Page:1954 Juvenile Delinquency Testimony.pdf/80

68 Now, we have stopped that sort of thing for the most part. We do not have these public evidences of brutality.

Has that had any effect, good or bad, except as a question of taste and general public policy?

Dr. . I must confess that in the absence of any adequate study, and I am afraid it is a kind of frustrating answer, I would be unable to answer in any definitive way.

However, I think one must differentiate between certain isolated phenomena and some, if you like, which are facilitated because they fall in with a whole series of other happenings which all go in the same direction.

! think perhaps in part the comic books are a matter of concern, because there are other kinds of things which kind of hit kids in the same way so they become especially significant, I would think.

Senator. I do not have an opinion, Doctor, but to me it seemed to be a very interesting field for speculation. We have cut out so many of the outward semblances or evidences of brutality, the pillory, the stocks, the ducking stool, and the public executions, and still we do not seem to, by and large, have done very much about amel- iorating violence and that character of crime, have we?

Dr. . Yet we must say from our study of very young children who are not ill, we do not find any evidence of what you might call an inherent destructive impulse in youngsters, as such, and given the opportunities for the growth and normal aggression as distinguished from destructiveness and hostility, I think we are almost forced to conclude that there is something in the situations which we provide children that acts in good part.

Senator / I wonder if this would not have something to do with it, Dr. Peck. We did not condone public hangings and gen- erally they are not legal now, but the number of peaple who would see them compared with the namber who would read 25,000 horror erime books per month, which are put oni, woud be many, many times those who would get to the place where fhe hanging took place.

In other words, there is much wider dissemination and chances to see.

Dr. . That is certainly correct.

Senator. Over 100,000 used to crowd the hill in London outside of the Old Bailey. Families, children, with lunch baskets and the pickpockets were working the crowd while they were hanging one.

The. Doctor, do you find that the more serious crime is growing among the younger age groups? Is that your experience here in New York?

Dr. . We have noted in our observations that the court. itself does report, more serious type of delinquency and, in rough kinds of siudies, we think this probably does correspond with an imereasing amount of psychosocial disturbance in the youngsters we see.

The. That is on the increase?

Dr. . That seems to be,

The. Thank you, Doctor.

Does counsel have any further questions?

Mr. . No further questions.