DELINQUENCY IN U.S.

Press, Volume XCV, Issue 28270, 7 May 1957, Page 16

DELINQUENCY IN U.S.

Warning Given Of Increase

(N.Z. Press Association Copyright) WASHINGTON, May 5 A Senate sub-committee said today that if the upward trend of juvenile delinquency in the United States continues unabated, more than 1,000,000 children would be brought before the Courts in 1965. The warning was sounded by the Senate Juvenile Delinquency Sub-committee.

Juvenile drinking, venereal diseases among youth, vandalism, youth gangs, crime comics, television programmes, and the use of narcotics were among the many phases of the problem discussed by the sub-committee. It was estimated that at least 200,000 youths and girls contract venereal diseases each year. The sub-committee also decried travel to Mexican border towns by youths from the south-western States.

These towns beggar description to the average American, it said. The sub-committee, which has spent nearly four years studying the problem of delinquency, called for a partnership between Congress and State and local authorities ‘‘to do something about this blot on the American scene.” The sub-committee said it had learned that some of the worst centres of delinquency were in modern housing projects. It concluded that more than new housing was needed to reduce delinquency.