
affection.
if
their families
So,
by lending
had
failed
them
fellowship!
an atmosphere
if
each one, some boy wants her, perhaps desperately. Neighborhood lads seek her out, chase her, compete for her. If they can't
give her money, they give her what they can, maybe a nice walk
in the
home.
...
in short,
20
JAILBAIT
When
all
is
said
would do well
to ply
Parents
who
fear for
exists,
girl
for youngsters.
Nor
School Scandal
MOST OF
dren are pretty safe at school. And so, in the main, they are.
Supervision and inspection are almost always adequate to root out
the grosser evil influences which might "impair the morals" of
school children.
up
of the
same techniques made famous by adult "mobs" techwhich perfect manuals are widely available in news
niques for
stories, comic books, movies. And once in a while reporters unearth a nest of sexual misbehavior.
delinquency occurring in, or associated with, the schools. Ask yourself how often you have seen such
newspaper items as this:
tomary
Brooklyn high school students may be denied cusfree admittance to Dodger home games in Ebbets
Field.
on each of
N. Y. Post,
21
May
26, 1949
22
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The complaints
is
Police of Stagg St. station were pained to learn that vanhad got into P.S. 36, half a block away and across the
dals
paints but had smashed desks, chairs and benches, shattered window panes and heaved some of the broken equip-
ment out
of the windows.
N. Y. Daily News,
Mark
May
24, 1949
this solution:
seventy-year-old building."
This hoodlum misbehavior, though troublesome and often viis not the true stuff of delinquency. Often it is mere
cious enough,
lently, at the
Even
with
daily contact.
who cannot
SCHOOL SCANDAL
But the
23
Genuinely
tainted
along with
make
infrequent
of iniquity
do
is.
quietly hidden at
all,
brazenly foul
whole school
And
some, not
districts.
One example
some 4,600.
Negro population,
How
judged from the fact that many of those best acquainted with the
situation believe it to be virtually impossible to root out. Teachers
24
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mation
is
Here
Celia,
is
an excerpt:
16,
except for
me?
I got it
when
able to
it
of boys, according to
girls only.
for
one
INVESTIGATOR:
bright.
You used
to like school,
yes, the
CHILD:
washroom
Why
doesn't she
tell it
INVESTIGATOR: Don't
INVESTIGATOR:
feel that
When was
The same
this?
girls?
CHILD: About
last
They were
Two
many were
there?
and
floor, sort
SCHOOL SCANDAL
CHILD: Five
I
was
25
class.
So
made
me
Why
INVESTIGATOR:
you scream?
didn't
somebody
pen again.
CHILD: Man, I won't go back, no!
INVESTIGATOR: I tell you what. We'll get you transferred to another school.
CHILD:
quency, and
"But sexual
irregularity persists?"
"Well, less of
it.
"How much
of the school
body come
in contact
with
it.
is
many
of the area
is
low.
26
JAILBAIT
men
in the streets,
school.
maybe
up girls after
Did you know that two dope peddlers were caught near
is their protection?
the institution in question unique. What a careful cityto-city survey would reveal is anybody's guess, but in at least
fourteen schools known to the author, in various parts of the coun-
Nor
is
This school
is
impossible to patrol.
it
was picked up by detectives for examination. A teacher had discovered her on the stairs,
disheveled, her blouse torn off. She had refused to answer the
teacher's questions, and it was her generally sullen attitude which
The
record described
SCHOOL SCANDAL
27
They
I didn't
fat.
police record in
ties preferred to cope with such incidents as best they could without calling in police or other agencies. Perhaps they felt, with
justification, that correction of the matter lay more within the
many go
unreported, I don't
Question:
Would coeducation
sure. I
How
know.
help?
so.
Question:
They have
their
To what do you
Answer: Hard
all
good
kids,
manpower
to go
on
28
JAILBAIT
Answer: To a certain
rather curious
and
extent.
the
And the innocents that are pulled in well, what can we do?
They hardly ever talk. Scared to death of the Florabels! When
we do catch one we punish her, maybe get rid of her.
it.
Answer: Maybe that would work with boys. Here student monitors get coerced or beaten up.
The
it
police,
"Call
bels."
it
"
turned out, were familiar enough with the Floraa gang or call it a secret club, like," a newspaper
job."
Whose
job
is it?
This particular
South,
had greatly mushroomed during the war; so had juvenile delinquency of every kind. The war's end found school population
increased practically twice, school personnel hardly at all. Only a
bare semblance of youth welfare or reclamation work is carried
on at present writing, most of it of the volunteer "mayor's committee" type. The sole closely organized anti-delinquency effort
seems to be that of Catholic groups serving chiefly the Negro and
foreign-speaking elements, but even this is severely limited in
scope and effect.
In a certain smoky coal-and-iron metropolis, traditionally bossruled, conditions in two school districts got so out of hand that a
disgusted social worker for a private foundation went over the
heads of her superiors directly to the local newspapers. She
offered dozens of case histories in evidence, demanded that something be done.
The
it
first
SCHOOL SCANDAL
powers-that-be generally
something
it
29
?"
expect from those drunken, no-good families
This same case worker privately told the author: "The things
happening in locker rooms and lavatories are unbelievable! We
.
don't have access to school premises, so our bureau can't cope with
no one seems able to, or is even interested!"
it
was asked.
"Not on public property, with unwholesome effects on dozens
of adolescents who otherwise would never get near it! And it
the best places, she
isn't play.
It's
systematic
...
group or groups of
girls
who
What was
"Some day
would at
trol
The
be
left
of classes
is
have enough."
From
all this
we
Schools in crowded,
lack of clean, modern school facil-
districts
and a
of plentiful, qualified supervision and teaching
recruits
"bunch," a gang or "club," a "group" of girls. Acquiring
ities
want
So-called "gangs"
statistically
among
about one
girl
girls are
gang
to
not common.
They number
three hundred
boy gangs!
30
JAILBAIT
course, are
the Florabels, plain sex. Despite the high incidence of streetgangs, gangsterism of any great proportions is relatively infre-
Every
big-city teacher
of talking to
some
and-such gang!
You
talk,
you!"
Of course, much of the
Sensitivity,
Yet there
is
kill
For tykes admire and imitate their elders. Thus, when the
recent death of a 15-year-old member of Brownsville's "Black
Hat" gang brought its boys much publicity and police attention,
even 8- and 9-year-olds wanted some of the glamour.
"They made up
SCHOOL SCANDAL
31
more time to sink in, perhaps because the worst offenders have
been weeded out in the earlier grades and sent to special classes,
or have dropped by the wayside and are out in the streets.
Arson, when it occurs in schools, is generally an individual
matter an expression of bitter resentment, or simply a thrill
crime. But wilful destruction of school property, sneak thievery,
injury to persons considered non grata, these are as often as not
genuine gangwork. Among boys, no systematic homosexualism
in the public schools is
known
to exist as
among
girls;
the worst
privileged neighborhoods.
One
of the
is
One case which recently made the papers (possibly because of the large amounts of money involved) had a peculiar
twist or two. We quote Guy Richards, of the Hearst newspapers:
safety.
32
JAILBAIT
girls
who took
times they left her 10 or 15 cents. They told her, according to a welfare report, that "they'd beat her up if she
mouth
shut."
One day Betty was taken in hand by a girl who convinced her she needed the protection of another gang.
Betty joined. Her personality changed rapidly. She entered into rivalry with another girl for leadership, the test
resolving itself into which of the two dared assault one of
the
boy
leaders,
now
in the hospital.
At the time
her? Yes
fail
was
fifteen.
her; her
How
and
direction.
It
it is
to do.
classes were small enough, if teachers were plenquality of personnel were improved by paying
higher salaries, if there were more and better facilities, delinquency would be set back. Certainly if there were more guidance
Certainly
tiful
if all
enough,
if
workers, psychologists and psychiatrists attached to school systems, more could be done to correct delinquent tendencies arising
SCHOOL SCANDAL
ronment. But
all this
33
get
We
quency" spots in the country. Boys were completely unmanageEvery type of crime and vicious mischief was common.
Teachers were so involved in discipline problems that little time
remained for anything else. Then the school was turned over to a
able.
He
streets.
He
In the short space of a year this school, while not yet exactly a
model, had taken its place among the best to be found in similar
neighborhoods
One important
of
34
JAILBAIT
like.
All too often, teachers are unpaid for this overtime drain on
and nervous energy. Paid teachers exclusively as-
their physical
On
as
much
systems they serve, nor for the communities of which the school
is an instrument and expression.
4
Vice in Private Schools
crime rate?
areas, boasts
systems maintained by religious denominations, lesser ones supported by political sects, or from schools conducted by fringe
all kinds, by foundations or individuals
some noncan
out
for
dollar
others
they
get.
every
profit,
Inevitably, delinquency plagues these schools just as it does
groups of
Why
At
least
not?
cient staffs
it
is
on the surface.
The problems
of badly
35
crowded
classes
insuffi-
36
JAILBAIT
and "correction"
facilities, or
simply
which take on
all
comers.
by simple
attri-
In this respect, most private institutions are better at repressing and suppressing than at curing. If predisposing factors of
tion.
In
New York
ulation
is
State, for example, about one-third of the popCatholic. But roughly two-thirds of all inmates of re-
and other
somewhat
where
states
to be Catholic.
37
which stand in way of adopting certain psyor perhaps because of these very scruples
chiatric techniques
some progress
is
being
made each
year.
But
not
The same
true
crowded
in
and the
is
like.
participation
What
by organized
schools, certainly,
religion,
but more.
New
is
The
not less
Catholic
Such cases as
this
one
New
Jersey acad-
Warren County Jail at Belvidere, today, three charged with arson and all four with larceny of
automobiles. The boys burned a barn and attempted to
emy
its
drinking excesses which commonly trouble "prep" schools. Another typical case involving private school adolescents so typical
that almost its very twin appeared in newspapers every day all
over the land
fifth-floor
room
the streets.
a merchant seaman
girls' school.
of a hotel.
"The
He
into going
"She took the money and reI then entered the room and made the arrest."
a 15-year-old, also was picked up by a detec-
He
She accepted.
He
arrested her.
38
JAILBAIT
The
third girl
soliciting in
a bus
terminal.
less:
schools?
Why
ham
in drugstore sandwiches.
far greater
hand-
Further, there are certain moral hangovers from the war. Or,
viewed another way, the moral climate which makes both war
and delinquency possible is still with us. Millions of men, though
out of uniform, preserve attitudes toward sex and violence acquired in the armed services. Millions of girls retain the "easy
no object, she
may
39
But sex is far from the only excess troubling juvenile officers.
Nine murders (several linked with homosexualism), one hundred
and nineteen injuries requiring hospitalization, twelve off-campus
larceny cases, three arson offenses, forty-three vandalism raids
class, three rapes, fourteen statutory rapes, one
hundred and forty-nine "seductions" worthy of court interest,
like conduct,
things frowned on
mean
is
We
do not
intelligent in attitude
and
action.
But
it in-
cludes a greater segment than ever before of boys and girls lacking
the stringent moral precepts by which a society retains its honor
and health.
many examples
for
shoddy
On the whole, then, the crime problem of private schools approximates that of public schools. It varies in degree, perhaps,
40
JAILBAIT
teacher-student carnality
dimensions
of
an
is this
the
approaches
appalling problem.
so? Chiefly because of greater opportunity for the indulgence of
Why
mature appetites
of
immature
ones.
many and
diverse.
They
function in
all sorts of
dark
corners as well as out in the light of day, so that for one reason or
another they escape inspection, or get around it. Sometimes they
are less severe than
vary greatly,
in
many
The
result
is
an an-
staff teacher.
and
girls, 8 to 16,
one children.
(2)
At an
41
Four
instructors, three
students and a
girl students.
girl,
One
number
of cases in-
hammer.
and various
girls
minister of
is
a "damned fool."
They were
in a dormitory.
was 70.
But we are concerned here with
One
of the instruc-
tors
well be asked:
how
the significant thing is the effect of these school abuses, the influences contributing to the birth and spread of delinquency.
or forced
to tolerate sex
conduct considered
evil.
If
42
JAILBAIT
virus
it,
carrier,
The
it
was
finally shuttered
by
authorities.
remarkable institution, teen-aged students were encouraged to do "whatever comes to them naturally."
"My boys and girls go into each other's bedrooms," said Robert
At
this
also
And
The crown
you can't!"
which first attracted official notice was
seems that Copping invited one Eric A. Wildman, who supplies schools with canes for punishing malefactors,
to visit Horsley Hall. Copping then arranged for his pupils to
beat up Mr. Wildman with his own canes a bit of poetic justice
The
incident, however,
none of
these.
It
general application.
in this
authority.
Is that bad?
pecially
where
To
it
is
be sure, the trust is not always repaid. Esconvenient for the sexes to mingle. A nice
43
prep-school boy obtaining mutual sex experience with a nice finishing-school girl may not be a crime in the eyes of nature; but
it
in holding intercourse a
less
New
York Academy
any rate,
and girls of school age are so common as to hardly be regarded
as more than technical delinquency.
Even early prostitution, unless involuntary, is not inevitably to
it
relish
up
his
ing.
their car to a police station for questionchild drove after the police car for a short dis-
swung
off
at an intersection
and
fled.
Later the two were discovered hiding in the home of a neighborhood friend. The girl was taken to Abington Hospital. The
man, having admitted molesting her, was locked up in Montgomery County Jail. Subsequent grand jury and court proceedings
brought out a tale as harrowing as any in the history of private
schools.
44
JAILBAIT
The man?
George W.
Warminster Academy,
Balles,
later
characterized
by
the
court as a
New
Jersey and
girls of
New
middle-
York, ages
to light that
aminers.
it.
Up
man's wife, Laura, a woman of 35. She was accused of participating in the orgies and forcing children to submit to her husband.
The
sault
W.
to
corrupting public morals. Mrs. Balles was charged with contributing to the delinquency of minors, corrupting public morals and
compounding a felony.
Six months later, on appeal, Judge Harold C. Knight denied a
new trial to Balles, sustaining conviction on charges of rape,
morals and contributing to delinquency. He faced a sentence of
to forty-eight years. To Mrs. Balles, however, who could
have been sentenced to more than twenty-two years, the judge
granted a new trial. Referring to the tale of a 14-year-old who
had testified against her, he found it "too unnatural to warrant
up
belief!"
45
and practices
located.
5
flow
FEW TRAGEDIES
of one child at the
SUt N* KHI
is
hardly less a
We
of mind,
what
We doubt
crime. We are
kill.
whether the
grounds of "vicious, premeditated murder." The boy's attorney was in the midst of an eloquent plea for mercy when
his youthful client
said he
"prove I
Fred
only for
On
47
fit
women.
up
to 16
manslaughter 97 percent less often than do older persons children and adolescents aged 21 or younger, 70 percent less often.
