Says “Wild Youth” Is a Myth
The Dearborn Independent, one of the best publications appearing in America today, does not believe that the American youth is going to the dogs. Under the caption, “Wild Youth Proves a Myth,” a writer in that publication seeks to show that youthful delinquents are decreasing and that the youth of today is no worse than the youth of other generations.
From a report of the United States Bureau of the Census for the year 1923, the number of detentions for crime were for prisoners from 18 to 20 years of age 31,000; from 21 to 24 years of age, 52,766; from 25 to 34 years of age, 80,829, and for 45 years and over, 65,769. According to these figures the number of prisoners 45 years old and over is more than twice the number of boys and girls from the most dangerous age of their lives, while the number of those from 25 to 34 years of age is more than three times as great. It is gratifying to believe that “sensational statements regarding increase of juvenile crime do not have a basis in fact” according to Miss Grace Abbot, chief of the Children’s Bureau.
Commenting on this report, Charity and Children says:
“Youth of the present day have more temptation to crime than those of a generation ago. In the first place, there are many more of them and life is faster and more furious than it used to be, and if the facts and figures given above are true, we need to revise the wholesale charges of moral delinquency in the youth of the land. The young people of the present day are no better perhaps than those of a former generation, but it is refreshing to believe they are no worse. There are some advantages children of the present day have over those of 4 to 50 years ago. Many more of them are in school, and thousands more of them are in Sunday school than ever before and under the influence of other agencies of the church, such as the B.Y.P.U., the Epworth League and the Christian Endeavor, which are intended to train and develop them in Christian character.”
It may be that fewer youths are in court than ever before in some parts of the country but such is not the case in North Carolina. There has been a decided change and anyone who visits the court rooms often must see it. There may be fewer persons between the ages fo 18 and 20 in court but certainly the number of persons under 18 years has increased.
Formerly it was a rare thing for white boys to be in court charged with larceny, but that is not the case now. The number of white defendants, as a matter of fact, exceeds the number of colored ones charged with stealing.
It is true, however, that there are more young people than formerly and in some cities there are fewer young people in court than there were several years ago.
From the editorial page of the Concord Daily Tribune, Saturday, Aug. 21, 1926
newspapers.digitalnc.org/lccn/sn92073201/1926-08-21/ed-1/seq-4/
