Page:1954 Juvenile Delinquency Testimony.pdf/40

28 to be snve that the interviewers did not ask leading questions and slimolate the responses of the subjects to reply along a preordéained line of thinking or imagining? Unless end until Werlhatm's melhods of investigation are deseribed, and demonsirated te be valid and reliahte, the scientific worker in this field ean place no credence in his results.

Toa couelusion, if may be said that no acceptable evidence has been produced by Wertham or anyone cise for the canelusion that the reading of comie mazazines has, or bas not & significant relation to delinquent behavior. ven the editors of Collier's in which Wertham's results were first presented are doubtful of his conclusions, us is indieated by a later editorial appearing in that magazine in which they say:

"Juvenile delinquency is the product of pent-up frustrations, stored up resentments and bottled up fears, It is not the produet of cartoons or captions, But the comics are a luindy, obvious uneomplicated scapegoat, If the adults who crusade agaiust them would only get as sleamed up oyer such basic causes of delinquency as parental iguerance, iudifference nnd eruelty, they might discayer ae the comics uve no more a menace than Treasure Island er Jack the Giant Killer."

The danger inherent in the present controversy, in which forensie argument replaces researel, is that haying set up a satisfactary whipping boy in eomic magizines, we fril to face and aceept our respousibility as parents and as citizens for providing ony children with more healthful family and community living, a more construetive developmental experience,

Mr. . I also have three different reports from the New York State Joint Legislative Committee to study comics. These contain not only their own recommendations, but also contain quotations from a large number of experts whom that committee consulted and secured opinions from.

The. Without objection, that will be made a part of the subcommittee's files. Let it be exhibits Nos. 4a, 4b, and 4c.

(The three reports were marked "exhibits Nos. 4a, 4b, and 4c," and are on file with the subcommittee.)

Mr. . Finally, I have two items here. One is an item entitled "Brain Washing: American Style," which was really a joint sponsorship. It was spansored jointly by a group in West Virginia and then a Judge Hollaren, who is president of the Minnesota Juvenile Court Judges Association participated in the development of the material.

The. Without objection, that will be made a part of the record. Let that be exhibit No. 5.

(The booklet referred to was marked "exhibit No. 5," and reads as follows:)

Every parent, every responsible adult, should be shocked by the prediction of 400,000 juveniles in court as delinquents during 1004. This represents a 33 percent increase over 1948, just as 550,000 in court during last year was 19 percent higher than prior years. Delinquency is on the march, ever increasing, ever destroying our youth.

Crimes previously associated with hardened criminals or the mentally depraved are now committed by children. We found boys and girls in gungs, carrying "snap-blades," setting out to inflict sadistic revenge upon fellow girls and boys of their community.

Burglary was common. Mugging a victim for cash was termed a "small-fry" act. Narcotics became the fad along with the moral breakdown which follows its use. Nonvirgin clubs sprang up, with boys breaking up fixtures of a drug store in Des Moines, Iowa, because the proprietor objected to the open peddling of flesh in his place of business.