But the favorable ratio does not derive from any lesser inclination to kill.
The
it
It takes less
and obey
adults!
thought to consequences.
re-
Social penalties
sponses. They
are not so deeply perceived, mores not as deeply implanted. Notorious are the cruelties, as well as the kindnesses, of children. Ingive less
grew up"
a person
is
who
failed to
mature
more
who never
sufficiently to control
or less
commonplace among
pre-adolescents.
The
big difference
and weapons
is
any
may
SECONDARY KILLINGS
This group includes crimes in which killing is not the primary
but results as a byproduct of meanness, viciousness, care-
intent,
48
JAILBAIT
It
old-fashioned
favor of
hero's
mother
in
chil-
dren, Robert could not resist the chance to play a trick. He shut
the icebox door on them. Thereupon the three became the object
and
of a long
frantic search.
dead.
The
10-year-old, questioned
by
he explained,
"My mother
me
Police
RAGE KILLINGS
These result from simple anger or loss of temper, closely resembling similar crimes among adults. They differ from slayings
inspired by jealousy and some other emotions in that they may
all in preceeding grievances again the
are they akin to killing out of fear, which is almost
killing in self-defense. They do parallel other emotional crimes,
however, in that the trigger is usually some frustration. That the
Nor
such murders as
this,
we can
gather from
father
to
49
go on a jaunt for a
for
all, 14-year-old Millicent had been working
of
seemed
and
taking
capable
occasionally,
quite
the family
care of their son Ronald, aged 6. Millicent was instructed to do
the family wash while the couple was out.
The girl started the washing-machine. Ronald wanted to play.
He
pulled the plug of the machine from the electric socket. The
girl pushed the plug into place; Ronald pulled it out again. This
went on for some time. Then Millicent lost her temper. She
THRILL KILLINGS
Like other types of crime, murder may be indulged in by both
and adult solely for the sake of exhilaration. To wish to kill
child
human
another
is
uni-
mal.
Killing,
in
many
circles is
accepted as nor-
man
whether of
expression of power
killings which occur as a secondary result of other thrill-seeking
behavior, thrill being here used to denote sensual or emotional exaltation.
Witness
this
deed of derring-do:
And why
But just
and
with
Kids
don't
the weapon wasn't enough.
handling
playing
Phillip, 12 years old, enthusiastically joined the fun.
50
JAILBAIT
cartridge.
The
Then
Phillip,
first.
click.
He
pointed
it
at
Nothing happened.
Murder,
derer?
Phillip himself?
friend's father who left
school
parents
and
responsibility
Take your
all
Tommy's mother
little
and
There are
types.
many boys
is
Tommy,
healthier
to begin with,
head of the
which have been in the thick of the delinquency fight for
many years, report that more than 60 per cent of the "really dangerous" delinquents come from homes of "middle" or "upper"
to go to the
ica,
class.
51
"Delinquency," reported
creased
who
J.
Edgar Hoover
in
own
pleasures to
give sufficient time, companionship and interest to their children."
And such delinquency, among juveniles of otherwise good back-
by
parents,
ground, takes the form of a "thrill" crime far more often than it
does among the underprivileged. A good many of the latter's sins
from needs
result
ter, food,
in,
most
tion:
Months
of tenacious police
two
morgue
to
just to see
thrill
if
their crime
crime.
52
JAILBAIT
the cure
is
faulty?
of child experts.
life.
to proper behavior,
But the
he becomes
fit
Suppose
The
The
man was
Perhaps
taken.
thoroughly
The
so.
fit
to
that even eminent experts can be misto sit in a chair with this particular barber
point
is
but
is all
the evidence
in,
away from a
53
love. The thrill killing, except to the thrill killer, represents the
height of irrationality. And irrationality, experts notwithstanding, in the present state of human knowledge remains unpredictable.
Further,
it
ample
to
others.
In
Joliet,
least
something
imprisonment
111.,
for
Susie
be said
may
by the name
stories in the
of Susie:
newspapers about
Harold, 14, the confessed thrill killer of a playmate. Avidly following the reports, Susie read that the judge in Harold's case
"I don't
know why
done anything.
I just
had an urge
to
push him
"He
hadn't
in the water."
Before confessing the murder, she helped search for the victim's
body, and was good enough to take up a collection for a floral
SEX KILLINGS
Included in this group
murder
is
An
stood were
man
The
planning to
sell.
To
He
I ain't sure,"
he
re-
said.
of a shiny
It
new automobile.
had been
girls
He would
then rape
54
JAILBAIT
any handy
them
into
pit.
Such glaring perversion almost never is found among youngIt is as if they have not yet had time to develop the deep,
pent repressions or sexual twists which in aberrational adults can
find release in such crimes. Emotional disease in a child has not
yet progressed to the point where orgasm may be assisted through
sters.
the sight of blood, the act of giving death, the infliction of pain.
Adolescent sadism has no demonstrated roots in sex, despite occasional protestations to the contrary
by certain psychoanalysts.
the identifying circumstance of most murders here
called sex killings is merely that they took place during pursuit of
sexual satisfaction, or as a result of it but in response to drives
No
given.
population:
All Justin sought
bit of the
when
trusted
To
Celia,
objected, and perhaps cried out in a way that filled Justin with
fear of discovery. Perhaps she threatened to tell her parents that
55
she was being maltreated. But in any event, the ensuing scramble
proved too much for tiny Celia in the water-filled bathtub. When
her parents arrived
home from
Drowned.
If Justin
would
Fear
many
talk,
he was
whether of
of the "sex
dis-
mur-
James, 13, had been sent by comfortable parents to vacasummer camp in Vermont. Wandering away from
tion at a
Betty, aged 10, was a friendly sort, and curious about the
boys at the camp. She was glad to join him for a bit of
conversation, maybe a bit of play.
by strangling
her.
why he
56
JAILBAIT
grade.
sumed he wanted
she got.
The
know why
He meant
tors.
to fight
I did it,"
that he
stopped moving.
Percy
kill her.
The
following history
is
who commits
the killing.
per reports:
affairs.
One Saturday,
an unused
closet.
bird,
window. "You
all
to friends present.
A
girls
few evenings
them
college.
Rosemary
left
We
early, to attend a
Two
vicinity
57
make out
in that
ning blow on the top of her head. Her thick hair saves her.
She staggers, but fights desperately as she feels strong arms
tearing at her dress. She claws with her nails, bites,
is
dead.
killer
The only
is
same age as
girls in class,
police broadcast.
picked up at school.
is a star athlete, a prize student, a choirsinging acolyte in the very church which served as the
scene of the crime. "Everything we know about him is
good," reports the church rector. "I never saw him lose his
58
JAILBAIT
temper or self-control about anything," states his football
coach.
to a
Sometimes the emotional atmosphere may not become supercharged until well after the incident which identifies the crimes as
belonging to the sex killings group. Nor need the object of the
the fear, anger
sexual drive be the object of the emotional one
or jealousy culminating in murder:
18,
grow-
ing rather ardent. The girl did not discourage him. On the
contrary, she welcomed the companionship of Seymour, a
at school.
Affection
that she wasn't sympathetic, but the secret gave her intoxicating power over Shirley and Shirley's lover. Perhaps she
was jealous of his passion for the older girl, or loved him
herself. At any rate, she teased Shirley a bit, and Seymour
unmercifully. She took to constantly threatening him with
that
exposure. And from later testimony it would appear
friends.
or
she did finally tattle to someone parents
59
month
disappeared.
later, by
purest chance, dredgers hauled up her body out of the Milwaukee River. She had been shot twice in the head. At-
tached to her
leg, for
block.
Two
days before, Shirley and Seymour had also disappeared. Police located them in Minneapolis, where they
had succeeded in getting married and were looking for jobs.
In testimony later stricken from the court record, Shirley
was quoted by police as saying that all through the honeymoon she had been thinking of her sister and at night
would cry herself to sleep; she had had "a hunch ever since
Frances disappeared that Seymour had a part in it." But
under further questioning by the police, and later in court,
she attempted to cover up for him.
Her loyalty did not help Seymour.
In an hour and
twenty minutes a Milwaukee jury found him guilty. There
is no capital punishment in Wisconsin; he was sentenced
to life imprisonment.
Seymour's
weapon, and
it
had gone
off
struggle.
PREDATORY KILLINGS
Many a mother knows the experience of bringing home a newborn child only to find that an older infant becomes so jealous that
he tries to strike the baby, or even hack at it with scissors or
kitchen knife. Among juveniles as among adults, the emotional
crime dictated by jealousy, love, hate, fear or rage need not
occur in circumstances connecting
to take the form of murder.
it
it
have
60
JAILBAIT
differ
as
in
the
murder
crimes
inflicted
is
of
lit
would be
than death
the
rage killings
group already
examined.
But a quite different area of delinquency is that which encompasses crime committed in pursuit of robbery or other predatory
gain. This type of offense,
when
Two
It
may
and what
who owns
a dozen balls
may
still
store
just to see if he can.
under strongly predatory conditions yet who is to say what actually motivated it? Approximated from testimony and confession,
;
tall,
and a
in a thick overcoat.
your hands."
felt
heavy bus
to the curb.
61
He
raised his
hands
The
girl in slacks
her," she said, gesturing with the weapon toward the shorter
The driver handed over his change belt.
girl.
on your knees."
had an impulse to grab the gun. Just a couple of
But why take a chance? The company was rich enough to
driver
stand the
loss.
He
kneeled as ordered.
"That's
all I got,
girl
The
asked the
give
me
tall girl
thrill."
by the bus
driver.
she was.
The groups
62
JAILBAIT
much
certain
we become aware
of
it,
we
done.
small to reach
it,
or has no
add
it
money
to
buy
it.
to thousands of others,
fruit
it
becomes
out on his
paired.
it is difficult
disposing factors. Schools are teaching organizations, not analytiBut suppose the task were entrusted to properly
cal laboratories.
equipped professionals?
And
63
When
this is
can be made.
any blocked or
Under
and
The
St. Paul (Minn.) idea was to organize church, charity, weland other local agencies, public and private, into a single
mechanism to deal with delinquency by handling it in the incipient stages. A coordinating center was set up by the U. S. Chil-
fare
delinquency. The emphasis, on the contrary, was simply on behavior symptoms. Thus, the coordinating agency sought any child
who showed exaggeration of the following long list of behavior
items:
Bashfulness
Defiance
Boastfulness
Dependence
Boisterousness
Destructiveness
Bossiness
Disobedience
Failure to perform
assigned tasks
Fighting
Finickiness
Bullying
Drinking
Gambling
Cheating
Eating disturbances
Effeminate behavior
Gate-crashing
Cruelty
Crying
Daydreaming
(boys)
Enuresis
Deceit
Fabrication
Hitching rides
Ill-mannered
behavior
Impudence
64
JAILBAIT
Inattentiveness
Sexual activity
Indolence
Shifting activities
Lack
Show-off behavior
of orderliness
Masturbation
Silliness
Nailbiting
Sleep disturbances
Thumbsucking
Truancy from home
Truancy from
school
Uncleanliness
Negativism
Smoking
Uncouthness
Obscenity
Speech disturbances
Underactivity
Undesirable com-
Overactivity
Over-masculine
Stealing
Stubbornness
be-
havior (girls)
Sullenness
Profanity
Tardiness
panions
Undesirable recreation
Quarreling
Tattling
Unsportsmanship
Roughness
Teasing
Untidiness
Selfishness
Temper
Violation
Sex perversion
Sex play
Tics
of
traffic
regulations
Timidity
illustrate
which,
as
if
any committed by
adults.
In Chicago, in 1946, a triple murder came to light well demonstrating the issue. It concerned William, a 17-year-old sophomore
at Chicago University:
anne,
perhaps assisted in
its flight
by one
65
He
then con-
"It
came
into
my
head
to
to the basement,
He
came
som
He
fire-
escape ladder and let himself into the apartment of Frances, a Wave. He stated he did not intend to rape her, but
arrest he
there
recall
nothing more.
66
JAILBAIT
In
He
burglaries.
split personal-
coction of his
own
is
The
exact motivations and personality quirks behind this horrifying series of murders would be difficult to unravel. But whatever their nature and cause, they did not appear all at once,
it were, out of thin air.
They developed from
obscure seeds, like a cancer, until finally they drove William to
kill. They grew out of repressions, disturbances, deep and unsatis-
materializing, as
fied needs;
ning, these
and while not necessarily pathological in the beginmust have manifested themselves in eccentricities of
St.
THE
ST.
PAUL
To understand
unknown
to the
of cases chosen at
authority.
ANDY
In the eighth grade at school, tall Andy at 15 was somewhat
shy with girls, perhaps because of his poor complexion. He wished
he knew more about sex. His quest for information and outlet
led him to indulge in sex play with younger boys, and finally he
was reported to the police.
Ordinarily, he would have been hauled into Juvenile Court.
For the first job of the police is to protect the community and
any repetition of the offense would have subjected them to criticism. But thanks to the St. Paul experiment, a community service
for children was available, to which they promptly referred the
erring boy.
A case worker
home
was assigned
to find out
if
67
68
JAILBAIT
and emotional
The
Noticing that
Andy
himself.
recreational resources
and could
YMCA,
him
Andy should have been doing better at school. Tutoring was arranged in arithmetic and reading. Andy could not do much with
the arithemetic, but in three months his reading improved two
grades!
effective resource
for recreation
and
self-im-
provement.
This
own
father!
He
gave
on methods of
Andy
The
like
you
helped him
Further interviews
self-control,
incident.
repetition of
any
As a matter
of fact,
community service, Andy made a normal adjustment, found an acceptable place in society. This might
never have happened but for the help he had received in his school
work, his recreation, and his personal sex problem. If this help
had not been forthcoming, Andy could have developed into a
dangerous delinquent. For reprimand or correctional sentence by
the court could have scarred him for life, intensifying the very
disturbances which had got him into trouble in the first place,
the continued effort of the
ST.
69
as the
boy
if
life
effective.
in the bud.
RALPH
Here was a boy not yet delinquent or seriously misbehaved,
and who might never become so. Yet at school he was showing
some danger signs. He had always done poor work, but that was
excusable, since his parents and teachers considered him rather
retarded mentally, and he himself figured that he was "pretty
dumb." The thing was that he had never seemed to care whether
his work was good or bad. He made no effort to do better, which
irritated his teachers and got him into trouble with them. Now
he was doing even worse work. He took no interest at all in what
was going on in class. When teachers talked to him he no longer
responded, just stood silently, smiling.
