JUVENILE CRIME IN ENGLAND.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume III, Issue 687, 24 April 1916, Page 4

JUVENILE CRIME IN ENGLAND.

AN ALARMING INCREASE

The alarming increase of juvenile crime in England is ascribed partly to the evil influence of picture palaces, which have gained the same hold over children's imaginations as "penny dreadfuls'' had with a previous generation of children. The "Lancet'.' savs:

—"From a medico-legal point of view we arc not sure that these places are sufficiently scrutinised. Certain films appear designed to stir the love of danger among children in a most unfortunate way. The children give immediate rein, oftentimes in reckless and wanton bravado, to forms of emotion which find vent iu crime. Local authorities would do well to press for greater control over picture palaces, somewhat on the lines of what has been adopted in Liverpool, and maybe elsewhere, namely, day performances, consisting of films of an educational and harmless character and approved of by the education authority and the exclusion of children from evening performances unless accompanied by parents or other adults. Government intervention may otherwise be necessary.-'' In the "Daily Mail" the appointment of a woman kinema censor is advocated. Among the films that are specifically mentioned as injurious to the child mind are those which depict the exploits of burglars and other lawless characters. Tt is particularly the boys who are impelled to emulate these deeds of daring, but the records of the juvenile courts and the police courts show that girls are also led astray. At the Willesden court a mother who was summoued for neglecting to send her daughter, Jessie, aged 10, to school, said that the child had become infatuated by picture palace romances. She had a vivid imagination, and often believed herself to be the heroine of kinema stories she had seen. One day she went to a friend of her mother's and pretended that she had been sent to borrow a sovereign. She went home with it, packed a bag and went to Bar-row-in-Furness, where she had been told her aunt lived. She arrived safely, much to her aunt's surprise, for she had never seen the child before. She was sent home, but, obtaining more money, made another long journey, and was missing for over a week. Her latest journey was to Newtown, in Wales, where her grandfather lived. She had obtained the money for this fare by telling another untruth. In the United States the "Woman's [lonic Companion" has a page devoted to the "Better Films" movement, which is striving to counteract similar evils among the children of that coimtrv.