1 EPORE we are able to decide what w

a

@not the delinquent, the
Png offender, the boy or
who. has come up against
aw or against adult au-
Eiity so freauently as to be-
Wee a behaviour problem? For
ay) years of knowing him
2 well indeed, I think I can
you what he is. He is sim-
(whatever he may appear)

child. He may be daring,
=boiled, cock-sure and
Ph in his attitude, but that
jure defence—or defiance.
ally, he is lonely, unloved,
ure, hurt, and his offenses
a way he has of hitting

at his parents or his
1eFS OF society.

e unfortunate thine about
problem of the young of-
sx is that, because of this
2sSive attitude of his, and
isé the things he does are
-‘ockine: and so annoying it
ry difficult to arouse pity
um or te secure under-
ing treatment. Voluntary
ibutions ean be secured
ospitals for crippled chil-
* or preventoriums or

y ums for the sick child, but_

are few voluntary organ-
Wns for the child who is
ly crippled. If he ve-
3 institutional treatment,
s to be maintained at pub-
™ pense in a detention home
" industrial school.

= THIS child is no more to
* «me for his Warped per-
ty than is the crippled
© for his twisted body. It
»» resting to note that there

}ommon factor, a striking:

jolance, in the circum-
™s of young offenders
#= to the attention of au-
-'es. wherever they may
end, whether it be in Lon-
© Eneland: Copenhagen,
Sirk; Moscow: New York;

have some understanding of who an
at least mot understood. Do

very unhappy, frightened,

J ff :
C (Excerpts from a Radio Broadcaét delixer
(By ad HIEBEN GORRIE Guest Spea

Toronto or Vancouver. You will
always find that at least 50 per
cent of these children come
from broken homes, no matter
in what country the home may.
be. The breken home and the
unhappiness it implies is the
clue to the young offenders’
misery.
The happiness aud the health
particularly the | mental
health—of a child axe entirely
dependent on the security and
love he finds in this home.
Quarrelling, neglect, or indif-
ferenee between parents, ne-
elect of varental responsibility,
diyoree, desertion, death, any-
thing that lessens the child’s
feeling of being wanted, being:
loyed and being able to love,
is the major cause of “delin-
quency. It is fairly safe to ‘say
that the child who has a nor-
mally happy home life will not
succumb to bad influences:
whether from the conu¢es, the
movies, the radio or bad com-
panionship.

What we must do for the
young offender is to try to se-
cure for him a normal happy
life, or to put it another way,
we must try to discover, and
when discovered to remove all
those forces and influences
Which tend to disrupt and de-
stroy home life.

There is nothing very origi-

nal in this conclusion. Never-
theless, it must be repeated and
re-examined constantly if we
are to treat the young offender
carefully, wisely and effective-
ly, when he has committed his
offense, and if we are to pre-
vent other children from be-
coming young offenders.

pee us take the first situation

—the treatment of our
young offenders. We have done
much in the last 20 years to
improve our methods in that re-

you know what the juvenile delinquent is?

€ can do for the young offender, we must first
d what he is, because he is very often not known,

Or

spect, but we must do more.
We must not be satisfied with
haying children’s aid societies,
juvenile courts and specially de-

vised legislation to deal with
the young offender. We must
know for sure—and by ‘we?

I mean all adults in the commu-
nity. We must know whether
or not those agencies and that
legislation is properly and ef-
fectively and humanely admin-
istered.

Do you know, for instance,
what organizations there are in
your community to treat the
young offender, and do you
know how he is treated. Do you
belong to an organization, such
as a church group, a service
elub, a trade union, parent
teachers’ asociation, and if SO,
has your organization made any
atempt to discover how the
services for young offenders
are administered in your com-
munity ? Do you know how they
compare with those in other
similar communities ? Is your
community doing enough? Is
it spending enough on behalf
of these young erippled person-

‘alities? Do you know how many

young offenders each probation
officer attached to the Juvenile
Court has to supervise? Can che
do a good job for these cehil-
dren? Is there a careful study
made as to why these young
offenders have gotten into dif-
ficulties? If there is trouble
in the home what effort is made
to straighten out the difficulty ?
If the court considers him too
difficult to be left in the com-
munity is he so helped in the
industrial school as to give him
a good chance of doing better
when he comes out? And what

is done after he comes out to

help him get started on a bet-
ter way.

Whether or not the answers ®
to these auestions are favor-

HIP. TORPEDOED
NINIE IS ADRIET

Sans

THAT AMERICAN
SHOULD BE A GOOD
TARGET FOR Z
you! FRE!)

BUT —-SUDDENIN--- !