The community
service, after
to
it
by
70
JAILBAIT
and security on the part of her children. Why should Ralph, then,
be a behavior problem at school?
The answer was provided by a psychologist to whom Ralph was
referred. Prolonged testing indicated that the boy was not mentally retarded at all;
between high-average
When
not so
much by
the
The
using existing community facilities. It concentrated on identifying and treating behavior problems before they could develop into
serious delinquency and chronic personality disturbance. Its attitudes, knowledges
and findings
it
and the
them
meet
more
the
effectively.
problem
police, thereby helping
It was frankly experimental, elastic and ready to improvise; and
important
it
How
ST.
I.
St.
Ramsey County
(St.
Paul)
**
71
Data from
II.
72
JAILBAIT
III. Table indicating effectiveness of treatment
Two
seem
to warrant
judgment on basis
of avail-
able evidence.
Now
gamut
of behavior problems
mob
chology.
Nor would
corn
belt,
it
help
much
Out
in the
was purely
local.
in
St.
Paul
is
far
from the
ST.
73
In the previous
fooled the
member nothing
He
was
check on him, and he was placed temporara detention home at Crown Point.
difficult to
ily in
He managed
to escape.
He
got
all
the
way
to Calhoun,
tal
School.
It
and two
ning
away from no
less
In
all,
Don-
ald had been fleeing for five years, traveling through fifteen
states!
"But
he's incorrigible.
He
74
JAILBAIT
he began his series of flights. "You know, he's bright, and
not basically bad," reported Officer Hammond. "He needs
to be kept busy and given something to interest him. He
strict discipline to keep him under control, too. But
not a correctional institution. Unfortunately, like most
needs
states,
we
Donald
who
Asked why he always ran away, he reI was always looking for some
Somewhere there is a nice place. I just
identified him.
know
know, but
it."
He was
nile authorities,
just
Donald's case, though an extreme one, seems to cry out for the
Paul treatment! At any point in the saga, perhaps through
cooperating community agencies a proper home might have been
St.
to local cor-
and
Stealing, to
name
one.
Do
lawful acquisitiveness?
grand larceny
child crime.
The more
or less
ST.
75
two
17-year-olds
on
and success
of retrain-
ing.
"When you
that they
had learned
get to the
how you
feel
about a career
guerrillas.
the first two girls kicked his legs out from under him, and
went through his pockets while he was lying on the ground.
Such thuglike methods are not rare among girl thieves, especially in our larger cities. But, as to be expected, most young
ladies prefer less violent banditry. Statistically, shoplifting and
Then
purse-robbing are the most common forms. The girl in this account from a Boston newspaper has thousands of sisters all over
the country.
The
MTA
was a thing
76
JAILBAIT
wasn't psychiatric.
They claim
that she
is
gifted with
of the crush to
Last night, the police charge, she filched a wallet containing $45 from a woman's handbag. This sort of thing
J.,
the police were arriving, according to the youth, the man fled,
"leaving me alone without divvying up."
Either this lad was a colossal liar, as delinquents often are, or
he was one of the almost countless number of wayward kids victimized by older criminals. Such victimization, however, usually
by a "fence" or other behind-the-scenes operator who uses chil-
is
dren as cat's-paws.
of a candy store:
Receiving stolen goods was the actual charge. Detechad been suspicious for some time, but were unable to
tives
ST.
77
one
ing a practice of assigning children to steal from five-andten-cent stores, drugstores and chain groceries. No matter
how high the value of the pilfered item, he would usually
pay a penny or two for it, although on several occasions he
to
pay a
nickel.
sale.
use, adolescents
can come
78
JAILBAIT
it was stated, the lads had been induced
up a chamois bag containing $3000 worth of jewelry
of.
Of the
It
in their
catacomb the lads had been livand then throwing wild par-
Among
two
What can be gathered from these several examples of the thousands of cases of juvenile sneak-thievery, burglary, robbery, minor
and petty and grand larwhich
make
the
records
each
ceny
year? As presented, bare of
tell
almost
nothing. Generalization from the
background, they
mere physical
facts of a crime
is
the one great cause of stealing. The more recent view is that this
holds true only with respect to the pettier categories; when it
comes to burglary, armed robbery, larceny in the upper brackets
Yet all farm boys do not steal, nor city ones either. To get at
the genesis of the juvenile thief, we must abandon the general in
favor of the individual, peering, if we can, into the particular personal circumstances of each offender. Here is a case investigated
by the
New York
Journal- American:
16-year-old
ST.
less
79
she did
Here
is
another:
New
14 years old.
The
of
He
23 children
only the
first of
his
whom
6 different men,
she ever married. He is living with
and
to
mate children."
city.
was sentenced
to
jail.
Some
home.
than a year, she again ran away, this time being picked
up by police in New York's Pennsylvania Station. Children's
Court put her on probation. She joined a gang of adolescents
In
less
preying on local merchants, and soon had the police trailing her
Sentenced to a year at
after them.
80
JAILBAIT
Marion wound up
viciously that
it
in
share one
New
the
home
filthy
and
dirty,
No
As with Marion, so with Mabel, the chic and wealthy checkand with Frank, the child slum-bandit. In each case,
something was wrong, very wrong, in the family circle. Such disturbances almost inevitably show themselves in early behavior
symptoms, in the school, in the street. But nobody bothered to
passer,
is
from the
St.
might be handled:
how an
treated before
still
actual
remain.
first
it
has
report
case of stealing
ST.
81
JERRY
At
9, this tot
stealing
health.
When
so that he
maybe
it
and un-
hysterical?
was decided on
this
And
Evidence accumulated to corroborate the case worker's analyTake the day she visited Jerry in class. Unlike the other chil-
sis.
82
JAILBAIT
dren, he did little work while she was there, but made very effort
to attract her notice. He seemed desperate for attention, for
friends, for people
whom
What
is
age, with youths today as willing to joy ride in the upper atmosphere as on concrete. Of course, this brings the lads new prob-
lems.
on at
least
difficult to get
trick.
cars.
But
Their prize
One day they got a rifle somewhere and a few boxes of ammuniThus armed, and with a selection of sandwiches and candy,
tion.
they sneaked into the plane and pulled a few likely looking
far as
belly-
made much
sidered delinquents!
Not so with kids who steal automobiles. These are delinquents
indeed, eligible for charges of grand larceny.
ST.
83
theft
officers ultimately recover more than 90 per cent of purloined vehicles; partly because few are stolen to be disguised and
resold. Mostly they are taken for joyriding purposes, or to serve
Yet law
a bank, run
over he abandons
is
But
As soon as the
in the joyriding
it is
girls or heroin.
it.
American boys
these
made
now
They
plane.
Where stealing
make off with the
or tires,
When
sell
it is
for profit
car.
them
He
is
will
is
after
today.
St.
started
by
At
Both boys
obliged to
fire
fled,
Tunney was
left side.
84
JAILBAIT
The
Your small-town
juvenile,
when he
feels the
cities.
permission to use
it.
bill
or a cruise to
South America.
If
going to hurt the guy's car if he can help it. What harm in borrowing it for a while, ditching it when the gas runs out?
One
and
loyalty, guts,
and
lad,
intrepidity.
He
Oldsmobile with two other boys. This time it was the Family
Court which let him off, probationed to his own parents. Two
weeks later he was making off in a Buick when a prowl car gave
chase.
Harry blew a
tire
and wound up
in the ditch.
He
pre-
was on
author got to
ST.
85
He
He was
job with his record, but his family, though disgusted with him,
kept trying to help. His older brother now worked for a large
corporation, and managed to get the boy an "office-boy" position
with a friend in business.
life dull,
The
boss,
He was
new
car downstairs.
Humoring him,
the boss
went for a trip around the park. Two youths, friends of Harry's,
had been waiting on the back seat and rode along. One of them
confided to the boss that the Mercury was "hot." A few weeks
later Harry was found in an automobile near a candy store which
had just been robbed by three boys. The car was not his. He
claimed he was innocent, but his record and the testimony of
certain unsavory companions who lived in the neighborhood were
enough to convict him of the store robbery as well as the car theft.
This time he was put away for a considerable stretch at a reformatory. There, as it turned out, he was assigned to the auto
shop. He was taught to assemble engines and repair them. He
learned the use of tools and machining equipment.
On his release, he could not find a job. His parents staked him
86
JAILBAIT
to a set of tools,
down
and he made a
living
by
Then he set up
empty
pulling
a small garage in a village some miles out of town. This enabled
him
to
to get
cars in
do pretty
and with
he found him-
many
skill,
years,
and
amounting
about
robbery in
New
York, one of
the armored-truck
set of tools
Green
WIRY HAROLD,
had been caught
off
Grow
BETTER
guard.
the
Gangs
KNOWN
And,
it
bounds.
to
wander from
his
couple of
"Bishop"
Didn't they
know he
bush!
Raked by
bottles,
moment
87
88
JAILBAIT
hand-to-hand
battle.
At
home-made guns
killed
force
beyond a few
feet.
don't shoot
But at
least
seriously injured.
They
Fox? Sent up
dead Bishop.
for manslaughter.
trict of
sorts.
Little
It
and a host
all
And The
Its
approximate
Columbia.
The mountain
Its relative
much
simply a
is
by virtue
Man
is
we would
estimate that
it
may do
so
of the greater
a herd animal. It
The
child,
four.
may become
aggressive, destructive.
89
economic circumstances, different patterns of superstition with respect to the various colors and religions, are thrown
together in our crowded cities, far more than in open countryside,
different
one stepping on the toes of the other. The result? Aggressive conflict between groups. Gangsterism.
cities,
Helen R. Faust, counseling specialist of the Philadelphia Public Schools, expresses it this way: "If educational plan-
attacked.
all
group.
Still,
clinics,
the
young gangster
is
"Mary
sticks with a
gang
for a feeling of
security."
All this
may
group because cultural differences cut him off from the major
group society. Joe is frustrated because he is black, or doesn't
speak good English; culture isolates him. Mary feels insecure
not because she is poor, but because most of the girls at high
school won't accept anyone so badly dressed, so unkempt; in
short, so culturally foreign.
Each
is
The tragedy is
their own little
cultures
90
JAILBAIT
and
habits.
The
And
associated
feelings of persecution
In
New
trations of population
numerous.
As
and variations
in cultural
background are
many and
violent.
Some
sixty.
number
of
New York
boy gangs at
These include only
gangs which have come to the attention of police, probation officers and welfare workers. A count is difficult because the larger
gangs have "seniors," "juniors," and young auxiliaries known by
such names as "Tiny Tims." A loose system of alliances runs
throughout the
city, including,
the
gun
for
a gang
office
Brooklyn district-attorney's
immediately put
32 gangs under investigation, naming them as follows:
battle,
Boys and
others.
New
East
tapos.
Navy Yard
picturesquely
named
gangs.
91
persuasion,
national
origin
or
The New York World-Telegram reports that gangs have a jartheir own. Session means dance. Sneaky Pete
a mixture
gon of
of port
and sherry, or
on the prowl
of either
wine with
It is
gin.
known
On the bop
many gangs
that
The Comanches
mando"
knife.
Slicksters
officially
92
JAILBAIT
Where
in the
home by war
veterans.
is
the
Some-
times the youngsters wheedle or "borrow" them from older brothMore often they appropriate them in the course of house-
ers.
in
comic books.
at sporting goods
amusement-arcade shooting galleries: "Instead
of shooting off the whole gun load at the target, you just slip a few
shells into your pocket." It is said that somewhere Brooklyn's
stores, or pilfered at
sold
it
to the
Red-
bling
them at home.
Such jobs
consisting of
key
wooden handle
and
to serve as firing-pin
rubber bands doing duty to spring the trigger form the famous
"zip" or "zipper" guns. They take .22-caliber ammunition.
"We
making guns,"
District Attorney
porary relief at best. "We have to get at the source. Our only
lots of plain, simple understanding."
means
But understanding is all too scant. The gang killings go on.
.
One alarming
gang. These
first
93
made a survey
More
girls
are
and the first six months of 1949, ran almost ten percent
higher than during the peak-delinquency war year of 1943; but
what police complain of most is that the girls are even more diffiin 1948
more
officers,
girl
gangster, in that
which
it
some boy
One important
duty, as
described at the 1949 conference of Brooklyn law enforcement
officers, is to act as weapons carriers to the boys, who thus escape
gang, to
it
as
camp
favorite
94
JAILBAIT
When
member
of an opposing gang,
with
her
the lye-and-soda
punish
mixture detectives, fortunately, interfering before damage could
be done. On another occasion, during a battle involving boy gangs
pop.
girls of her
and
one
girl slept
own group
with a boy
set out to
at a
It
week
was
mashing
up an 18-year-old girl with such a weapon, she was arrested with
three child companions for beating a second girl, 16, with fists,
kicking her in the stomach, burning her with cigarette butts.
The sex practices of these gangsterettes are particularly revolt-
ing.
1
2 is
to be
young mobsters.
Probation reports describe the initiation ceremony of the Shaneach neophyte to have intercourse with
Tim
is
press:
A
gang
friends
girl,
up and proceeded
to
95
in their nasty
lighted cigarettes. They got as far as "Bi
little word game when the girl's screams scared her tor-
turers
The
off.
sordid
life
in the
Bronx
officers
From what
Gent.
when
The Comet
bail.
He had
He
and com-
standard homes
possibly from the lowest rung of the
economic ladder. Ultimately, I suppose, they will be sent
to jail. That will be punitive action. What is being done
.
One form
tional
and
of "corrective action"
social facilities,
is
First,
such
keep kids
quent behavior.
make
off
96
JAILBAIT
It will
conducted and adequately sustained, they will undoubtedly contribute their ounces of prevention. Nevertheless, recreation, itself,
fails
as a panacea.
tionship been shown between incidence of play facilities and incidence of child crime. "Plenty of action at a club is not a cure for
honey to attract the fly. Once within the center, the straying child
must be given the full treatment of skilled analysis, guidance,
control and social reconditioning
or he will stray again, and
further.
Thus it often happens that the recreational center actually creand fosters gangs! Gang groups have been known to take
over the centers physically finding them superior headquarters
to the usual cellar club, back room or empty lot.
In New York as in other parts of the country some gang organizations, it is said, have been rescued for society by means of social,
ates
by
individuals. Per-
so.
is
97
sources
and
skill, it
is
cultural conflict.
meets great
But
difficulty in curing
delinquency
Center
is
Supposedly, three nights before, a trio of Negro gangup a Puerto Rican boy. Next night, three white
sters beat
community center
to seize
were reputed to be the "Pulaski St. Boys." They were persuaded not to rush the building and left, threatening to
return with
The Pulaski
more boys.
kids returned,
all right.
streets, according to
with them.
gun.
ain't
The
You want me
to
be shot?" "Ain't
98
JAILBAIT
When
as by the
is publicly operated
work
to
more
be
might
expected
potently as
a delinquency antidote, since it is backed by larger funds, greater
authority, broader experience. This does not necessarily follow.
schools or police
it
club
school.
the group
one activity,
school."
games
One
basketball, baseball.
director states:
girls
The
among
directors
first
and
19.
