Juvenile delinquency (1955)

1 JUVENILE DELINQUENCY wliicli have been included in the official report of the Senate, and have been of much assistance to us in considering legislation. I want to assure all of the witnesses that their testimony will be read and thoroughly studied by the members of this subcommittee and by the United States Senate. From these California hearings and other hearings across this coun- tiT we have been able to piece together the pattern of juvenile crime. We learned that juvenile crime manifests itself in many ways: Some children take to narcotics; some children run away from home and get into trouble; others join teen-age gangs and plunder and frighten the whole communities. Vandalism and robbery are other outlets for juvenile frustrations. This year we are investigating the various forms of juvenile delin- quency which we found occurring in community after community. Although only about 4 or 5 percent of our Nation's children get into trouble with the authorities, this is still far too many for the advanced status of our society—a society with the know-how, the ability, and the interests necessary to overcome this menace. Our subcommittee found that in 1953 over 435,000 youngsters came before the juvenile courts. But this figure represents only part of the total number of children who come into conflict with the law. Con- servative authorities estimate that over a million and a quarter adoles- cents get into some kind of trouble each year. Most of these children are, of course, released by the authorities. I wish I could report that the situation has altered for the better in 1954. According to the statistics, it did not. But we have liad some encouraging reports that there have been fewer number of conflicts with the law among juveniles here in California last year than in preceding 3'ears. Children under 21, as of the present time, commit 72.6 percent of all automobile thefts, 62.9 percent of all burglaries, 54 percent of all thefts, and 51 percent of all arrests of property offenses. Even 36.3 percent of all men arrested for rape are boys under 21 3'ears of age. Incidentally, sex crimes in the last 12 years have increased something like 110 percent throughout the Nation. What accounts for this sordid picture ? The causes of juvenile delinquency are as complex as are our society. A Nation torn between war and peace presents additional threats to the security of our young people. I think of delinquency as the scum that rises to the top from the imperfections within our society. As the imperfections are cleared, delinquency will decrease. I want to tell you that all of the picture is not sordid, because in the last year and a half I have never seen as much interest in any subject matter, any problem as that which has been manifested by public officials of all levels of government and what is more important, by individual parents, citizens, church, school, and the home, in get- ting at the cause and taking action at the local level, and trying to give our young people a better opportunity and to eradicate to the extent we can juvenile delinquency. I think I should say also that no nation ever had a finer bunch of youngsters than we have in this country today; 95 or 96 percent of our teen-agers, are intelligent, physically strong, morally good, train- ing to be good and useful citizens. But the number that we have that are not are too manv-