Families in Crisis, Societies in Decay

MORE than half of all serious crimes in the United States are committed by children 10 to 17 years old. Murder, rape, aggravated assault, robbery, burglary, car theftyou name it; the kids have done it. Youth crime is rising twice as fast as adult crime, and girls are rapidly getting involved in violent crime. From 1970 to 1975, girl offenders increased 40 percent, to compare with 24 percent for boys.

Juvenile courts and laws governing youthful criminals make them a privileged class. They are spewed out by the courts about as fast as they are brought in, and are again preying on the very young, the very old, the lame and the blindor, in gangs, and armed with knives and gunson anyone. Daily it is drummed into us that punishment is no deterrent to crime. Yet lack of it removes restraint on youthful criminals. A 12-year-old who specialized in robbing elderly women, later said: I was young, and I knew I wasn’t gonna get no big time. So, you know, what’s to worry? Another boy, 15, recalled why he shot a man: Wasn’t nothin’. I didn’t think about it. . . . I was young. The most I could have got then is 18 months.

Doubtless there are several factors responsible for this modern epidemic of young criminals. Time magazine, July 11, 1977, ran a cover story on The Youth Crime Plague, and said: Most important is the breakdown in the family. One judge, who hears a thousand juvenile cases a year, was reported as saying: We look for quick solutions, but family stability is the long-term answer.

Many contend that a big factor in violent crime is what is offered on television. It saturates youthful viewers with sex, violence and murder, and it certainly has its bad effect. However, an interesting article was published in the January 28, 1978, TV Guide magazine. Among its statements were the following: Japanese television is very much like our own, violence and all. The Japanese are plugged into TV as irrevocably as we are. Japanese TV puts enough violence out on the airwaves every week to turn the entire younger generation of that country into killers, addicts and sadists if. Curiously, however, that is not what has happened. The magazine quotes others as saying: Television simply does not have that kind of effect on Japanese youth. There is no way to relate TV violence to crime in Japan because there is so little crime.

And why is this? For the answer, the article quotes Dr. Iwao as saying: Mass media do not have the same impact in Japan. The family is still too strong, too influential in the lives and conduct of young people. In Japan, if a member of a family, even a juvenile, commits a crime, the act brings shame to all members of the family. This is a powerful deterrent to bad behavior. The family is too strong. It provides immunity to the virus of television violence. The family must not be shamed. It reminds us of the Bible proverb: A boy let on the loose will be causing his mother shame.