99
15-year-olds.
League. These are popular, but thousands are turned away from
the limited
gym and
problem, often develop a practical approach which can yield excellent results if given a chance. An investigation of post-war delinquency by Robert H. Prall, in behalf of the Scripps-Howard newspapers, turned
in point:
Two young
Community
set
up
gangs to a meeting.
As probation
officers,
even look at one another. Officer Sable made a plea that the boys
and guns. They made no
Rocky
were introduced.
The
Again, snickers.
others snickered.
More boys
by
a
this fleet
fight,
100
JAILBAIT
and a few
giggles.
Officer
arbitrators
matters.
When
Imperials will
known
if
as
"Booby"
told
go along
Slowly the rest fell into line. A board of arbitrators was picked.
After that, for several weeks, none of the accustomed gang delinquency occurred in the area. Then some of the leaders of the
junior gangs.
"We've
lost
affiliated
probation
"One
of the
would be kinda
The
"We
silly to fight
The
officers
knew enough
to
101
They also knew enough to steer the conversaaround to such topics as sex and racial discrimination, thus
skillfully achieving a measure of both physical and mental hy-
obtrusive guidance.
tion
giene.
They saw
to
it
was provided
increases.
But
ference of state probation officers, judges, a deputy police commissioner, assistant district attorneys, representatives of the school
system and social agencies, ministers and even one gang member.
should continue
we
left off,"
it.
"We
been no concentrated
about
ful
it.
As a
result,
have resumed
"But
results. Someone
would take up where
They
are hoodlums
again."
Once more the vital lesson: to make inroads into the city gang,
the requirements are skilled leadership and a sustained program
aimed at areas of tension. Recreational opportunities themselves
are not sufficient
can degen-
102
JAILBAIT
and often
do.
To
illustrate,
we
which took
The victim, Teddy, 17, was vice-president of the "Lightnings," a Bronx stickball team. Testimony is that seven
members of the "Rockets," a rival team, chased him to
Union Ave., where he was knocked down, kicked, beaten
and stabbed. Five shots were fired. A passer-by was seriously wounded. A bullet still in the body will be checked
against a .38-caliber revolver and a zip gun said to be owned
way
to the hospital.
He
Thirty
boys were rounded up and questioned, leading to arrest of
five Rockets. The revolver was found On a rooftop, the zip
Sex Exploration
GIRLS AS YOUNG
AS
may
results?
by pleading
The accused
girl.
still
being
was allegedly
through a marriage
all
criminal per-
104
JAILBAIT
formances quite apart from sex. Not for nothing do most penal
codes and police statistics class rape among the assaults. Attack,
rather than sexual consummation, is the real issue.
Statistically, the incident reported above constitutes a common
type of joint juvenile rape. Not much can be gathered from a
bare newspaper story. But in some cases of the kind, greater detail is
available:
night
dog.
The
girl's
call police,
who
and dress
and the tale
is
in
noted that "while she told her story with shame, blushsometimes she would giggle furtively, almost as if she had
officer also
ing,
when
half-clad
enough temptation.
The matter
SEX EXPLORATION
105
attack.
Or imagine the
privileged,
feelings of a
under-cultured
and probably
boys coming on an appetizing, expensively dressed lass subjecting herself to her Lord Fauntleroy on a park meadow or in the
back of a car. To them she may appear fair game with sudden
emotions of envy and resentment unquestionably entering into
the beating given the boy-friend and the raping given the girl.
Rape cases of this variety are routine on police blotters.
Marijuana has been blamed for adolescent joint-rapes both in
by juveniles
and in six out
areas during the same period. Examina-
twelvemonth
New
On
or church socials.
same
states, fifteen
girls
great a distance.
Many
rapes of
all
whether rape was accomplished or intended. It is difficult to arrive at reliable figures on the number of rape cases which reach
court, let alone those
serious
enough
106
JAILBAIT
Of
Even among the gangs of the great cities, which, like wolves,
do everything in packs, a type of morality, shame or caution
makes boys rugged individualists when it comes to sex assault.
Although the joint-rape does occur, it is not usually premeditated
or pre-organized. We have no way of knowing whether poor
Manya was
The
conditioning
looked, however.
tural tensions
The
is
that cul-
New
and Puerto Ricans can explode into rape in Texas and Califorin New England, benia, between Mexican and native-born
the
But
and
tween Catholic
great offending area is the
Jew.
of
In
South.
Negro girls by groups of white
any given year, rapes
youths outnumber all juvenile joint-rapes in the rest of the counas
try combined, by a ratio variously estimated at from 3 to 1 up
far as 10 to 1.
Much
effectively
law does not recognize her as old enough to know her own mind
or body. In which case, he may be charged with statutory rape.
But considering only ordinary rape ravishment involving
SEX EXPLORATION
107
a matter of coming on her when already inflamed by liquor, emotions or erotic environmental stimuli
or when she is in such state
as to do the inflaming.
She
is
alone.
She
is
naked. She
is
drunk
and
subdue
if
her.
It is the adult
He
and psychotic
rapist
who works
itself,
in order to
keep
offenses.
it.
They provide a
They
drain
it off
through vicarious
put it, "for the skin you love to touch." This boy, delegate at a
high school forum on sex education, remarked: "Movies roused my
but later they kind of
curiosity about sex when I was a kid
With
rape, at
any
rate, responsibility
would seem
to lie in a
108
JAILBAIT
of us
who
over pubic
for
fear
But
girl.
We may
be physically weak.
if
or conscience!
Conscience?
fear of
God.
it is
It
may
acquired, a
is
it
against rape.
most
marked where cultural cohesion is lacking, where cultural tensions and conflicts emerge. So in individual as well as joint-rape,
as might be expected, the South leads all the rest. Rapes of Negro
girls by white boys are relatively highest in Southern rural areas
And
origin,
that they tend to regard the poor, uneducated and possibly foreign-born or Negro girl as another species, not entitled to respect
of person or
SEX EXPLORATION
109
ual offense.
point:
room apartment.
Henry has pleaded
fired in all directions.
Henry
trial
But
And two
it
has back-
trial for
impair-
whom
dallied with
Henry.
for
offenders get caught and convicted because they lack the affluence
or influence of more fortunately circumstanced offenders."
all
rapes of or by juveniles
is
Only a comparative
mouths
of victims.
and women,
he was able
it
was
chiefly because
many
110
JAILBAIT
he had raped twice that many, though
them from proving it.
to believe that
reticence kept
Incidentally,
La Guardia Committee's
the
report,
girlish
covering
New York
City during the 19301939 period, remains almost the only statistically exhaustive official study of the subject. Although now dated, the figures de-
several
myths
most sex
Of 4854 convicted
New York
2.
less
whereas among felons generally the number with previous criminal records averages 65 percent.
3.
Of
all
committed by whites.
4. Native-born Americans committed 73 percent of New York
City sex crimes, a high ratio in view of the large numbers of foreign-born residents.
5.
mentally.
among
who might be
dumb
who
it is
The La Guardia
the
ones
SEX EXPLORATION
111
Fortuit.
The
older girls, or so
So do those of the rare juvenile who rapes out of psychotic inability to enjoy girls except under brutal conditions. This lad
does not participate in joint-rapes. He infrequently rapes on the
spur of the moment. On the contrary, his characteristic is not
only that he plays a lone hand, but that he carefully plans the attack. This deliberate planning for rape is typical of the aberrational or pathological rapist. If cure or prevention there is for his
condition,
it lies
Aberration
criminal or delinquent
More
often
it is
hormone
irregularities.
or within.
punishment,
if
the latter
is
what we wish
or
Nevertheless,
gets its
112
JAILBAIT
measure of culpable delinquency. The high school boy
liable as a
must
lie
somewhere
own
in their
cul-
ture.
That
ish them.
will teach
them better
No
and other
self,
one's
Of
fluences.
But the
If aberration is
a matter of doing what in the aberrant more or less "comes naturally," guilt is not clear. It lies, if anywhere, not in perversion
as such, but in the uses to which perversion may be put. Should
it
or morals,
To
illustrate, in
New York
and a number
known
to
be
SEX EXPLORATION
113
glances
and
esoteric
often
signs,
lingering
magazine
hilarity.
toilets,
cinema
sensational
are used.
in
number
liquor,
learn to blackmail
to heighten clients'
seducing "respectable"
hush-money
is
paid.
Police find
difficult to
it
money.
not to say they are more delinquent or more to be
than
other kinds of delinquents merely that they inpunished
which is genuine delinquency in the sense of any
in
behavior
dulge
This
is
prostitution.
Society,
by
its
itself
But
guilt, if
any, surely
lies
in-
114
JAILBAIT
and possession
tip,
found the
of indecent photo-
women
lewdly exposed
with three children
where children
The cunning
child to
an isolated place by
in the
many
instances on police
and medical
The
thing
is
bing salt in a
Of
tally
course,
wound
of its
any man
is
own
creating.
at the
mercy
of the child
who, acciden-
station in
to
any charge against him," wrote his wife in the suicide note. Who
knows what peculiar circumstance led this apparently reputable
husband and father to the alleged crime? Did he take too many
Perhaps he mistook the girl's age in the
darkness. Certainly on the known facts no one can accuse her of
SEX EXPLORATION
egging him on, but more than once the
up whose proclivities for sexual play get
115
legal infant
herself
has turned
trouble.
One
St.
Louis
girl of
10 was
visit
purposes before deciding to complain to police. A maniacal dewho killed an 8-year-old boy in a western amusement
generate
only because of the boy's teasing threats to expose him. The boy,
seen with the killer
All this
by playmates.
must be said not in excuse
for criminals or
maniacs who
experience even as elders incite them. But only among older children children past pubic age are deliberate incitements under-
the
Here we come
"wayward"
girl.
Again, the report on any one case duplicates almost line-forline the reports on thousands:
San Francisco police yesterday booked five men of various ages from 17 to 30 on statutory rape charges and announced they were looking for eighteen or nineteen others
suspected of having relations with a 14-year-old girl.
Detective Hawley Edward said the girl, who ran
away
girl
and
The
good
maybe
it
will
116
JAILBAIT
Are such
girls really
ologically
places
is
completing a course in
how
to
become a
far
Authorities began a crackdown today on teen-age drunkenness, vulgarity and looseness among unchaperoned high
school girls
sort.
Most
this
from Washington, D. C.
Six youngsters from Washington and Arlington, Va.,
were arrested on disorderly conduct charges in a pre-dawn
roundup, and fined $10 apiece. Mayor Norman F. Brewington said arrests would continue.
The offenses involve nudity, rape, drunkenness, rowdyism and all-night petting parties in cottages, automobiles
SEX EXPLORATION
117
It
is
The charges
Drunkenness, rowdyism, shootings: these are overtly delinquent, to put it mildly. In these cases, they directed attention to
sex situations duplicated among high school and other juveniles
in many American areas. But for the most part sex relations, even
at parties, are indulged in without breaking the peace.
accompanying misbehaviors,
where the delinquency lies.
it is difficult
Without
on just
to put a finger
harmed individual
or racial survival.
They do
may do
many
juveniles, a lot
more pleasant.
why
If al-
the starvation
in another?
lies
without beatitude.
a view has
much
in its support.
Monogamous
Such
society's historical
development bases partly on the idea that primarily sex is not for
pleasure, but for child-begetting. Wedlock recognizes that economic responsibility must go with sex, for the sake of mother and
child.
Contraception has interfered with the concept, whether we approve or not. So has the springing up of a general moral tone
which, in this as in many past ages, assumes sex to be as much a
pleasure-giving
and
soul-satisfying
mechanism as one
for
im-
118
JAILBAIT
pregnation. Even where contraception fails or is unknown, certain national or class groups accept economic support of mother
and
child,
view.
It tends to deprive
phere of love
and
and advantages of family life, of the atmoswhich are among the chief social
close alliance
rewards of marriage.
But if pregnancy can be avoided,
it
remains as
why
difficult to ex-
pre-marital sex
should be frowned on. As for contending that early relations mitigate against married happiness later on, the reverse is often true.
They bring
love
and
more skilled in
and perhaps less
Hayloft
JUDICIAL VIEW, THE YOUNGER ADOnot mature enough for the responsibilities of marriage.
But he may be quite mature enough for sex. Why should he
lescent
is
cause
too metaphysical to affect children except through fear of punishor the habit of obedience. Only the timid or meek would
ment
heed them.
Perhaps the whole idea of pre-marital sex as delinquent sex
began in religious or moral intent to instil self-discipline and
thereby
it
may
make
better
link with
human
some theme
beings
like fasting
on Fridays. Or
the sake of greater future ones. This is not the place to weigh
the merits of such recommendations, which come backed by the
is
is
learning to do so. It
is
120
JAILBAIT
many
stood,
it,
and resentment.
Such a background in the child makes it easy for biologic compulsion to overwhelm social compunction particularly when an
adult assists the process.
And a willing adult can always be found, in open country as
well as crowded city. Children who might hesitate to trust themselves to their
own
known
to
throw them-
whom
sisters,
tioned,
ride.
Luke
He
few hours
Gloria,
is still
missing.
The
story
tinent facts:
was
121
she had invited herself on the ride along with her sister
and Lupe, a friend, in order to push her attentions on
Luke. They had stopped for cokes at a service station on
their way to the movies, and Gloria had suggested they
There she
drink them on the shore of Rock Pond.
made advances to Luke, which he did not reject, but Nora
interfered. Gloria then suggested a swim to the others, and
giggling, they went into the water in the nude. They played
and splashed with Luke until finally she induced him to
take her on shore where they had relations. To placate
Nora, Luke then had relations with her. Meanwhile, the
11-year-old Victoria, aping her sister, was trying to tempt
Luke. After another swim, he satisfied her. Luke wanted
to drive the girls
Lupe had a
cousin.
Apparently
they were ashamed to go back to town after what had occurred. Gloria, however, left them a jew miles farther on
No
and
at the
is
home
likely prospects,
Arraigned
children, he
last night
was held
for the
by
known
122
JAILBAIT
paying two
local girls
from SO cents to
favors."
The
girls,
and 12 years
13
old,
and
girls in revels
The
visits
"A
dollar
to township police
ago, he
It will
is
were given away by contributing delinquencies; runaway brought official notice in one
sex incidents in the preceding chapter
instance, prostitution in the other.
