Page:1954 Juvenile Delinquency Testimony.pdf/69

Rh juvenile delinquency. Is that an established fact beyond any question ?

Mr. . Insofar as I know, Senator, there has been no real study of this made.

Asa matter of fact, although many people had long observed that youngsters who seemed to be upset and emotionally disturbed many times seemed to have an abnormal! kind of need to read this more sordid type of material, nevertheless, I became aware of this in Washington when we went out and attempted to buy erime comics in Washington. We found out there were certain types of crime comics we could pur- chase only in certain areas of Washington. These were the more physically deteriorated and the areas of the city in which there would be higher delinquency rates.

Now I believe that we will have a witness scheduled here who may testify as to that point regarding his observations in New York City.

The. Mr. Bexser has some questions.

Mr. . Mr. Clendenen, in your investigation did you find that the pages of the comic books, crime and horror comic books, are used for purposes other than the entertainment and edification of children?

Mr. . Yes, we certainly did. In this connection I would like to refer particularly to the advertising matter appearing in comic books.

Now, a large number of the comic booksand when I use the word "comic books," I really should be using the words "crime comic books" because that is what our investigation relates toa large number of these publications do carry advertising matter. Now, the type of ad- vertising matter is primarily, as a matter of fact I would say more than 90 percent, of the mail-order variety.

Now, I mean by that it is the kind of advertising where they solicit you to write in for a publication or some article, and so on.

It is interesting to note that advertising matter in these publications seems to be directed at both adults and children; that is, you will have advertising that would seem to be of no interest whatsoever, of an item that would bo of little or ne interest to youngsters.

On the other hand you have advertising that would seem to have little or be of little or no interest to adults.

In that connection we have here a slide which shows a collection of items which would appeal to juveniles. Now, of this particular ad, we were interested in noting and consequently we went ahead and made a slide of the opposite page to this particular ad, which is a page which shows no less than two violent killings. The contrast actually struck us a bit.

On one page they were killing two men, on the opposite page they were advertising dolls for little girls.

Now, there are still other ads that might be questioned on the basis that they would stimulate and enable youngsters to buy articles which might be deemed deterimental to their own safety and welfare.

Here is another picture which, among other things, offers for sale 4 knives, 2 of which are made for throwing and one of which features a 12-inch steel blade.

It also offers for sale dueling swords, cross bows with metal tipped arrows and so forth.

Senator. Is that a pistol in the middle?