The products of delinquency can best be expressed in a simple equasion: CW plus FW equals delinquency.

The CW stands for community weakness, and the FW for family weakness.

The strength of each factor varies in individual instances of delinquency. Some delinquency is produced largely by the family, some largely by the community, but usually it is a mixture in the individual

case.

Senator CLARK. This equation, perhaps correctly-I don't know— ignores any hereditary factors, doesn't it, and places the whole problem on an environmental basis?

Mr. BECK. Yes; it does, and I think you have pointed out a weakness in it that I incorporated really for simplicity. But I think it is well to note that, after all, the human being comes in the world with a particular physical framework and a particular physical endowment, so that the equation could actully be more accurately corrected to include an IW factor-individual weakness.

Senator CLARK. For instance, our friends the psychiatrists have not entirely overcome that yet?

Mr. BECK. No, sir. None of us can escape this house we come into the world with.

Senator CLARK. Are there statistics or studies which would relate to the existence of juvenile delinquency in any particular income groups in the community? Any connection between poverty and delinquency or do we find just as many Leopolds and Loebs in proportion as we do individuals coming up from very poor environments and poor families economically?

Mr. BECK. Sir, there is not a direct relationship between poverty and delinquency, but there are some factors that go hand in hand with poverty that seem to produce delinquency.

For example, as you well know, in most of our cities the people without money concentrate in the slum areas. In those areas of the community, there is often an attitude toward life that makes those areas more conducive to delinquency-not just because the people are poor, but because of some of the problems that go hand in hand with poverty. Senator CLARK. How does this show up in the hundreds of rural counties where poverty is very great indeed? Is there any relationship there which could be contrasted?

Mr. BECK. Yes. In a study in the State of Iowa some years ago, where counties were looked upon from the point of view of their economic productivity, they did find a positive relationship between delinquency and the poorer counties just as we found in the census tracts of the large cities.

Senator CLARK. Finally, a delicate question, but one I want in the record: Are there any statistics which would identify juvenile delinquency in any way with race?

Mr. BECK. Yes, Senator. Our figures would demonstrate that in general, not always, but when we have a group within the community who are discriminated against, who are shut out from full participation in the community, that group tends to have a higher rate of delinquency. As I say, this is not true in all instances, because of the equation in many instances community is counteracted by family strength.

Senator CLARK. This again is environmental, is it not?

Mr. BECK. Yes, indeed, it is.

Returning for a moment to the idea of family weakness plus community weakness, I think we can see how family strength, let us say in an instance of race discrimination, can counterbalance the community weakness, the race discrimination, but where you have double trouble, family weakness and community weakness, delinquency is liable to be the end result.

Senator CLARK. Do the statistics show any variance in rate of delinquency on a geographical basis within the United States? Is there a higher rate in the northern cities than the southern cities, or on the east coast than on the west coast? Is the Middle West in better shape than some of the other parts of the country, or is this largely a countrywide problem insofar as the statistics reveal?

Mr. BECK. Insofar as the statistics reveal-and I know you will be making note of the fact that our statistics are very weak for proving anything

Senator CLARK. Yes.

Mr. BECK. But they would suggest that this is a countrywide problem growing in all areas of the country, growing faster in the areas that surround our giant cities, but of equal concern really in all geographical areas.

In pursuing the idea of what produces this problem, that after all has to be fundamental to its cure, I would like for a moment to look at this problem of family weakness, pointing out that after all, no parents rear perfect children; we all do the best we can. These are

parents, and I think we were discussing them a moment ago, who are beset by economic or social problems and may have little energy left to give their children, the hard inner core that will help those children grow strength in the face of life's vicissitudes.

Sometimes parents who have no economic problems have personal problems of a psychological nature, and despite their best endeavors they may warp their children and make them easy prey to maladjust

ment.

The point I would like to stress is that our research has shown that what goes on under the parental roof determines in large measure what youngsters might become, but it does not determine what they will become. It is the combination of family and community that finally spells this out.