It will
tricts.
be noticed also that both cases took place in rural dismay be the place to bring up the whole subject of
This
rural delinquency
and on
on intercourse prior
to,
problem
of precocity.
But
123
regarded chiefly as a
is
of boys and girls at a much earlier age is taken for granted. Sex
without marriage, rather than early sex, tends to be regarded as
the issue.
By
was increasing
at a rate
at least three to four times as fast as city crime during the 1947-
first six
ris-
4.6
U.
full
survey,
number would be
the
mass
still
greater today.
And among
this great
and
truancies, to
considered
delinquencies
gangsterism.
name but
quite
its
two.
exclusively
big-city
stuff,
armed and
like
124
JAILBAIT
we
the
got
driver's
license.
little
tracing
show every
bit
as
much
kind of speakeasy in a secluded spot. Parents noted that children were walking around quite intoxicated, so that an investiga-
tion
day-to-day routines.
And
the
to relieve itself
in sex.
Some head
for the cities where, they are told, the big, fast, exciting
things happen.
The problem
west.
The
125
Mary
B.
problems"
She points out that even in towns where housing and care are
available to other transient youths, minority group youngsters
find it "almost impossible to get any help outside of jails." In
truth, in
most
any
at
all,
serv-
style
Says the
"Our
and communities have not yet built a system of assuring these migrant families the protection and services available
to permanent members of the community. Frequently, mothers
have little care at time of childbirth, children have no health
and families
services, little schooling, no access to recreation
are housed in unsanitary shacks and camps, often without adequate protection from the weather."
Some improvement has been observed since the end of the war,
notably in New Jersey, Florida, California and a few other states.
But essentially the child of a migrant family finds himself in a
states
low cultural
Low
living standards,
hard labor, pernicious monotony, housing conditions matching those of any city slum, these make it no wonder
levels,
breed
126
JAILBAIT
adventure as a delinquency.
Some
away and find sex in response to blandishmanner immemorial of maidens taken in by traveling
children run
ment, in the
men:
girl
and
from Vermont
Named
manager
girl to
to
in the indictment
of the carnival.
run away
last
is
It is alleged that
summer
away
deliberately traps
away with
18-year-old Jacob.
hotels, all
They
by
paid for
lived in
Jacob.
made
127
Funda-
mentally, perhaps not, but no one can be sure. Possibly the 47year-old man and the 14-year-old maid were in deepest love,
would have cherished each other to the end. Perhaps the marriage tie and more patience would have enabled gullible Jacob to
correct the straying Wilhelmina. Yet these are remote possibiliBoth couples seem to have lacked the requisites for susties.
tained and happy partnership. Either marriage, if accomplished,
would almost certainly have ended as disastrously as it had begun. Only this would have been achieved: the "good name" of
each girl would have been preserved.
But is reputation worth the sacrifice? Too often juveniles see
that in their own circles the "bad" girls get the attention, the
excitement and at the same time the deep sensual pleasure of
sex. What might seem to the girl a perfectly justifiable course
would be the very one which could end in such tragedies as this,
from South Carolina:
Jeannette was 15 years old last July.
haired, weight
Was
an
drum majorette
Blue-eyed, red-
Extremely attractive.
at a consolidated school.
Her
father
influential
county resident.
Raymond, 23, admits having a date with Jeannette to
drive to an isolated mountain cabin near Barok, 14 miles
is
They were
Gary, 24, and Lou Betty, 16, girl friend of Jeannette, said
to be very popular with men. The older girl failed to keep
cabin.
128
JAILBAIT
The
boys ex-Marines.
communicable
Add
of last
how
nightly.
The
partners
participants included Thornby, 32, farmer;
129
by
their solution of
until
what
to
do on snowy nights
in Idaho,
The
district court
and Harry to one year each. Nathan and the two girls
were recommended for probation. Thornby was sentenced
to three years, however, whereupon Lucy leaped to her feet
and cried: "He shouldn't be sentenced to three years. If
he
is,
tears
The
it!
"
when
first
came
to light
some weeks
up
to police
the
localities
to
130
JAILBAIT
marriages
fail
partner
always a rescuing possibility. In any case, it keeps
both partners within the pale. They avoid the stigma of "immorality" or "delinquency"
and, as might happen in the case of a
is
young
girl,
things.
To
"civilized" folk,
may
serve a purpose, the idea fails to appeal for one important reason
it may deprive a child of the rights of childhood. But it must be
;
in
of
Many
rural pregnancies
among juveniles, particularly, are setmany states the law is such that if
In a good
tled
by marriage.
young for legal marriage, they are probably too
young for pregnancy. If the male participant is already married
to someone else when pregnancy reveals itself, perhaps a substitute
can be found willing to become the husband. But if the girl is of
children are too
pregnancy becomes
illegitimate
this instance
difficult.
called
all
and
had
was
conceived.
"This
is
The
all
eleven
131
tions.
At the second trial, rather than deny the previous testimony and incur perjury, the boys and their parents accepted the suggestion of the defense attorney to set up a
trust fund for support of the infant. The judge acceded to
the idea, and $1,375 was deposited in the girl's name.
The deputy sheriff who headed investigation of the case
was part
of a rising
wave
of juvenile delinare
quency
Wayne
trying to trace
this mess to marijuana in the village where these young
people live." He described it as a close-knit farm community of about 500, mostly of French-Canadian extraction.
in the Ft.
area.
"We
still
hard
with an ob-
ject lesson."
The
girl,
home during
gestation,
On
the farm and in the city, when for one reason or another a
becomes pregnant outside of marriage, she needs help badly.
Often she gets it, from family, friends or the illicit father. But
girl
many
girls
must
suffer
rates,
a mini-
mum
is
132
JAILBAIT
among
girls of 11 to
18
alone!
who
macy.
niles"
What happens
to these
year.
children themselves?
is
of a nature to
is
society a gift.
may
make
its
own
its
restitution.
own
The
Also, the
sinner brings
health, society
may
wish
So a
split
on the books
body
puts in
but private and public welfare facilities hope noa complaint against the young lady; they certainly
won't.
Thus, in New York City, a paradoxical situation exists. If parents put in a complaint against a pregnant daughter, the Girl's
Term in Magistrates' Court and other judicial divisions dealing
with teen-agers must arbitrarily sentence her. The girl is sent
away to Westfield State Farm or the correction home of the Sisters
133
facilities for
from
its
it,
mother
or
in
it
pital.
only the parents would not complain and often the judges
them
not to the erring girls would escape spending the pregbeg
nancy period surrounded by purse-snatchers, prostitutes, psychopathic degenerates. Says Chief Magistrate Bromberger: "Such
If
may
girls
and
facilities
fare
New
example, will not preach or ask questions, will assist with financial
and medical aid, and if called upon to do so may even supply legal
assistance in suing the father for support.
lies
may
for
is
a non-resident.
In
many
she
is
134
JAILBAIT
As an
alternative
more
number
The
titioners.
forged,
choice
infant
is
or can't afford
The remaining
abortion
it
it.
credit
upon
us.
Statistically,
un-
As a
who
girl
know about
And
the
er's crime, if
same
if
any,
is
social right to
seem
plete,
but
it
if
would reveal
itself
as
much
higher.
From
135
this,
the author
comprise a good 8 to 10
may
screamed
is
far
of youngsters.
Why?
it
false,
the
game
But we have seen that sex delinquency, in case after case, occurred in association with other and usually more severe delinquencies or behavior problems. Promiscuous sex, precocious sex,
sex without marriage, these tend to lead kids into other trouble.
And
illegitimate
with
all its
may
may
ensue
appear doubt-
ful objections.
a bit
it.
is difficult
to a third considera-
136
JAILBAIT
another way, the morality of our time may not be correct, perhaps
should be changed perhaps is in process of change. Meanwhile,
however,
it
live with.
Breaking
it
means
we
after all!
it.
Church, school,
Because from what they see, sex looseness would not isolate
society; it would make them a part of it! Too many
them from
ously!
action;
promises and recommendafor otherwise adults would take them more seri-
all
its
and nightclubs. They talk about sex indulgences themselves, put them on screen and stage and into books.
Revered elder brothers returned from the wars are full of past sex
experiences and looking forward to fresh ones. Newspapers are
home,
in cars, at bars
filled
set
he comes from an excellent and well-mannered home, the growing adolescent can hardly avoid encountering evidences of wideif
vital.
It
We may
137
boys had been behaving in a strange way. Inmet with embarrassed silence, but the teachers
learned that 10 boys had formed themselves into a
circle of
quiries
finally
"cult" devoted
to
obscene practices
among
themselves.
in
matters
of sex."
would
"If
But as for cutting promiscuity and the extent of juvenile indulwhich so many advocates of sex education say it will we
feel this to be most doubtful.
Philosophical admonitions about "spiritual embodiment" and
gence
138
JAILBAIT
the beauties and advantages of postponement do not impress adolescents. At countless forums, discussions and meetings among
teen-agers, they
they
mean by
sex education
is
practical education.
"The
facts of
want plain
talk
make
practical
In the opinion of the author, sex education would be successful only if it completely removed areas of fear, doubt and ignouse of
it.
rance; but these are the very things which keep millions of young
folks out of each other's embraces! Many a girl remains virginal
not by inclination, but because she fears a baby. Many a boy is
may
at
also give
all,
him
would have
boy how
girl
who
will indulge
him
disease.
to tell
to avoid disease.
So again we are thrown back to the conclusion that not sex education, but moral education, is the one great counter-force to
And
physical urge.
The most
it
follows,
would
seriously stray,
10
Cradles
HAVING LOOKED
Crime
kinds of delinquencies,
of over-all
of
into questions
at
remedy
proper paths?
Is
How
is
feet in
tion?
inspectors were not being too choosy. Yet they had to report that
some 2400 of the investigated jails were unfit to hold adult
offenders.
The
jail
was
under
jails
sixteen
jail
revolting ... I
of children
population made up
scattered
in
dirty
from govern-
through
139
one
railroad
two
by
the
jail
140
JAILBAIT
policemen. The
road tracks
teen or younger.
in
number
Boys and
girls
crowded into
cells.
a juvenile court.
had been
Since
first
Unusually large
where there was
Most
packages of cigarettes.
stealing a few
of
Another survey yielded the following comment, also from Federal sources:
probation
received an inquiry
Her report
us.
We
may
farm alarms
CRADLES OF CRIME
want
to investigate."
overcrowding of
filth,
protection,
and sanitary
food,
The escaped
women
141
and worse!"
in such jails are merely being "deIn a good proportion of cases, not a thing has been
proved against them! They are simply being held on charges,
tained."
awaiting trial.
In many other cases, the youngster has had his day in court,
but is awaiting with what inner tensions, heaven only knows
his sentence or disposition. The "detention" stage is merely a
stop-over on the way to reformatory, training camp, welfare
agency or, for the lucky ones, probation in their own homes.
Only a small portion of our youth in jail is supposed to be
ferred.
combined population of
all state,
county, munici-
142
JAILBAIT
Most
or
of
At
homes
human
in-
habitation!
were counted
in
America by
and
mate
in-
the latter, detention over the nation would be some 40,000 annually. But this represents a minimum guess, for communities
with advanced
What
facilities
maximum
the
possibility is
jail
children at
all.
For this is the twentieth century! How are we, citizens of enlightened America, to excuse ourselves for jailing children at all?
Nine out of ten juvenile jailbirds are released or moved on
within a month. But thirty days can be a long time for an acute
disease to languish without treatment. The disease not only goes
uncured;
few days
it is
.
ing
or
its
equivalent
hygiene
An
assortment of
Read
bums and
about a
girl in
Texas:
She denies
guilt;
CRADLES OF CRIME
with other
girls.
143
by throwing
from counter, brought her a 60- to 120-day
sentence, supposed to be served out in L
training
school, too overcrowded to accept her. While awaiting va-
hammer
seized
cancy, she
This
is
jail
is
other delinquents.
First,
age 17,
is
During the
first
week she
bitterly
own
refused
Put back
lease, she
shoe.
by
After
this,
easily
Knowing
this,
seem
pinching,
ridiculous
orders,
etc.
Claims police
144
JAILBAIT
Cellmates and ma-
girl
from
present surroundings.
of
some
six
months
The
behind bars.
her stay
The
it.
said they,
girl
to society,
children be prohibited
states, it
is.
excluded from the law's benefits. Or, as in the case of Maria, detention or rehabilitation facilities are so crammed that not another
kid can be stuffed into them. In other words, children remain in
jail because there is no other place for them to go.
is
This, too,
remaining twenty
common
states.
Some
ate juvenile detention centers apart from jails, but in the words
of a Federal panel report, "this does not assure their establish-
ment."
This report points out further that since some states pay local
a daily sum for the "care and feeding" of inmates, abuses are
jails
inevitable.
But there
breeding
is
jails of
punishment
is
this
jails full
cure!
Too many
of us, alas,
know
better.
filthy,
still
crime-
think that
This view remains popular even among numwho should be the first
CRADLES OF CRIME
145
away with
While proper punishments, like proper pills, may have some place
in a healing process
and even that much is doubtful certainly
confinement in any jail exerts an exactly wrong
not reform, it deforms. It twists.
effect.
For
it
does
when
from them
the more cunning and resourceful in their enmity toward society." The italics are ours. The words are those of the Justice
Department's National Conference on Prevention and Control of
ful,
Juvenile Delinquency.
Other than
jails,
to be confused,
facilities like?
The
operated by qualified couples, and admitting delinquents excluare able to handle all but one or two local cases a year.
sively
The
well as day.
These are
homes, mean-
146
JAILBAIT
Disadvantages? Lack of twenty-four hour supervision. A cerdue to limitations of space and material,
and flagging
interest
Advantages?
Flexibility: Children
Home
of being "tough."
second type of detention center is the "residence home." It
resembles the boarding home almost exactly, but is owned or
sters
leased
made
to maintain
at least theoretically, is
the boarding homes, but otherwise the advantages and disadvantages of the residence home are about the same. Residence-type
detention is sometimes called the "Massachusetts Plan" because
if
not a
home atmosphere,
at least a
wholesome one.
CRADLES OF CRIME
147
retain
it
can
grows,
The
Activities
become mere
careful splitting
most of the evils of size. Each unit, complete with living, dining
and recreational equipment, lends itself to close, personal supervision. Children may be distributed among them according to
age and other characteristics. Even in the almost insuperable task
of
will
see,
intelligence
and good
But
to
what degree,
What
its
and good
will de-
portion?
In 1945, the National Probation Association began an investigation of detention places for minors. It left out the jails. It was
looking for a few institutions or homes which were working well,
so that the membership could get some idea of how best to handle
juvenile offenders.
