The few years in life that bridge the gulf between childhood and
maturity is known as adolescence. The problems of this impressionable
period of development and social adjustment are many and varied. The
importance of adolescence cannot be over-emphasised as this is the time in
the life of an individual which makes or mars the future.
For the majority of children this transition period, though beset
with minor difficulties, passes off fairly smoothly and the child emerges
into a happy, rational and useful member of society. But, unfortunately,
we now and then come across young boys and girls who have committed
such offences against the law of the country which in an adult would have
been punishable by penal servitude. Such young people are called
delinquents.
Delinquency is, no doubt, one of the major problems that
confront modern society and a great deal of thought and careful handling
is required to tackle the problems. But why do these deviations from the
normal occur? The causes must be made clear before we can hope to find
remedies.
Crime is not assignable to any single universal source, as it
springs from a wide variety of converging influences. The nature of these
subversive factors and of their varying combinations differ greatly from
individual to individual. Juvenile offenders are far from constituting a
homogeneous class.
A human being is a product of heredity and environment, and the
relative importance of these two factors in the problem of causation of
crime is fundamental and important. To attribute crime in general either to a predominantly hereditary or predominantly environmental origin is
impossible. In the long run both seem to be of equal weight. Heredity
appears to operate not directly through transmission of a criminal
disposition as such, but rather indirectly through constitutional conditions.
Heredity factors are irremediable and nothing can uproot inherited
tendencies. But they can be modified, and deficiencies may be
supplemented by positive training and teaching. On the other hand,
influences that reside in the environment are not immutable. Of the latter
conditions, those obtained outside the home are far less important than
those obtained within it, and within the home material conditions are far
less important than moral conditions,
A high percentage of delinquents are victims of emotionally
disturbed home situations. Children need a foundation of love and stability
in their lives; for a child brought up in an atmosphere of strife and
hostility has irremediable effects on its character. This kind of situation,
too common in modern life, is far more pernicious in its influence on the
child’s development than simple squalor, dirt, poor housing and
malnutrition, provided the child is sure of parental love,
Influence coming from outside the homes can be of many
different kinds. School plays a most important part in the life of an
adolescent. A school consisting of an interesting curriculum with provision
for individual attention and with sympathetic teachers having a sound.
knowledge of child psychology can do much to prevent juvenile
delinquency. Free compulsory schooling for children will remove many of
the urchins that we find loitering and mischief making in streets and lanes,
thus giving them less chance of getting into serious trouble.
Parents and guardians should always keep an eye on the
companions children have, specially in the impressionable age of
adolescence, as this is the age of gregarious instinct when boys and girls
love to be in groups and are tremendously influenced by friends and
leaders.
Young boys and girls need plenty of amusements to occupy their
leisure hours. While selected forms of recreation can do a world of good,
there is no end to the harm done if the amusement be of questionable taste.
A fairly cheap and widespread form of entertainment of modern days is
the cinema, and it has a most significant influence in the life of an
adolescent. But these influences cannot be said to be exclusive good or exclusively bad. Any motion picture presents in dramatic form a large
collection of ideas, each adolescent selecting for himself what he wants to
learn, just as he does from any other experience in life. Adolescents need
problems to think and talk about, and ideas presented to them through this
medium receive attention and discussion. But because of this very reason
of arousing effect and the permanence of emotional reactions instigated by
moving pictures, there should be better supervision than there is at
present. Adolescents should be presented with undesirable ideas. The
child, with no background of experience by which to correct the picture,
frames a notion altogether distorted, of social life and manners. Simply to
attach a negative to an alluring thoughts is not to arrest its tendency to
action, far better is it that motions and images of vice should never be
place before his eyes at all. Besides, the cinema provides a standing
temptation to steal money for admittance if not provided with it otherwise.
Uncensored book and cinema literature are mentally harmful for
children. The increasing popularity of these books is positively alarming.
The treatment and prevention of delinquency are based on some
broad and general principles. Delinquent tendencies should be dealt with at
the earliest stage. The delinquent must be approached individually as a
unique human being with his or her particular constitution, difficulties and
problems. The keynote of modern educational thought is individuality, and
self-realisation is to be brought about by adjustment and readjustment for
each particular child. Remedies should be adapted not to the nature of the
offence but to the nature of the factors provoking it.
Society must aim at prevention as well as cure. Sustained
investigation into all the problems of childhood is necessary among other
needs, if delinquency in the young is to be not merely cured as it arises.
but diverted, forestalled and so far as possible wiped out.
We should always remember that moral perfection is not obtained
as a birthright, but it is a goal to be aimed at and, if possible, acquired.