Juvenile delinquency (1955)

66 JUVENILE DELINQUENCY Mv. BoBO. And in what way does this deal with juvenile delin- quency, and what is the effect of this committee in working with it ? Mr. BoGGS. Well, it has been the feeling of those of us who have been concerned in the field of human relations that there is a very definite tieup and relationship between the poor human relations and juvenile delinquency, and very recently we have conducted a survey among the juvenile probation officers in the probation department, seeking to determine whether or not in their experience they have discovered a relationship existing between poor human relations and the activities of the juveniles and their delinquent acts. This survey is not yet completed, but I would like to give you some information that we have preliminarily gotten from it. For example, these probations officers have indicated throughout this survey to our committee that in all 5-1 junior and senior high schools in Los Angeles County there is a definite i-elationship between juvenile delinquency and the relationship that exists between young- sters of different racial and cultural backgrounds. For instance, they have indicated— 21 of these men have indicated that gang fights can be directly related to poor human relations in many of the areas that they have observed, and that these gang fights come as a result of rumors circulating among youngsters indicating hate and prejudice on the part of all persons concerned, and the ex- pression of attitudes on the part of adults—poor human relations atti- tudes with respect to persons of different racial groups; that these attitudes as expressed by adults find a sometimes responsive chord in the delinquent acts that the children of these people perpetrate in con- nection with their relations at school and on the street. The groups that are for the most part indicated by these offices as being delinquent in their acts stemming from poor relations are Anglos versus Negroes, Anglos versus Mexicans, Mexicans versus Negroes, predominantly, and in each of the nine areas that the probation dei)art- ment has divided as a means of doing its work with facility, there is some indication that tensions are directly related in many instances to poor human relations, and the acts of juvenile delinquency come as a result of these attitudes. Mr. BoBO. Do you have any program witliin the schools or among the juveniles to deal with improving the relations of humans ? Mr. BoGGS. The Los Angeles County Committee on Human Rela- tions, in cooperation with 60 private agencies in this community, are at present working with the city schools in assisting in the develop- ment of a program designed to relieve tensions between the various racial and cultural groups at those institutions. We have had several meetings with the assistant superintendent of the higli schools and junior high schools, and just over the past 2 months Ave have had 6 or 7 meetings with high school principals, many of whom have asked these agencies to come in and assist them in setting up various pro- grams for in-service training, training programs for teachers, per- haps designed to relieve them of some of their prejudices, and, sec- ondly, to help them develop intercultural programs. Mr. BoBO. Has there been any school or any area where this whole project was done on this type of work ? Mr. Bc»GGS. Not to my knowledge in this county at this time.