Page:1954 Juvenile Delinquency Testimony.pdf/30

18 lications in the years since this has prompted a resurvey which reveals some important changes, not only in their qnautity hut in the kinds of material that are being oftered in pieture-strip muguzines.

"The most regrettable change sinee the earlier snrvey has been the inereased number of these magazines desding wilh 'real' crime, aud those leaturing sexually suggestive and sadistic pictures. These are presumably not addressed to childrenare perhaps not even attractive to many of them. Nevertheless, they are available at 10 cents for young people to purchase, wod are prominently displayed on newsstands, Some of these are ubout as uncouth and savage pictures and stories as can be found anywhere."

Josnrrs Frank, Comics, Radio, Moviesand Children. New York: Public Affairs Committee, Inc. (Pamplilet Publication No. 148). 1949. 32 p. [HQ784.A6F7]

(The anthor is educational associaie in charge of children's books and radio on the staff of rhe Chile Study Association of America.)

fu discussing erisne and the comics, Josette Frawk indicates that a number of juvenite conrt judzes have cited the evidence of children brought before them who declared that they bad "done it because they read it in the comics." Such evideuce is discounted by orherseriminnlogists and psychologistswho point out that children in trouble can hardly be expected fo nuderstaud their own behavior, Much less explain it. Tho causes of behavior, they insist, are deep and culplex. "In studying the causes of behavior problems of children for many years," wrote Dr. Mandel Sherman, professor of educational psychology at the University of Chicago, "I have never seen one instance vf a child whose behavior disturlatuce origiuuted in the reading of comic books, nor even a ease of a delinquent whose bchavior wns exaggerated by such readings. <A child may ageribe bis behavior to a conic he has read or a movie he has seen. But such oxplanations cannot be considered scientific evidence of causation."

CavanacH, Jounx I. The Comics War, The Jonrnal of Criminal Law and Criminology (Northwestern Luiversity Schoo) of Law) volume XL, June 1949.

(Dr, Cayanaeh is the senior medical officer and psychiatrist, United States naval disciplinary barracks, Portsmouth, N. H).

"Little factral evidence has been produced that the comics are harmful. A small nuiber of cases have been produced in which camie-book reading has preceded or Aceompanied the commission of a crime. Actnaily does this prove anything? * * If it is true as we are told, that 40 million comic books circulate each month and that each one has several readers, should not their harmful effects, if any, be more evident? Emotionalism sells better than intelloctualism, and mitkes betfer copy.

"If the comics are as had as we hear they are. something should be done aboug them. What we need, however, are fewer exclamutions ind more facts, Up to the present there have been inore references to the harnitul effecis af the enmics in the popular press than in the professional literature. * * * My pica is to investigate first why children like comics and sceondly to determine, if possible, how baruiful they really are.

"* * * the normal aggressive reactions find release in the phantasies stimulated hy the comic hooks which thns become the weans by which children are able to work off their hostility toward their purents aud others withont the develapInent of guilt which they might otherwise feel. They may thus displace onto the charneters in the comic hooks the aggression which would otherwise be Loo dangeraus to show oyertly or even to imagine, Many have commented on the quieting elfecr of tlie comics, the "marijuana of the nursery," usually in the belief that this is harmful. It seems more likely that the child is merely projecting himself into the story and releasing his aggression in the realm of phantasy rather than finding it necessary to be noisy, troublesome, or to indulge in other overt aggressive behavior. For the normal child such conduct is not harmful or detrimental. For the neurotic child it could be detrimental but not necessarily so, and in any case he will be equally harmed by radio or movies.