The
association consists not of professional do-gooders or visionaries, but of practical people working around prisons and
prisoners.
They
Knowing
that
if
inves-
was
feature.
148
JAILBAIT
jails.
rated visits only from slumming parties. Even where states required special detention facilities by law, some could suggest not
a single home boasting a single redeeming feature of the kind
Nice, isn't
can't
after
"least worst"
sixty-eight
of
states.
They
the
and low
The
result?
"A
vicious
we
know about making useful citizens out of erring youth."
What is it like inside these detention homes which, remember,
far from being the worst of their kind, rate among the best that
add
to a pervading
atmosphere
cise jaunts
provide some
relief,
and unwatched behind their respective barred doors. This makes things bad for
the younger children, including feeble-minded kids and occasional
sexes spend
off
babies below nine, locked up indiscriminately with hardened delinquents of sixteen or seventeen.
Why is this classed among the "average or better" places?
Well,
it
it
keeps boys
CRADLES OF CRIME
away from
escapes.
girls
though they
Now,
149
let
may
home
"showplace" building.
This, indeed, is spacious and well-maintained. And here the
lack of supervision characterizing the other home is not tolerated.
The children, instead, are watched every second of the day and
No
night!
sions
girls,
16.
to
roam around
in idleness
in a
guarded dayroom.
This routine
to be counted,
day by line-ups
searched, or to use the toilets. There is an hourly play period in
the courtyard each day, but no equipment or program. If one or
two girls wander apart to talk or play, they are commanded to
rejoin the group. Will all this make a girl want to live a better life,
is
asks the Advisory Panel report. "Not a chance. It will tell her a
hundred times a day that the adult world distrusts, despises,
blames and hates her. She will distrust and hate right back."
all
headed for
150
JAILBAIT
But
at the
enough
the paddle.
of toy
is
popular
is
beatings
fall to
home
bad that suddenly people just refused to stand for it. They threw
out the administration installed a new one with orders to improve things, or
else.
once in a while.
CRADLES OF CRIME
by the Society
151
The
until
dal. People were aroused to anger. Official investigations followed, confirming the Seeley charges. Public pressure became so
strong that the city hastily set aside a building of its own to re-
ceive boys
up
Brooklyn.
Called Youth House, the building itself is a depressing affair,
located on the lower east side. Its facilities are not exceptional.
trust.
Children are divided into groups according to age and behavior characteristics, each group being assigned its own dormitory and play room. Friendly, encouraging supervisors are conchest.
and courage, a
feeling that a
boy
in this world.
Nor does this kind of approach enjoy any less success with girls.
The same hue and cry which caused the establishment of Youth
152
House
JAILBAIT
led Fiorello
to
girls'
center has
open an emergency
This was shortly
first
pointless
Morale
and
is
aimless.
They
And
at this
and
wreak perma-
routines, neglects
home could
easily
"For once
Camper has
social status.
They have
sibilities
Is all light
is
so lacking at Girls'
Camp
that sleep-
ing quarters must be used as classrooms. Youth House, physically, leaves much to be desired. The inmates are tough and
twisted, so that the usual
either
home may
not prove long enough. Oh, the kids give plenty of trouble, and
there are areas enough, assuredly, for possible improvement.
And to show you what so often happens in the detention field,
subsiding public interest is already threatening both establishments. Youth House and Girls' Camp, early in 1949, were di-
CRADLES OF CRIME
153
rected to move.
may
The Community
its
Girls'
a lesson:
Maybe
11
Unnformcd "Reform"
ALL RIGHT,
out of
so AT LAST
not been sympathetic, and Jonesy will have to take the cure
What happens
A
him
to
it.
him?
hundred years ago, there would have been only one place for
to go, a House of Refuge on New York's Randall's Island,
founded
in
Delinquents.
Today
and "correction"
facilities
aplenty
welfare people
as "training schools." Jonesy is a Chicago boy, so he is sent to
the Illinois State Training School for delinquents.
St. Charles
at least one in every state.
They
are
known among
155
like zombies! They were in the grip of a monotony as stupefying
as dope. If only to break the deadly boredom, every once in a
while some kid with more guts than the rest would step out of line
tage.
sullen about
As a method of giving boys healthy emotions for morbid ones, of redirecting their energies and drives into channels
acceptable to outside society, it could only fall flat on its face. It
ture men.
articles,
condition
the
of
St.
demoralized, discouraged,
Charles children was shouted to the world at large, and to Illinois
citizens in particular. Accordingly, the inmates, in 1948, suddenly
dull,
W.
for his
work with
the Catholic
So Jonesy can now look forward to a real attempt at rehabilitaMr. Leonard is fully aware of the best thinking on the sub-
tion.
ject, as
social
case
No
development
punitive and retributive notions
to attributes
special
and psychotic
children,
156
JAILBAIT
Unaware
by
feels
its
fields
What
and
are they
tests.
On
man
list
of psychiatric
personnel he hopes to secure, but hasn't yet been able to. "I have
complete authority to hire only those qualified," he announces
to the papers. "Having qualified people in these posts will give
us a fairly good guaranty that a treatment program will eventually
develop"
In the laundry, Jonesy balks. Those bubbles and gurgles! A
guard comes along he used to work under Col. Hodgin takes
Jonesy by the ear and dunks his head in a tub. Jonesy grits his
and forces himself to work. The guard strolls away. Jonesy
throws a flatiron at him.
teeth
made no changes
"I have
figure he's a
Jonesy
One always
end.
talks to himself.
"We
courts
receive
.
we
many who
make
on
is
in
is
from ten
to
UNREFORMED "REFORM"
twenty-one.
This, of course,
impotent"
Jonesy himself
157
practi-
cally
with the
girls.
is
He
He
it doesn't seem to help much.
never read Kinsey, but he doesn't need professors to tell him that
the sex drive in males is strongest between the ages of 16 and 20.
saltpeter in the desserts, but
lot of sleep. He stays awake nights, waiting for the other guys to conk out so he can "abuse himself" a
little. When he does fall asleep, he keeps dreaming about bubbles.
"My
as the
basic premise
symptom
irritable.
is
He
is
now accepted
Mr. Leonard.
"This being
When the hell are they going to finish observing him? He wishes
he had something to do with himself besides fight with that talking
goon. Tension and monotony are breaking him down. He catches
a cold.
The
pump
the talking
guy is swell
That gives him an idea. Some inmates are painting the doors.
That night he steals a can of green paint, inhales deeply of the
turpentine, sleeps like a baby. But he wakes up in the morning
with the heebie-jeebies. He wants air. The windows are barred,
but the door stands open and he rushes outside.
An attendant makes a flying tackle, knocking Jonesy down. Au.
He
in confinement.
"A
newspaper" says Mr. Leonard, "is constantly exaggernumber of escapes and making it look as though we are
local
ating the
coddling criminals."
158
JAILBAIT
The
fifteen
minutes
later,
floor.
And
that's the
way
Mr. Leonard
member
is
it
till
he's a screaming
all
makes every
of the institution,
Deutsch remarks: "If his plans are put into effect, St. Charles may
yet become a rehabilitative training school in fact as well as in
name."
Meanwhile, what becomes of the Jonesies?
The
more or less approximates that premost of our better training schools. The spirit is there,
but the flesh is weak. Good intentions remain trammeled by lack
situation at St. Charles
vailing at
except
in jailbreaks
and
Democrats or Republicans.
Yet it cannot be denied that on the whole there is an encouraging tendency away from the punitive and toward the correctional.
Today superintendents and staffs, even when they can't do much
about it, are pretty widely aware that children in trouble require
the most expert psychological handling with emphasis on modern
techniques of case and group work. The better methods of recon-
159
ditioning offenders are in
common
use, particularly
among a few
own
in various states.
New
Massachusetts,
York, Ohio and others have more and more
been taking a leaf out of the experience of these private but quasi-
official
arrangement
is
successful, for
permits train-
it
will
engage them
of
community
to
sible.
make
.
the institution setting as unlike a penal station as posChildren are best trained for freedom in an atmosphere
At a
good institution, a few escapes a year are taken for granted. Better
to suffer them than risk damaging the rest of the trainees by the
psychological implications of prison walls.
All this is the froth at the top, however. It gives an inkling of
the aims and ideals, of the better methods, in trying to halt child
field
is
The advanced
Work Year Book, "is to make
thority alone.
trend, as
summed up
in the Social
... In
160
JAILBAIT
is
In several
laymen
in
states,
an age of
This gives but a hint of the enormous confusion prevailing, confusion with respect to types and ages of offenders to be committed
determination of the length of stay follow-up assistance after
if any
divided and conflicting committing authority,
release,
The American Prison Association, in a count of all public training schools in 1944, reached a figure of 115 state and national
schools, and 51 county or municipal schools. Since then the number has been somewhat augmented, not so much by building new
schools, but rather by breaking up existing ones into the smaller
units
now
favored.
sion
is
tolerated
the beer
amazing abuses
is
and
still
does.
Underneath the
froth,
truly bitter.
its
of Federal offenses
of the nation.
my
knees
day."
"First
day
after I ran
161
Locked
in a cell with
days."
11
Got 175
licks
running away."
"Took
they were
my
off
shoes
Hack and
beat
my
till
blue."
It
in solitary
The boys
it
blessed don't need it." Yet the most recent panel report
those so
is
obliged
to state:
still
far too
whipping or spanking with sticks, wire coat hangers, paddles, straps; striking about the face and head with fists
silence rules
monitor system, which permits older, more aggressive children to exert authority over the more timid and less mature.
162
JAILBAIT
For proof,
methods, we
who
inflict it."
startling results.
projects are no
No
walls,
cells
self-
The outstanding example, perhaps, is the camp for boy delinquents operated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons in Virginia. Discipline, morale and genuine social responsibility flourish through
a boy-to-counselor and boy-to-group relationships similar to those
in any summer camp. Escapes? Some. But why should a boy in
his right
The camp
idea
is
nia.
forestry
tion
camp was
in
Youth Authority to
the direction of the
under
growing delinquency problem,
Los
for
the
Angeles camp Karl Hoioriginally responsible
handle
man
ton.
up the
California
its
Under
his sponsorship,
been installed
in considerable
camps
number.
Cooperating
localities in-
cluding San Francisco have also set up camps. The system is far
from perfect chiefly, according to Mr. Holton, because of lack of
good personnel. But results have been good. Minnesota, Wisconwith similar
sin, Massachusetts and other states are experimenting
camps.
The
California
Youth Authority
is
UNREFORMED "REFORM"
163
By
and supervise
it
powers
The
all
At the Preston
routine, repression, prison-like atmosphere.
School of Industry, boys are organized on a military system reminiscent of Col. Hodgin's, with the hundreds of inmates subject to
rigid
to be
girls'
by way
is
drop of a hat,
as,
girls' school.
by banishment
to disciplinary cottages
common
practice the
Here
and
in the deadly,
who,
if
to plumbing.
is
one
164
JAILBAIT
of the
most
and knowledge
The widely
which
set
cludes in
of the
hailed
up a kind
it
most
skilled teacher.
every child
is
solid
is
Ameri-
can principle. For the health of this Democracy, for the permanence of this Republic, kids between 6 and 1 6 must go to school.
But in ten sample training schools surveyed by the U. S. Office
of Education, teachers
and often unqualified teachers, at that
handled an average of sixty- three pupils each. "Classes" consisting of the most difficult and challenging problems in educa-
ing
aim
Education
is
all
to be realized, "there
become
available, there
drastic
changes in "attitudes of the public, educators and legislators toward the educational functions of training schools." In other
words, the sights must be raised.
Ventura, with
And
appropriations.
With
millions of respectable,
if
maybe he
shouldn't.
Maybe
it
It certainly
home
pays better to
pays him
let
better.
for
way-
him give
165
you broke
may
it
point is that almost any thereapy may help the delinquent but
the people to give therapy are missing. Even at institutions which
do boast a few qualified professionals, the case load is so heavy
that the psychologist, say, functions merely as a psychometrist.
He
One
is
But
full-time psychiatrist
and assigning
jobs to
travel
and shops, take notes on how well the inHe wanted to study them
to compile more comwanted
He
play, during sleep.
around the
cells
at work, at
plete records about the behavior of the inmate during his stay. He
thought that in this fashion he might be able to help some of the
166
JAILBAIT
work
Who
did he think
take
civil
"But
us.
just to irritate
his assistant!"
Which provides a
practice today; bitter internecine politics. Any probation or correction worker can tell of jealousies, bickering and quarrels which
ruin staff morale, kill homogeneity, destroy enthusiasm in some of
the better training schools and cottages. The work is hard and
thankless, the pay is poor, the plums are few: in many states employes serve without tenure, without security, without supervision
it
in a
good
job.
Under such
which occurs
conditions,
how can we
pression converting so
tration camps.
many
Ruinous to
and iron re-
UNREFORMED "REFORM
167
which have the largest Negro populations have the fewest training
facilities for Negro delinquents
sometimes none at all. And a
large
number
and
seem
less in
that this often derives from the prissiness of the dried-up old
in charge, most of whom have never known temp-
maids commonly
Negro
the rule.
girls in this
when they
are mixed in
common
living quarters.
That
That business
ment.
children never
show
own" needs
little
com-
do
so.
168
JAILBAIT
But what about the old charge that the creamy and the brown
a seductive blend? This is one of the most persistent legends
make
As a matter
of fact,
will
show
would appear
This
it
most white
may
if
set her
cap for one of these velvet-skinned girls. And the latter, being
sexually precocious, might be expected to respond ardently once
desire
is
adds exotic attraction, at least in the estimation of the experienced homosexual. In homosex as in heterosex, variety is the
in color
spice.
Yet girls in institutions show only a fractionally greater incidence of congenital or homosexual-by-choice specimens than does
the population at large. This may mean that the prime reason
not predisposition, but lack
Hence, in her homosexual experi-
is
wants
and
satisfac-
to be stroked, kissed
developed than among white girls. Often the buttocks, when lean,
have a manly hardness when fat, instead of spreading in womanly
fashion they project rearward as among boys. Add to this a phys;
169
prison populations raises the incidence of "honeying-up"? Perhaps. This author has not investigated the question.
But training schools and detention homes are not prisons. Judging by the very scant figures available from punishment records
and
in-service reports
by inforand psychiatric workers one conclusion seems valid enough. Mixed institutions show less
actually less
homosexuality than do segregated ones. How much
by
social
less?
in isolation
colleges,
sororities
and boarding schools homosexuality is inBut the charge that misconduct is caused by
the mere mixing of color stocks does not appear to hold water.
