Page:1954 Juvenile Delinquency Testimony.pdf/37

Rh Simon H. Tulchin have conclusively shown that low intelligence of itself is not an important factor in producing delinquency.

Socivlogical studies have showu marked correlutions between poverty and de- linquency. But again the sample is selective, biased hy the fact that official statistics fail to reeord the large number of delinquencies ecammitted in more prosperous seetions of the community; aml again one is given pause by the necessity of accounting for the large numbers of children in the most dire economic need who do het become delinquent. As for broken homes, the studies of Slawson in New York, and of Shaw and McKay in Chicago, have shown that the broken home in itself cannot be considered a very significant factor in explaining delinquency.

More recently it has been asserted that motion pictures are a major cause of delinquency. The controversy over the truth of this assertion closely parallels the present controversy over the role of comic books in the causation of anti- social behavior. The Motion Picture Research Council, with the aid of a research grant from the Payne Fund, and in cooperation with a number of universities, undertook a series of objcetive studies of the question.

The most conelusive of these studies as it bears upon the relationship of the Motion picture to the causation of delinquency, was conducted at New York University by Paul G. Cressey. Cressey's findings, based upon thousands of observations under controlled conditions, showed that the movies did not have any significant effeet in produeing delinquency in the ¢rime-breeding area in which the study was made. Cressey readily admits that boys and young men, when suitably predisposed, sometimes have ulilizged techuiques of erime seen in the movies, have used gangster fling Lo stimulate suseeyible ones toward crime, and on oceasion in their own criminal aetions haye idealized themselyes imagi- natively as pussessing as attractive a personality, or as engaging in as yomantic activities as gangster screen heroes. Cressey is careful to follow this statement, however, with the explanation that he dees not mean that movies have been shown to be a "cause" of crime, that he does not mean that "good" boys are entieed into crime by gangster filnis, that he merely means what he has said that boys and Young men responsire to erime portrayals have been found on occasion to use ideas and ieehniques seen at the movies. This type of analyticn) thinking is largely absent from the findings of such érities of the comics as Fredric Wertham,

Furthermore Cressey found (hat urban patierns of viec, gambling, racketeering, and eangsterism, ineluding large components of violence, were so familiar to the children of this district that movies seemed rather tame by coniparison., That this section of New York is typical of the thousands of other delinqueney arcas in American cities cannot be doubted. It is from these areas that the large proportion of official juvenile delinquents tome and there is no reason to doubt that the role of the motion picture in producing delinquency is any greater in these areas in other American cities than it was found to be in New York.

The behavior scientist has learned that the causes of antisocial behaviorlike the causes of all behaviorare complex. Delinquent and criminal careers can be understood only in terms of the interaction of many factors. Evaluation of their relative influence demands research based upon the most rigorous sampling and control, and requires the utmost objectivity in the interpretation of the data the research yields.