Senator CLARK. Are you able to draw a conclusion based on statistics that a broken home is a big factor in juvenile delinquency?

Mr. BECK. To the contrary, Senator. It now appears that some broken homes may be less conducive to delinquency. The strength of the parent who remains may be enough to counteract the weakness of the absent parent, if we compare a broken home with a home full of marital strife. If we compare a broken home to an average unbroken home, then the average home is much less conducive to delinquency. Senator CLARK. Any indication that illegitimacy is connected with delinquency?

Mr. BECK. In the sense that the child of illegitimate birth today often suffers because of both family weakness and community weakness. In the light of this equation he is particularly vulnerable to

delinquency. But every child has his own point of vulnerability. I think that is well to remember.

A youngster may enjoy the finest home life and have every advantage and yet go into school and have trouble learning to read, let us say. That could happen to any child. If the school system does not have the facilities or the wherewithal to discover what that child's difficulty is, he may begin to truant out of shame, he may fall in with other youngsters and, just by the act of truancy, find himself in the juvenile court.

On the other hand, a youngster can come from the most disastrous social circumstances, the poorest family, the worst kind of background, and still may grow to good citizenship because of a sympathetic teacher, a good Boy Scout leader, a clergyman who understands him. So there is always this relationship between family weakness and community weakness, or family strength and community strength, and one can counterbalance the others.

I think an understanding of this keeps us from holding parents solely responsible for the fate of their children, for we know that even parents who dismay us because of their acts of willful neglect basically would want their children to grow strength and need strengthening themselves for their sake and the sake of their children. We know some children become delinquent despite the best efforts of their parents.

In the light of this delinquency equation, Senator, I think we can understand why the slums of the big city tend to produce large numbers of delinquents. In the slums the conditions are conducive to delinquency and parents must be extraordinarily good parents in order to build the family strength to counteract the community weakness. So the wonder is we have so few delinquents from those areas. is a great tribute to their parents that we have so few.

It

In the light of this delinquency equation, we can understand, I think, or at least take a good guess as to why delinquency has doubled in the past decade. It is not that families have suddenly disintegrated but that today's delinquent more often than not had his crucial family experience during World War II. More often than not these youngsters lack the all-important presence of a father during certain crucial years of their lives. If it is the mother who provides loving care it is the father who represents the conscience of the community, who brings into the home the sense of the outer world, of the responsibilities and demands of the outer world.

Senator CLARK. That would tend to the conclusion that we can help the situation to improve?

Mr. BECK. Yes, sir; I think we can if we take the proper action. Senator CLARK. If we don't have World War III?

Mr. BECK. Yes; you said it. The experiences of World War II, of course, did not mean that all these children were bound to become delinquent. It only meant that these youngsters were more vulnerable because of the family factor and might become delinquent unless strengths within the community counterbalanced whatever deprivations they suffer.

Delinquency in the city slums has therefore risen, since more children than ever before are suffering double trouble: Family plus community deprivation. Swelling the tide of delinquents from de

prived areas are our suburban delinquents. They too have had wartime child experiences and are now growing up in brandnew subdivisions because of this population trend to the outskirts of the cities where all too often we have not made provision for educational, health, welfare, and spiritual facilities.

For millions of these children there is lacking the sense of community that came automatically for those of us who were reared in communities in which our families had roots. Again, no child automatically becomes delinquent because his parents live in a split-level house in a brandnew suburb. He can, however, become delinquent when family and community deprivation fail to encompass in the moral and ethical climate in which most of us live. This can happen in slum or suburb.

As you said, Senator, the number of delinquents today are small in proportion to the nondelinquents. If we see, however, that these delinquents are pointing to certain lacks in our society, I think they will have done a service to us.

James Plant, a very wise psychiatrist up in Essex County, N.J., used to say that delinquents were like men traveling on a dark road carrying lights, and the rest of us were behind them. When they fell in the holes they showed us where the holes were.