The truth is that whatever the sexual desire one girl of different
hue
may
arouse in another,
it is
not the color group. Certain girls, endowed physically or emotionally, are prizes. Often they are Negro girls. But in their absence
there would be no foregoing of homosexual activity.
It
would
girls as might
and
less
tedium,
less repression,
This translates
itself into
energies.
ways by the
uals.
One
rest
Negro girl
race, and at
the same time appease her sexual appetites, by seducing young
white girls. Having become skilled in techniques, moreover, she
would
on the "superior"
could arouse these girls to ardent cravings which gave her a feeling of power compensating for her "inferiority." Whatever this
explanation is worth, at a guess it is from such origins that the
stubborn slander arose which still prevails at places like Geneva.
70
JAILBAIT
Investigations of prison homosexualism have been few. Gencame from analysts of the Freudian or Jungian variety,
erally they
Thus
training schools, boys' as well as girls'. Huge areas are dark. Little
or no research goes on. Handling of the respective local situations
largely
rection authorities.
Some
tions.
No
girls.
Your
is
own
sex, indulges
only
But with
and receive
girls
more
affection.
is
The
adolescent
girl
requires love
and its
do not
kiss, pat,
171
with other girls. Hence, given contributing circumstances, they
are more prone to slip into homosexual relationships than are boys.
girls or boys under cottage or camp conditions, homosexnot more a problem than it would be in a similar environ-
Among
ualism
is
and more
however, the tragedy is that the younger children learn from or are
seduced by their elder co-delinquents. Even where homosexualism
proscribed and the most elaborate precautions taken, it
stubbornly persists. Amazing is the ingenuity and persistence
is strictly
shown
around
in getting
restrictions, especially
by older
girls.
"They
by
failure.
The
confraternity formed
ways
among
these
danger of being
hem
them
Beneath the
in, are in themselves a psychological study.
crass surface, under the watchful eyes of the guards, a life is stirring,
Queried as to how she achieved her pleasures, one miss of sixteen, known to be spreading homosexual practice in a tightly controlled training school, replied:
"That
satisfies
you?"
"Better than nothing. She's so nice. I wish I could hug her and
kiss her!
Another
They
girl,
172
JAILBAIT
to set those crazies off. They yell a'nd thrash. I have an excuse to
jump on them, it looks all right if someone comes in. I hold them
down and they whip around until I [have orgasm]. Some crazies
get wise. Then we do it on purpose and they kiss me and love
me."
Here
is
my
it
when
me
handing
duty, I would sing, stretch myself and kind of look at her, waddle
around, anything so she'd notice me, especially under the shower.
The
girls figured I
her.
I'm
telling
"Supervisors sleep just outside the coops, get it? They take
turns at each coop. During the month she was at ours, I yelled out
in the middle of the night. When she ran in I told her I was sick.
toilet I'd be all right. She helped
was dying, hanging on to her and squeezing
for dear life. When I came out I told her, if I could only see my
mother. Would she give me a goodnight hug, like my mother?
I said
I could
if
me, and
I acted like I
She
felt
I started to cry.
me
over!
The
or something.
sorry for
funny.
patted me. I kept my
After that when I used to smile at her she began to smile back.
Then one night I knocked on her door and said would she let me
hug her
time.
like before.
I wriggled
doing?
I got
up
my
nerve.
I said I
wanted
to tell her
UNREFORMED "REFORM"
173
something. I said I was kind of ashamed taking scrub with all the
other girls. I said I never really got a wash, everybody rushing
you and standing around watching you. I could tell that she
didn't really believe me. But she said okay, except that she would
have to supervise. In the shower I strutted around and sang. I
put soap all over and said, Gee if only someone would wash my
back. She was looking at me funny. She said well, she didn't
mind. She took off her clothes and got into the shower. I squeezed
up
to her.
my
hair
knew
she was
a dead duck."
"You have
now?"
"Yes."
"You
"Love
them.
"But
her!
."
months.
Was
it
worth the
trouble?"
"What
else is there to
thing, or that
do?
It's the
of."
dictated
method
or another,
it
may
74
JAILBAIT
sex
sidered "unnatural" becomes, behind institutional walls, the "natural." Others believe that since training school populations are all
composed
do without sex
indeed,
Certainly, as the Kinsey Report and other studies have shown, among males enormous sex potentials and drives
are supposed
to.
in girls, less is
known. Yet
those older, would lead us to believe that perhaps they are not so
far behind boys in their sexual needs as society and law would
have us think.
We
merely make
will
UNREFORMED "REFORM"
Its elimination lies in finding the
175
pression of sexuality for all, and that will come only when we cease
being afraid of sex. ... If we are disturbed by the incidence, we
and how
it
how
kind of behavior
this
is
brought about
can be prevented."
The doctor is writing of homosexualism generally, not of homosexualism in training schools. His point is that more attention
should be paid to the abnormal factors in a child's environment
which
may
much more
schools l^
How
As for the questions he raises, the answers are ex"The most healthy and wholesome expression of
between boy and girl, obviously. "How is homosexuality?"
sexual behavior brought about?" by segregating boy and girl.
are abnormal.
plicit
enough.
"How
coeducational?
of
reform
coeducational
schools,
indeed,
are
yes!
actually
confines of the
same
Sex incidents?
and
girls
within the
institution.
town.
of, in
knowledge of nearness
sexes are countenanced
any
in
of these
one
institution, to
Farms, a correctional school in New York State. He was a conand had been in several institutions, sometimes for
sistent offender,
176
JAILBAIT
don't even
You
thing.
look.
it.
You
all
about
You
girls.
You
Just a long, dull grind. But every once in a while well, if a kid
on the next bed undresses, and he has a pink skin or something,
it looks awful good to you.
"When
stretch
bed."
on Prevention and
"Some leading
basis
how
if
girls
is
sound basis
on a coeducational
who
are sent to
them
and
if
is
not intensified.
gen-
UNREFORMED "REFORM"
177
and
birl
behave improperly,
and
see
it
not
it is
go down to
fail-
ure."
We
Divorce from
2.
Qualified
politics,
and
field,
these im-
centralization of authority in
teaching
3.
and
4.
and
staffs.
"camp"
or
"bungalow" type.
Replacement
punishment and repression by
humanized programming motivating and developing the
of corporal
above items
partially achieved
by a majority of our training schools, the instibecome less a social casualty and more
a potential asset,
if
12
Anticipating Delinquency
MANY ATTEMPTS
is
may
in
Mary make
community.
Take
frustration or
gressive.
lic
So
is
what have you, John at fifteen is exceptionally agMary, the same age, one of his classmates at pub-
school.
children.
skill,
but
else at
is
hand. In short, he
is
ANTICIPATING DELINQUENCY
179
gressive. Not unnaturally, this has rendered him hopelessly unpopular, which in turn makes him more aggressive still. He has
been in frequent conflict with school authorities and police. Re-
cently he walked into the office of his principal and demanded that
he be transferred from the class of a teacher he disliked. The
principal refused.
and
of his pocket
fired
two
shots at the principal's head. Both missed, but one buried itself
in the arm of the school clerk. John is now thinking things over at
a state farm.
What
of
Mary? She
too
is
anybody
way.
weight about, with the result that she became more obnoxious than
ever. One day, with the authority of her position and her superaggressiveness behind her, she brazenly bearded the director of
the school lunchroom. The food, said Mary, stank. "These sandwiches! What do you do, buy bargains!" The answer of the
director failed to satisfy.
Armed with
school food.
her town.
newspaper.
The
director
all
right.
scandal
broke.
Food
coat of paint,
180
JAILBAIT
is
These events took place in a small midwest city. They demonstrate, as do thousands upon thousands of other cases, the almost
hopeless difficulty of determining just what causes delinquency.
Certainly, aggressive tendencies lead numerous youths into delin-
and
all
life,
it is
so frequently
attributed.
child, as
we
all
know,
may do
community great good as well as bad. The slum child may rise to
be an Al Smith and the impoverished one, a Lincoln. The repressed one, whatever his inner conflicts, may be all the more
"civilized"
society.
thereby
The
strictly
may
all
on by
the
more
making of Polly.
would seem that the causes of delinquency are not
only obscure; they are legion. Take the blames cited in a given
case. The policeman says "bad companions." The judge says
Molly
is
Further,
it
"poor nutrition."
The
The
background." The psychoanalyst, bless him, after seven months of probing, decides: "He
hates his father as a rival for the love of his mother, and takes it
sociologist says "shallow cultural
all,
arise
ANTICIPATING DELINQUENCY
181
among
factors!
How
proceed
and "causes,"
with
one
another
and someconjunction
sometimes occurring in
times not sometimes altogether absent
and doubtful of
up
issue
and
by
isolating
him
in
To
first
but scattergun
efforts generally
would appear to
lie
more
tween case workers and teachers. Time and again this author has
heard teachers say, "Hmph Working on their own time. Nothing
to do all day but walk around and visit folks when they feel like
!
it."
Whereas the case worker, forgetting that the teacher has all
pound some reading, arithmetic and character-train-
she can do to
work
not he
is right,
the point
is
that
all
182
JAILBAIT
When
the problem
is
approached objectively
modern techniques
genuine progress
not impossible.
lished in School
this subject
and by persons
it
Nevertheless, his
is
exemplary
did not
in
make
be found.
Besides, this
had
its
If charac-
sible to rescue
The study
him from a
life
it.
delin-
prefaced by
quency continues to spread, our children may well lose us the
peace and sweep away America's whole social heritage. Check!
It continues to the effect that while professionals, courts and
volunteer workers are at work on the problem, they deal chiefly
is
if
less fixed in
Check again!
It states that
practical
tion generally on
file in school systems, this investigator felt. Recourse to special tests or case study techniques would require
ANTICIPATING DELINQUENCY
specialists available only in
183
health
3. census.
who had
incurred
police action for violating the law. For a control group he selected
for the
TABLE
each factor:
delinquency, and
therefore
presumed
known
to be indicative
of
possible delinquency
Critical
Ratio
1.
2.
is
common
4.
5.
Different
6.
10.
11.
Low employment
3.
7.
8.
9.
homes
lived in,
8.40
7.50
if
Terms
continuity of father
14.
9.1
8.88
6.76
6.43
6.40
6.19
5.61
4 to 6
4.72
4.65
4.32
2.10
184
JAILBAIT
TABLE
II
Facts unfavorable
to
delinquency
1.
2.
7.02
5 plus
2.80
3.
4.
2.10
Note that the indicated ratios reveal little chance error involved.
Just the same, Mr. Ludden found his results disappointing. Some
69 percent of his delinquent group did score three or more of the
"delinquency" factors, but so did more than 25 percent of the
non-delinquents. Were one in four of the control group, then,
headed
for crime
And what
of the 3
and
1
arrest?
Why
which showed
the non-delinquents?
These are only a few of the serious gaps in the investigation.
As a basis for prediction the results would be dangerous if only on
among
city,
among
certain children,
a certain set of easily ascertainable factors was prone to characteras well as 25 percent of
ize 69 percent of known delinquents
non-delinquents.
Fine, you may say. But what of it? Anybody in his right mind
must know that a kid who plays truant, gets left back in school, is
pretty stupid, and comes from an impoverished or broken home,
may be more liable than others to turn out "bad" and get into
ments
Not
where.
You
to establish that!
... nothing
so
.
of the sort
is
Remember
that in the
Ludden
investigation, as in
boy
numerous
in the "delinquent"
ANTICIPATING DELINQUENCY
185
group was that he had been picked up one or more times by the
Doubtless in the control group there were many quite as
police.
studies
do
his dirty
though he
may
less
delinquent on that
account.
As
for
our best neighborhoods than in the districts across the tracks. The
only thing is, delinquency in garden spots takes a form different
from that
in
slum sections
think of stealing are far less inhibited about rolling each other in
the hay. This holds true, child experts and local school principals
analyst rather than a case worker, or they simply get their straying
daughters quietly aborted and keep silent anything to avoid scan;
dal.
The more
Here we
186
JAILBAIT
taken
for granted
knows"
about
this jigsaw,
Ludden
one.
This holds true not only for lay, popular conceptions about delinquency, such as "Jimmy steals because his father is no good."
It equally applies to some of the most treasured and widely
accepted shibboleths among professionals in the field, like the
analysis-trained social worker's "Jimmy steals because of his in-
security."
fathers are
no good
there
is
and up a one-way
street
Many
studies before
Such surveys,
while numerically frequent, are nevertheless far too few in proportion to the enormity and importance of the problem, and should
was
same time
being completed
that
in Passaic,
official,
New
his.
W.
ANTICIPATING DELINQUENCY
to support Ludden's findings
187
Thus, among 563 delinquent boys and 198 girls, the mean I.Q.
to be 89
compared to a score of 103 for the
was discovered
Furthermore, 44 percent of the delinquent group had been retarded at least one term, whereas but 17 percent of the general
group had been thus retarded. And the Passaic research turned
up one really startling figure: no less than 29 percent of the delinquents had failed three terms or more, a record matched by a
tiny one-half of one percent of the general population
!
So
far, so
frustration in the
that aggression
is
and
made them
for
them
aggressive
to handle
or steal cars.
Now there
is
we have
already seen that the vigorous personality trait can cut both ways.
Aggression makes one boy a gang leader and another a successful
prize-fighter.
And suppose we
method
and therefore
in-
mechanism.
Would we,
188
JAILBAIT
and thus
be preventing the
but also of sports heroes, generals and
others requiring large muscles in the aggression department?
Besides, in its zeal the Passaic investigation placed the cart a
factors
rise
of mobsters, yes
little
unjust? Is
it
ness?
on the assumption that his lane was the only winning one. Careful
sifting of the figures and factorial analysis forced him to the mild
conclusion that "aggression" could at best account for only certain
manifestations of delinquency, and for even those merely in part.
For this conclusion alone the Passaic probe was valuable. Yet
To
What was
though
and
it
may
same
ANTICIPATING DELINQUENCY
The
189
had come to
believe,
life
It
very stylish.
One reason
It considered
them pos-
the fact.
If the schools were spawning frustrate young characters, ran
the argument, they had a direct share in predisposing for delin-
quency.
Well, the results showed that even where frustration, by inducing aggressive tendencies, might be responsible for some misbehavior, that same frustration did not arise solely from factors in
the school. As we might suspect, it derived as well from inherent
and acquired personality quirks, and from the general or home
environment. The study concluded that just as no single factor
But the
The
exact effects of
of
hard as
this
Let us
might be
see.
swallow?
13
Whose Blame?
"WE ARE
BE-
cause everybody
else
is
its
own
relationships
to the
schools.
So
let
us do a
little
stock-taking.
THE SCHOOLS
We
start,
Reporting in the
studies completed in 1947, she reaches the same conclusion which has struck so many others. "The schools are in a
Forum on
and to do
to locate potential delinquency"
something about it.
