Page:1954 Juvenile Delinquency Testimony.pdf/16

4 I am executive director of the Senate Subcommittee To Investigate Juvenile Delinquency.

Mr. . Mr. Clendenen, will you outline briefly your education and experience in the field of juvenile delinquency?

The. Before Mr. Clendenen answers that question, I would like to say that the Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency feels that we have a very able staff director.

Mr. . Thank you.

Prior to coming to my present position I had worked in the United States Children's Bureau for a period of 7 years, and held there the position of Chief of the Juvenile Delinquency Branch.

Prior to that time I had served in administrative capacities in institutions for emotionally disturbed children and delinquent children and also have had experience as a probation officer in a juvenile court.

Mr. . You are a trained social worker?

Mr. . I am.

Mr. . Speaking on behalf of the staff, have you conducted an investigation into the comic-book industry?

Mr. . Yes, sir; we have. Our investigation into the comic-book industry has been almost exclusively limited to those comics which themselves center about horror and crime.

The particular type of comics to which I refer present both pictures and stories which relate to almost all types of crime and in many instances those crimes are committed through extremely cruel, sadistic, and punitive kinds of acts.

Now, in connection with that question, I should like to make to perfectly clear that our investigation has not been concerned with other types of comics, many of which all authorities seem to agree represent not only harmless, but many times educational entertainment.

I should also add that even within that type of comic books known as the horror crime comics, there are gradations within this group, too. That is, some are much more sadistic, much mere lurid, than others in the same class or category.

Now, although our investigations have been limited to this particular segment of the comic-book industry, we should not give the impression that this is a small portion of the comic-book industry.

According to estimates which were provided us by the Audit Bureau of Circulations and the Controlled Circulation Audits, the two firms that publish circulation figures, there were about 422 different kinds of comic or comic-book titles on the newsstands in March 1954.

About one-fourth were of the crime and horror variety.

Now, as far as all comic books are concerned, although exact figures are lacking, most authorities agree that there are probably somewhere between 74 million and 100 million comic books sold in this country each month.

If one-quarter of these are of the crime variety of comics, this means that there are some 20 million comic books, crime comic books placed on the newsstands of this country each month.

Mr. . When you say crime and horror comics could you be more specific in describing what you are talking about?

Mr. . Well, we have prepared a certain number of slides which show pictures taken from comic books of the type to which we have addressed ourselves.