In that sense I think the delinquents are pointing to certain lacks in our communities today. I think they are showing us how, by strengthening family and community life we can get on top of this problem and we can protect the world of the future.

I know that those who will follow me will be pointing specifically to the ways in which this can be done, and I thank you sir for your attention.

Senator CLARK. Thank you very much, Mr. Beck, for your most illuminating and helpful testimony.

STATEMENT OF JOHN C. DAVENPORT, COMMANDING OFFICER OF JUVENILE BUREAU, CINCINNATI POLICE DIVISION, CINCINNATI, OHIO

Senator CLARK. Our next witness is Capt. John C. Davenport. We are happy to have you here with us today.

Mr. DAVENPORT. Thank you, Senator.

Senator CLARK. I understand you are the commanding officer of the juvenile bureau of the Cincinnati Police Division and you have been a member of the Cincinnati Police Division since 1932 and in charge of the juvenile bureau since November 1953; that you are a graduate of the Delinquent Control Institute of the University of Southern California and a member of the board of governors of the International Juvenile Officers Association. Is that right?

Mr. DAVENPORT. That is all true, sir.

Senator CLARK. I assume from that you know my friend Tom Gibbons?

Mr. DAVENPORT. Yes, sir.

Senator CLARK. Do you have a prepared statement?

Mr. DAVENPORT. I have prepared a statement with 75 copies according to the telegram and I also have a brief comment to make at this time.

Senator CLARK. I think brevity at this point is not only the soul of wit but perhaps the soul of wisdom.

Would you please proceed in your own way? You will leave with the subcommittee copies of your statement? (See p. 30.)

Mr. DAVENPORT. Yes, sir.

I think when we discuss the cure for juvenile delinquency we can pretty well agree that in the overall picture we have to establish better attitudes and better social and moral values. I think we have to also recognize the fact there is a need to strengthen the home situations. However, in this discussion today I have tried to point up more specific areas in which there can be specific aids given to the control of delinquency.

As a matter of background, however, I would like to say that one of the difficulties in determining the extent of delinquency and one difficulty we would have in determining the success of any remedies would have to be based on better facts than we have now. We do not have a clear picture of delinquency. The word "delinquent" does not mean the same thing in all parts of the country. It does not mean the same thing to all people. Even the word "arrest" when we speak about juveniles being arrested does not mean the same thing in all places to all people.

Senator CLARK. Captain, were you here when Mr. Beck was testifying?

Mr. DAVENPORT. Yes, sir.

Senator CLARK. Did you think his definition of delinquency as we worked it out together was reasonably satisfactory or would you take some exception to it?

Mr. DAVENPORT. Were you referring to the formula ?

Senator CLARK. No; to the definition, which, generally speaking, was that for our purposes we can consider a juvenile delinquent to be one who had been referred to a juvenile court regardless of whether or not he had committed a misdemeanor or a felony.

Mr. DAVENPORT. Yes; I would say that as a general statement it would be true. However, in different States we have different situations of delinquency. We might have to call them technical delinquents where it might not be so under a general definition.

Senator CLARK. I would like to try to stick to that definition for the purposes of this hearing, unless we find that it will not work. If we do find it won't work, we will change the definitions; but let's assume we are going to be talking about all children who have been, for one reason or another, referred to a juvenile court.

Mr. DAVENPORT. Right.

We are also confronted with the difficulty that we do not distinguish in our statistics between those who are technically delinquent as doing something that is normal in the growing-up process and those who really hate society and are delinquent in the truest sense of the word. The extent of delinquency is distorted. We read in FBI figures that 48 percent of all those arrested in a certain category were boys and girls under 18 years of age. But in these statistics we combine a comparatively few arrests for rape, robbery, and murder with many arrests for larceny, even larceny under $5 values. When we lump these all together, I think we are apt to get a rather distorted picture.

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