Juvenile Delinquency

Mana (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 7, 29 September 1977, Page 6

Juvenile Delinquency

by

Kilifi Heimuli

Children have a violent entrance into this world and only an abundance of love can overcome this. In this modern generation we are too busy living to worry about our children and they are left to fight for themselves from the very beginning. We have taken away any semblance of parental discipline and often discipline at school is non-existent. We take away any guidelines and assistance and leave them in a sink or swim situation.

Often children of an early age are left to look after themselves while both parents go out to work in search of materialistic gains, forgetting all about their moral responsibilities. These ‘latchkey’ children come home to an empty house, to be entertained by a blaring television set until one of the parents arrives home. Even then the parent is too worn out to listen to the children and they are ignored.

While children are at school, if they behave they are accepted, but if they are disruptive because of lack of attention they are often punished and if they repeat the same action they are finally suspended. That is, they are given a licence to stay away from school and hang around the City Streets all day and often get into trouble.

Boredom plays a major part in forming delinquents, they have too much time on their hands, often too much money and do not know what to do to entertain them-

selves. The old edict of ‘a devil finds work for the evil hands’ is equally true of today. Another prevalent causecontributing to delinquency is the ability to freely obtain and indulge in liquor. The money spent by parents on liquor would be much better spent on essentials for their home and children. There is no one cure to this problem. But this is our responsibility. We must reestablish guidelines for our children, we must show them where they are going both by example and love. We must show them that we care. Put father back as the head of the household and re-introduce some discipline to their lives both at home and school. Society is changing and will change again, not back to the cosy middle class society of forty years ago but if we act now in a responsible manner forward to a more disciplined society where values are safe. PARENTS — Don’t forget that the children of today are the citizens of tomorrow.