BY WALTER B. CoLvin -

De

Childhood Environment of First Importance in Moulding the Young—Delinquent

Children Not Treated as Criminals—Personal Touch Necessary in Dealing with

Juvenile Offenders—Voluntary Committees of Citizens Desirable for Supervision
—Police Officers in Unorganized Districts Probation Officers

ONE OF the major problems confronting
the citizens of Canada today is juvenile
delinquency, and in British Columbia it is
the duty of the Provincial Police to success-
fully handle many of these cases where
unfortunate youth has run foul of the law.

Without the aid of citizenry, police work
dealing with juveniles would be almost use-
less, for the juvenescent presents rather an
arriere pensee to the public.

Unlike the hardened criminal or old-time
offender, the juvenile’s case must be dealt
with individually.

If a child is a thief, what is his home life?
Can it be improved? If not, where can the
child be placed? Certainly not in a criminal
institution, for although a juvenile may
break the provisions of the Code, he is not
classed as a criminal. He is a delinquent.

In an article written on the subject by

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Mr. W. L. Scott of Ottawa, published in
Volume 28, Canadian Law Times, he says:
“Tt is the environment in childhood that
counts in the making of criminals. The only
way to cope with crime is to improve the
environment when it is capable of improve-
ment. When that cannot be accomplished,
remove the children to better surroundings.”

The most serious enigma for the citizen
and taxpayer is this: What chance has the
son of a thief to be other than a thief; the
daughter of a prostitute, reared in such a
sordid atmosphere, to be other than a pros-
titute?

One hesitates before interfering with the
rights of parents. Those rights are sacred.
Paramount to those rights though is the
chance that every child should have to grow
up and be an honest, respectable citizen.

Why, for instance, should a boy, through

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no fault of his own, be condemned to a
career of crime, through evil example or
neglect on the part of parents?

ENVIRONMENT OF CHIEF IMPORTANCE

Here is a startling assertion. Children
are the product of their surroundings. Chil-
dren who break the criminal law or live in
idleness and crime are precisely what any
child would be if similarly situated. Pro-
fessor Swift, in his “Mind in Making,” says:
“Investigation of the lives of Reform School
boys always leaves the impression that, with
possibly a few exceptions, they are quite
representative of average, active, normal
boys. The investigator usually ends his
work with the overwhelming conviction
that, after all, probably the only reason why
he and his boyhood associates did not grad-
uate from the same sort of an institution
was the difference in their environment.”

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