Understanding juvenile delinquency

Title

Creator

Steiner, Lee R.

Language

English

Year

1960

Subject

Understanding juvenile delinquency -- Book reviewing.

Steiner, Lee R. Understanding juvenile delinquency.

Juvenile delinquency.

Rights

In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted

Fulltext

Book Review UNDERSTANDING JUVENILE DELINQUENCY By LEE R. STEINER In his fascinating and instructive book, Good Behaviour, Sir f:ear about it, it left him no impression ; he merely shrugged his Harold Nicholson, famous English biogTapher and authority on shoulders as if it were none of his or his family' s concern. 'l'oday, diplomacy, makes some pertinent observations which are occasion- it conveys an increasingly serious and alarming social and domestic ally curious if not humorous. Says he, speaking of Arrierican p:·oblem in the United States and to a limited extent in the I-'hili.ppines, especially in the chartered cities where vice and crime are becoming rampant. "It seems strange to m.: . that whereas American adults sometimes seem to be inhibited by conventions which . have long What seems to hav~ inspired Mrs. Steiner to publish the been discarded in the Old World, American children and ado· result of her study and research is that juvenile delinquency has lescents are accorded a license without bond or bound. The adula- broken and continues to break many a peaceful and happy home. tion accorded to children and young boys and girls is to our m_inds At the same time, it has left a long trail of blood and tears bewildering. The pert, pampered and loud-voic:ed infants of the 'from victims and relatives. What ..:auses juvenile delinquency? Great Republic are for us almost incomprehensible as the .bunching, Why has it spread terror across the land from Maine to Califor. · petting, dare-seeking boys and girls of the universities and col- nia as well in the Philippines through the baneiul influence of lEges." cheap magazines? Is it symptomatic of the breakdown of the home, the school and the church? Has the bad example of wellThis revealing passage from an admittedl y keen and judicious n1 eaning but seemingly irresponsible parents anything to do with observer flashed before us as we ploughed through the well-docu- it? mented book, Understan<li11g Juvenile Delinq1iency, publisherl in the United States of America, by Lee R. Steiner whose picture ado1;ns the back cover. The author, we gather, is not only a certified psychologist, but is also a recognized psychoanalyst and consultant in personal problems. She thus h~d already access to those intimate problems with which American teen-agers are faced today t'l the bafflement and disappointment of their pa l'ents, who, in their doting fondness, luwe spal'ed the l'Od and spoiled the CJhild. An American t!eviewer describes Mr!', Steiner's recent publication as a "brutally frank" and ··hard-hitting" treatise or diagnosis. It is more than that. It is ~ometimes diagnostically as shocking in its factuality as it is in its clinical frankness. It calls a spade a spade for want of a worse name, In her passion for tTuth and accuracy, she quotes a word which, banned by Webster as well as Oxford Dictionary, we saw printed for the first time. Some modern novelists in their attempt to appear realistic and photographic might have used the word. Still we have always wondered, possibly in our conservatism or provincialism, what constructive purpose its use could serve Ol' accomplish. Determined no ci.oubt to be always factual and accurate as becomes a scientist, the author copiously quotes from reports that could easily fall under the category of pornographic, however noble or lofty might have been her moti\•e or intention. Over a decade ago, juvcnjJe delinquency was at best a legal terminology with hardly any clear meaning or evil connotation to the reading public. That was particularly true in the Phil· ippines where the influence of the home, salutary and unquesThe last seems to be the opinion of Dr. H. H. Remmers cf Purdue University. According to Mrs . . Steiner, he has "drawn the conclusion after years of research that the difficulty is not so much with the young as with the pattern their elders are setting - a pattern of meaningless activity and boredom." The same authority holds that young people have "a more accurate ar:praisal of the adult world than vice.versa." This reverses the !ltand taken by a famed Englesh writer who said to a young man, "You think we (old men) arc fools; but we know that you arc." What is the solution? The author views the whole matter quite pessimisticallyj. She quotes Dr. Jacques M. May, Vice~ P resident of the National Organization for Mentally l11 Children, as saying that the problem of juvenile delinquency "will not be solved by more policemen, only by more unbiased sc-'ientist exploring the depths of the cells." And far from improving tho situation, many of the judges presiding over juvenile courts in the States are blamed for making it worse. "Instead of using psychiatric knowledge to make the young ptrson's life easier," complains Mrs. Steiner, "some of these maladj usted judges use it as one more weapon of sadism. Actually, many of these judges who bandy a!'Ound the psychiatric lingo don't want anything to do with psychiatrists. In private, they will tell you that they think psychiatrists are dopes, And many psychiatrists return the compliment by belittling judges." Understanding evidently holds the key to the whole problem, but how C'an one attain understanding when . the authorities themselves, scientific and othenvise, do not or cannot understand ono tioned, as well as of the school and the church, was then strong. another, much less the unfortunate patients who are brought lf the man in the street happened to read the expression or before them for treatment? 192 LAWYERS JOURNAL June 30, 1960

Media