CRIME OF YOUTH

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 398, 6 December 1932, Page 7

CRIME OF YOUTH

1 SERIOUS PROBL-EM | BROKEN HOMES RESP ON SIBLE ! FOR LARGE PERCENTAGE i INCREASE. j TRAIL OF UNEMPLO YMENT . | A definite connection between the loss of a job and the break-up of the home is shown by the increase of 134 per cent. since 1928 in the number of men arraigned for abandoning their wives and children, aceording to William H. Matthews, director of the Emergency Work and Relief Bureau, who commented at New York on a survey of unemployment arid its relation to crime compiled by the Emergency Unemployment Relief Committee. i The alarming increase which the ; police report in juvCnile crime is in , direct proportion to the break-up of homes caused by unemployment, declared Mr. Matthews, pointing out that the relief committee was interested in keeping families together by paying the unemployed wrge-earner a subsistence wage. t How Abandonments EoSe. "It is not surprising that New York had 3495 arraignments for abandonment in 1931, against 1488 in 1928," said Mr. Matthews. "That unemploymet is responsible for the increase is evident from an age study of those arraigned. In 1930, when the younger and less experienced men lost their jobs, those between 25 and 30 were the most frequently accused of abandonment, with 1034 arraignments. In the folowing year, with the depression being felt by the more experienced, 1200 men between 30 and 35 were arraigned — the greatest number for any age group that year. The men between 25 ,and 35 aceounted for| 46 per cent. of all arraignments for amandonments of families during 1930 and 1931.

"It is noticeable that families composed of a man and wife alone fared better than those where there were children to support. Many employed wives still are making enough money to support husbands who, through no fault of theiij own, are out of work. Children, however, complieate the problem — the wage of the average woman worker being too small to support both husband and children, with the result that the husband leaves home." Only Fraction of1 Cases in Court " The arraignment statistics, Mr. Matthews pointed out, represent only a small fraction of the actual number of abandonments but are substantial '.enough to indicate that the increase will be checked if families can be helped through the coming winter. "The social and economie survey is additional proof of the necessity for •maintaining the family unit as a means of preventing young boys from becoming homeless wastrels," he said. "I would certainly avoid creating the impression that honest-to-goodness, out-of-work persons inevitably turn to crime as an escape from their plight. But it is i ndeed significant when youths under 20 years were accused last year of 44 per cent, of all burglaries in the city and 46 per cent. of all the larcencies.

"Another case of men and boys leaving home is found in the conversations at the family table. In a home stricken by unemployment there is constant talk of lack of food, the menace of the landlord, the eost oi fuel and the need for new cloth'es. There is little wonder that a male member of the family is likely to say to himself: "If I leave home now there will be one less to provide for, and it will be easier for the women folks to get help from charity." And this thought comes to the thinking men and boys; not the morons. "Unemployment relief, I believe, has become a real necessity in crime prevention. Approximately 63 per centfbf those arrested on felony charges last year were unemployed. Almost one out of every four individuals appearing in police line-ups were youths between the ages of 16 and 20. "Few of these offenders were convicted of serious crimes. Most of them were formerly law-abiding eitizens who had become demoralised as Coehrane, 14; Herewini, 14; Cambie, a result of extended unemployment. Their families have been broken upi and they are thus deprived of the steadying influence of normal family and neighbourhood associations."