Some go even further. Harry D. Gideonse, president of Brooklyn College, speaks for them when he says: "The only social
strategic position
because
it is
the only
important contributions.
Still, this
190
WHOSE BLAME?
191
the
ments and
police, to
Should
community
it
be
left to
welfare depart-
councils?
The
The
caps.
but
if
cine
fails.
home,
origins of a fever
may
lie
enough a school
do not shirk
human
it.
responsibility.
And
the schools
is
by and
want
it is
lies there:
1.
point of
number
of children reached
child.
Clearly true.
192
may
JAILBAIT
result in truancy, as in the case of the "released time" pro-
gram
in
New York
desire, children
may
By
City.
take
off
go to church schools for religious instruction. In practice, a conbut spend the time in the
siderable number take off the hours
Right now the program is
many grounds from educators, but
streets.
of religious hierarchies.
The
Dodgers.
It is
holds danger.
And
in rural districts,
home
for chores
Principals
and teachers
in stubborn cases
must go
to the
It is
is
in
an ideal position
to de-
dened with more bookkeeping than they have time for, not to
mention marking tests and grading papers. It is quite conceivable
that teachers and principals can be trained as psychometrists and
many are. But if they concentrate on measuring and compiling,
other phases of schoolwork must suffer neglect.
Keeping statistics is a full-time job in any system of more than
;
WHOSE BLAME?
193
only one child in ten attends a school where psychometric information is reasonably complete or even reasonably accurate. Only
when systems
ient stage.
will
be created in the
class-
at
if all
and group
do Lord knows how many other
and
to
clinic.
All
The
do
mean
and
alleviate
them
if
and
she can
But
if
the
able to
whom
But only a
New York
City's Child
managed
194
No
JAILBAIT
need to go further down the
list.
than $50 weekly, states the National Education Association. Other abuses spring from the political nature of
age teacher pay
is less
many
vision,
may become
But such flaws cannot be blamed on the school. They arise from
own complacency, and our stinginess. By and large, Federal
investigation has shown, people get the kind of schools they want
and pay for. So let each of us in our various communities espeour
Not
that this
is
creating delinquents!
Any
The
is
arbitrary
what the
effort to get
own
way: "The
widen
childhood
is
their horizons."
New
WHOSE BLAME?
self
commended
her,
and parents
195
pend on
fitness
Another
criticism, as
rhumbas.
and dances
in
way
of tap-dancing
and
spiritu-
and Gentile
plays, which
fiesta of their
is
not.
The Spanish-speaking
Chanukah
ritual
and music
but only
months!
The
to
thank them.
This
is all
196
schools
JAILBAIT
by America's founding
fathers
Too
often they hold obedience above self-expression, conformance above initiative. Too often, though today teachteachers forget.
ers certainly
know
better, subject
And
in
most
equipment,
less.
THE HOME
Each year hundreds of thousands of juveniles get into slight or
Each year many millions of juveniles do not!
The law-abiding kids may be full of spit and vinegar, bursting
with mischief; or they may be shy and quiet. Some are placid,
some excitable. Even the happy ones have troubles of their own.
Their homes give them
But these are the fortunate children
the security, the training in ways of life, the resources and fortitudes, which are essential to social living! For the home is the
keystone of communal organization, and when it falls the whole
complex structure falls. It is the crucible in which character and
serious trouble.
divorce court!
numbers
of delin-
WHOSE BLAME?
197
modern
To
civilized life.
appear essential.
Minimum
home
help would
emergency
now
mum
budgets, and in
available at all.
many
in
one
way
or another are
found in association with only some 20 to 30 percent of delinquency cases coming before the courts. The rest stem from homes
this,
cism. It has
fail
vitriolic criti-
now become
a popular sport of schools, police departments and courts, not to mention our famous F.B.I, head, to blame
parents for delinquency. Discouraged by a constant procession of
juvenile burglars, car stealers, unwed mothers and armed members
of street gangs, magistrates like New York's Charles E. Ramsgate
understandably grow bitter against lack of home supervision. "Today parents rely on schools and churches to teach respect for others
which
is
own primary
obliga-
tion!"
On
number
of judges
of Juvenile
.
85 per-
country."
Well,
is
198
JAILBAIT
We
quent
parents for
And
ground
delin-
years.
punishments,
(b)
As a method
method
it
also fails,
(c)
and
As a
is
help.
He
fallacy in
guidance
clinics, it
WHOSE BLAME?
tributing to a child's poor adjustment
is
199
largely unintentional
and
unwitting."
The
fact
is
sometimes, being human, they go a little off course due to ignorance or lack of means or mishaps such as sickness or perhaps
deficiencies in their
To blame them
own
personalities.
is
1.
2.
The
The
affection he deserves as
respect, confidence
your
child.
as a person.
3.
to him, and,
if
it,
face of difficulties.
4.
Sufficient
of your time
wants them.
5.
The
6.
Emotional
7.
participation in family planning and affairs necessary to his self-respect, and essential to train him for living in a democratic society.
stability which results from your own calmhumor
and consistent attitudes toward him, your
ness,
control of moods and temper
and your even, pleasant
with
other
of the family.
members
relationships
tolerant view toward persons of all cultures and colors, of high and low degree
given him through lessons
The
self
own
toleration
courtesy of seeking expert assistance if despite youryou find the child disturbed or straying.
200
JAILBAIT
lacks an ingredient. Add a bit of seasonof restrained but firm discipline when you deem it
Quite a recipe? It
ing in the
way
still
necessary.
Any
"The delinquent
police work!
of
tomorrow"
tell us.
Thus,
is
so police
it
ble
manner
in
which the
officer
law.
"The
first difficulty
may
policewomen
is
treatment
lice,
officers."
WHOSE BLAME?
Most
first
minor and
201
may
be treated with
warnings rather than arrests. But the officer should use the occasion to win the confidence and respect of the offender if he can;
to guide, explain
Alert police officers have frequently noticed that simple friendliness in itself may be enough to help juveniles who err because they
are discouraged, or feel unaccepted by society. On the other hand,
unfriendly, curt and arbitrary methods can only further accentuate the anti-social attitudes of any youngster.
are best qualified to protect juveniles from certain harmful community influences. The police best know the trouble areas, the
sources of infection, the centers of temptation and vice. It is they
observe dancehall and bar, keep watch for panderer and
who can
who have
and "know-how"
and adequately
informed kids can themselves repel evil influence in most cases.
Less fortunate children may find themselves victimized, lured and
pervert. It
is
they
Emotionally stable
come
to the realiza-
by a separate
operating in
other
schools,
of cases
Admittedly, police work in this country leaves much to be deYet it seems to this writer that within their limits the police
are doing a rather good job with children. Constant experience
sired.
202
JAILBAIT
with
all
and a
certain
anywhere, police
been made in several states both at training the police
officer for delinquency control and conducting research into methstart has
members
for
juvenile bureaus.
"Many
different
ap-
When
up
to 16 years.
up
to 18 years,
sometimes
Not only must they know the law and enforce it; they must
know and like children. Theirs is the responsibility of deciding
whether the child goes to reform school or foster home whether
he can be helped by "another chance"
whether he should be
WHOSE BLAME?
203
Even
choice of judges.
performs intelligently,
But a "stock-taking"
so,
tion,
Protection.
first codified,
the country
still
the court
must
rely so heavily.
Obviously the probation officer should be a highly trained, excepand so he is, except in many rural
tionally capable social worker
who he knows
than
justice.
too,
rather than
little
room
that
little
"many
more than
Perhaps there
is
truth, then, in
Elliot of
204
JAILBAIT
first argued in 1937, thus summarized by Alice Scott Nutt of the Federal Child Guidance Division: "Essentially judicial functions are incongruous with func-
When
and treatment.
incongruous functions
is retarded and
And
certainly there
is
facilities
plague the
Accordingly, a growing trend is in evidence to remove all corrective functions from the court and have it stick to legal ones only.
Either
it
could refer
all
New
or, as in
This
is
far
Courts,
temper justice not merely with mercy, but with cure and prevention.
SOCIAL SERVICES
One
is
the
and psychiatric
social worker.
clinics
To
control a social
phenomenon
is
Tommy much
needed.
if
every
WHOSE BLAME?
205
mother
in
is
relieve
Tommy's mother
deficiency caused
might
rid
assistance
and
at
and too
late
or not
all.
is
it is
When
each of us, within our means, gives sufficient money, support and participation, then will our public agencies and private
ones be able to furnish what the Department of Labor calls for in
its
recommended program
Social services adapted to the needs of any child who presents behavior problems in the home, school or elsewhere,
14
Whose Shame?
OUR BRIEF
INVENTORY
MADE.
IS
WE HAVE LOOKED
INTO
the face of a problem that vitally effects the future of our country
have "taken stock" of social institutions, inand our people.
the
home, influencing the amount of delinquency, and of
cluding
We
up
But we
it.
still
remain somewhat
what
to the author
Baker Guidance
contributions of
Judge
few even match the pioneering
York's Child Guidance Bureau, the Califor-
Clinic; a scant
New
thorities in 1946-47.
hunt
for
felt,
perhaps rather
it
knew
206
WHOSE SHAME?
207
if
to try
on
its
own hook
to slay the
dragon
Community
Surveys, Inc.,
from that
city.
pected,
The proportion
all
dren
The
neglected children!
4.
ilies,
Popularly blamed "causes" such as broken homes, large famlow income, and poor housing in themselves do not create
delinquency.
5. In Connecticut, at least,
208
JAILBAIT
its
tinues high.
6. Delinquency persists despite one of the best child welfare
records in the Union, dating back to 1921! Child social services
and recreational facilities, public and private, as well as juvenile
court, probation and training systems, far surpass those of most
lie
elsewhere.
For these findings alone, the survey would have been invaluable.
As previously remarked,
all
should be encouraged,
only to
if
narrow the
and controls
field of search.
Unfortunately, proceeding from this point, the Connecticut investigators made something of a mistake. The author feels that
all
as a behavior problem,
is
justified, in
scientific sense, in
assuming that
the other disturbances were necessarily family ones. Why not disturbances in the church? The political situation? The endocrine
Why
balance?
early adjustments?
to
throw
preconceived notions of what did or did not cause delinquency. Instead, having disproved a number of such notions, they
out
all
And
facts.
1.
of
378
families, 57 consisted of
WHOSE SHAME?
crime,
divorce,
economic need,
thing
is
209
ill
Somewhat taken aback, the investigators sought other possible breakdown symptoms in fields which sometimes do not appear in official files, but which might make "unofficial" trouble:
2.
extra-marital sex relations, alcoholism, violent quarreling, separation, desertion, irregular work, non-support. Of all 378 families
delinquency also showed symptoms in the other categories, assumed to indicate family breakdown. But three out of four families
did not!
its
roots in
family disorganization.
some
fur-
ther startling information in their own mathematics, again importantly narrowing the field for future researchers.
The
among
in
30 percent. Truancy as an
so parental
210
JAILBAIT
symptom!
Is
it
Continuing
it,
in ten
interested
to
make
a delinquent?
378 families ran about as follows: 56 percent, emotional instability; 10 percent, mental deficiency; 7 percent, disinterested
its
ill
health; 2 per-
number of the families, for example, usually some other factor was
more important in creating the disorganization. It should be noted
that in 20 percent of these families, no identifying disturbance
could be determined. Also, information on the missing 98 cases
of these children,
no
be found.
WHOSE SHAME?
To
211
the most
fruitful
and Control
by Attorney General
so
much
was
not
an
Tom C. Clark. This
experimental or research
in the field
of
work
all known
all
project as an exhaustive survey
methods
of
recommendations
facts, surmises and
approach plus
based on the sum of all experience to that date. Results were
published in the form of eighteen separate reports, each covering
of Juvenile Delinquency, called
One
reports
front.
quency as there are evils and errors in this world." And addressing
itself to the American home, it warns:
Nobody should be taken seriously who blames delinquency on "parents," on "cigarettes," on "mothers working," on "progressive education," on "the moving pictures,"
on "malnutrition" or on any other one cause. It does not
matter
thing.
No two kids
same experiences.
212
JAILBAIT
But one cannot help feeling that the work would be greatly
if only more were definitely established about causes. Not
speeded
so foolish as he seems
the author
who
is
names
tion!
could
of maladjusted boys,
and
is
J.
We
And
already, as
rowed. There
we have
of certain delinquencies.
quent!
It
Why?
WHOSE SHAME?
213
takes something to push the child into them. The broken homes,
the poverties, the cultural tensions, the boredoms, none of these
it
cases,
many
though
of
which
feel that
First
example!
Third
lack
of
lack of
natural equipment!
Of the first two, Katherine F. Lenroot, chief of the Children's
Bureau, has said: "There are two things essential to childhood
love
It
and example! Of
is
love, essentially,
maladjustment
much
is
the
younger child in the large family, who, although relatively neglected by busy and aging parents, as often as not grows into a
more
solid citizen
rental attention,
if
not devotion.
And
214
JAILBAIT
delinquency factors by most child authorities. Lack of good exor conversely, abundance of unsound example
likewise
are widely accepted as contributing factors. But the full implica-
ample
origins of prostitution
He
temper,
is
unjust, bullies.
making
telephone
servants in some way to emphasize difference is creating an area of
cultural tension. The elder brother who comes home with violent
is
fender
is
So
to try
is told.
he observes,
it is
WHOSE SHAME?
And warns
is
tions social
and
to
"The
show
it
possible for
215
child expert:
and teachers
responsibility of parents
of
young children
in their
will
is
make
all
recommend
;
The
delinquency
sponsibility
is
is
and
to be avoided.
The
virtually as important to
a demonstration of the trust, need and acceptance which signify love. By responsibility is not meant any heavy
love
in fact
it is
kind.
a child.
It is
we
and
and
us take the pains to see that each child has a service to per-
form, his and his only, according to his age and ability.
this is to neglect his
To
neglect
growth!
officer or
216
JAILBAIT
he
it
could be because
by doctor or psychiatrist.
is
sickness.
Often
it
can be cured
must be placed
institution.
in
Otherwise the
we
if
So
gets
let
us
warm
all,
in
affection
in
game, and
a delinquent
boy.
And
to
stitutions, schools
and
let
all in-
We
owe the
effort to ourselves.
We
were
it
all
on to a generation better
than ours.
And
let
us remember that
if
there
is
shame
FINIS
in delinquency
who
it
created him
flap)
WILLIAM BERNARD,
logical
re-
about
institutions
with
dealing
adolescents.
histories,
GREENBERG
201 East 57th
St.,
PUBLISHER
New York
22, N.Y.
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in
certain
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wrong with us
in
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