Page:1954 Juvenile Delinquency Testimony.pdf/165

Rh The ehildren don't bring them ou the ward at Bellevue. My ehil- dren don't bring them at home.

And when J tried to look through some of them I thought they were unspeakably silly. The more an artist tries fo show horror and the more details he puts into the picture, which most poar artists de, the sillier the thing becomes, and the children laugh at it.

Lhe children also will frequently tell mefor instance, on ielevision, I lave to Isten te it with my own children occasionally aud T am aghast. "My God, how can you stand such things, children?"

They say, "Mom, don't you know it is only television, it is not real."

In my opinion it is the same thing about these comics.

Mr. . A child would not identify himself or herself with any one of the fiowres in there? For example, we had a pictitre yesterday ant a story about a elild whe murdered her foster mother,

Dr. . Mr, Clendenen told me that story.

Mr. Besser. Tn the final shot they showed the child getting away with the three murders, Do you think that a clild would identify himself or herself with the little girl?

Dr. . No.

Mr. . Would the chill identify

Dr. . The child would only identify itself with such a child who had committed these 3 murders if there had been 3 murders in the child's family, for which people were looking suspiciously at this child.

Tn that ease the clitd with horror would throw the comies out of the window.

Mr. . Would the child identify its motheror its father, with the mother and father in the story comic?

Dr, Benven., Not unless their wether and father were like that mother and father.

Mr. . Since delinquency does appear in broken liomes as well as others, assuming this is a broken home and they depicted a broken heine, would the child identify his own mother and father with the pictures in the comic book ?

Dr. . If he would so identify himself, then it would be tus tendency again fo discard the comic book or go into a panic, I have seen children in panics, as I say, not aver comics usually because they are easily rejected, but over moyies. I have seen children brought to me in terrible paiies, anc interestingly enough inest often the Walt Disney movies which do depict very disturbing mother figures.

The mothers are always killed or seat to the insane asylums in Walt Disney's movies. They are among my experience, except for Frankenstein, the worst movies in the world for children who have had a problem of the loss of a parent.

I can speak of that with feeling because I have 3 children who lost their father when they were babies and I know the problem of exposing children to such problems as this.

It can throw them into the kind of anxiety which is distressing, but the children will leave if they can or they will not read the comics, they will reject it.

Mr. . We had another one of a child in a foster home whose foster parents turned out to be werewolves and he turned out to be a