——
SSS

———
=

= =
EDERATED PRESS 5)

April 14, 1945 — Page 13

able or unfavorable will de-
pend upon the concern of the
adults in the community as to
whether or not these of-
fenders get the help which
they so urgently need. It does

- net depend on the politicans,

or the administrators or on
the social workers—it de
pends on the citizens.

Even more does it depend on
the citizen whether or not the
child becomes a young offender.
On all hands we hear today that
the pazents are to blame for the
increase in juvenile delinquen-
cy. Jt is perfectly true that
parental indifference and neg-
leet and the notorious broken
home are to blame for the de-
linquencies of the children. But
whe or what is to blame for
cur delincuent and irresponsible
parents? There Are many
things to blame. All things that
tend to undermine home life.

The speed of the machine age
is blamed for much but there
are thousands of happy homes
with automobiles and radios. It
is something deper than that.

Basically of course the

great demoralizers of home
and family are war and eco-
nomic insecurity booms and
depressions poverty due to
unemployment social and eco-
hemice insecurity brought on
by death or incapacity of the
hbreadwinner—the psychologi-
cal effects of all these social
disasters on family affection
and family relationships. The
responsibility for seeing to it
that these two scourges ‘shall
be removed from our society
also rests upon each of us as
citizens. If they are removed
there will be fewer broken
homes and fewer offenders.

THERE is another factor con-

tributinge not only ‘to the
broken home which produces
the young offender but even
more directly. to juvenile de-
linqueney itself and that is the
dearth of creative interests in
our community life. Even when
the war is over and if we suc-
ceed in securing a goodly meas-
ure of economic security we

GOOD SHOOTING
MIGUEL! NOW
QUICK PEDRD---]-
GET THE
AMERICANO!

N

HERE HE IS MILA:
IM AFRAID HE IS
VERY SicK!

HuT, THEN!
WE WILL
BRING HIM
BACK TO

Im DEAD AND
TVE GONE 1C

NOT QUITE! YOU'RE ON
A dJAPANESE-HELD j
ISLAND--AND 7 AM
MILA, LEADER OF A
GUERRILLA BAND
FiGHTING THEM!
SLEEP NOW--

THAT SHERMAN
SAID ABOUT

Delinquency

ed April 4 over CKWX)
ker on the LPP Program)

shall still have broken homes
unless our next generation of
parents have more to bring to
marriage than has the present
generation. =

Mass production has driven
the domestic skills from the
home and these were creative
skills—mother no longer spins
the cloth and makes the clothes,
and father no longer hews the
tree and builds the home and
makes the furniture. These
tasks, hard though they were,
brought deep satisfaction. Mass
production also provides the
amusements which used to be
created in the home—the movy-
ies and the radio have replaced
the home-made music and
home-made plays and dialog-
ues. Pamily life has been
drained of the things that held
it together, and which bound
it to other families in the com-
munity. There is an awareness
of this emptiness, and that
awareness is indicated in the
tremendous demand for com-
munity centers. In these cul-
tural and recreational centers
family and community life may
be revitalized.

Still another responsibility
must be met by parents and by
citizens if we are to prevent
oux children from becoming
young offenders. We must see
to 1t that the parents of the
next generation réalize the im-
portance of their task and we
must see to it that in our
schools children not only learn
the three R’s, the eultural sub-
jects, such as art and music,
which are also important, but
that they learn the art of living
as socially cooperative individ-
uals in society. Because it is in
the years from two to seven
that the child sets the pattern
for his social behavior, this
vitally important teaching; must
be provided during those years.
At the same time, the parents
must understand how the child
learns to play and work hap-
pily with his young companions,
and how this socially desirable
behavior may be carried
through into his life in the
home and in the community.
This will mean that the par-
ents, as well as the ehild, will
have to be trained in this art
of living.

While IT am generally adverse
to compulsion, so important
does it seem to me that - this
knowledge of the techniques of
adjustment ‘between the mem-
bers of the family and between
members of society is, I would
be almost tempted to urge that
there should be not only com-
pulsory education for children,
but compulsory education for
parents. .

When I was first given the
litle for this talk, I misunder-
stood it and thought it was to
be “What Can We Do With the
Young Offender,” and I was
going to wise-crack and say:
“We can do without him.” That
remark would not have been as
flippant or foolish as it would
seem. We could very easily do
without or _ be without the
young offender in our commu-
nity, if the citizens as a whole
were willing to give their time
and their thought and pay the
necessary taxes to make our
communities such that our chil_
dren would be happy and se-
cure. For such 4 community
would have no young offenders.

FP LTA PEGS LEP EE