SERIOUS VIEW TAKEN

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20499, 8 March 1941, Page 6

SERIOUS VIEW TAKEN

JUVENILE DELINQUENCY LOSS OF SECURITY PROBLEM IN LONDON (Klcc. Tel. Copyright—United Press Assn.) (Reed. March 8. 2 p.m. LONDON, March 7. The Times gives prominence to a speech by Mr. Watson Boyce, probation officer, in the Southwark Juvenile Court. He said that conditions arising from the war had greatly accentuated juvenile delinquency. He attributed the increase among, the younger London groups aged, eight to 14 years, to the loss of sense of security. Destruction and sudden death had become almost commonplace. Life was a matter for to-day, for to-morrow might not come. Fathers, uncles and brothers were away, and perhaps would not return. Mothers were hard-worked and depressed. His unofficial view was that if nonevacuation were a cause of the trouble there should be evacuation. Struggle For Expression Additional other causes of delinquency among older children was the wild sex urge and the struggle for expression, particularly in the male. He said he had known of adolescents in whom the urge was so irresistible that it drove them out during thewildest air raids, seeking a safety valve, resulting perhaps in supreme acts of bravery or depravity.

Mr. Boyce said he knew of a boy of 15 years who burgled .a number of shops. He said that day after day he went to work in the dark arid returned home in the dark. He felt he would burst or go mad. Fie defied his mother and went out. in air raids from, sheer want of excitement. and burgled a tailor’s shop and felt happy. “I did not want clothes,” he said.

Such stories could be multiplied manyfold. There was a new problem as a. result of the wages of adolescents ranging from £3 tq £0 a week. The sums gave boys too much to spend. Drunkenness was increasing. The wages of these young workers must come down, said Mr. Boyce. He urged that their labour should be conscripted equally with adult labour, not only for their present good, but to save them from a crash after the war.