Evening Republican, Volume 23, Number 53, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 March 1920 — Criminals Are Made, Not Born [ARTICLE]

Criminals Are Made, Not Born

Hlmnw Expert Declares Ninety Per Cent Could Be Kept » in Right Path if Reached Eady

Crimiriala are made, not born, according to a prominent Illinois jurist who has studied the juvenile question from the bench for nine years and who ought to know. This is what he says: “Criminals are made and not born,” he says. “Ninety per cent of those made could be kept in the right paths if reached early enough. “Lack of parental control or home conditions which cause the boy to seek amusement or companionship elsewhere, almost invariably end in trouble for the boy. He gets in bad company and the next thing he is in court charged with petty thievery or destruction of property, the usual juvenile misdemeanors. “Certain kinds of moving pictures, too; have a bad effect. The glamor of lawlessness and crime should never be seen by the growing boy, as they tend to influence a desire for imitation. “Keep your boy away from the ‘gang spirit.* That is where most of the trouble comes in. There are organised groups of boys who go around together and get into trouble. These groups or gangs have some meeting place in a shack or barn somewhere. This’ is due to the neglect of the parents, who should have the boys home where they can be properly supervised. It is up to the parents to break up these gangs. They can do it easier than any one else. “Few cases come into court where the boy is of good family, a regular attendant, at school and living in good surroundings. When this happens the bov is generally a mental deficient in some manner or another.” Explaining the purpose of the juvenile court, the jurist said: “The primary object is the welfare of the child. We try to impress ♦hat upon the parents and to secure their co-operation. Boys are paroled always when it is their first offense. If brought in a second time and they show no signs of doing better we take them from their parents and put them where someone will see that they have proper supervision and carer We try to keep them out of institutions as long as possible. When they are paroled we try to go further through visiting their homes and advising their psrents and seeking to change the conditions which caused the trouble. We do not want to take the children from their parents, but instead try to keep the home intact. When it comes to a point where the parents won’t co-operate with us and there is apparently no hope of reforming the boy in his home, we take him away. There is nothing left then, but that, for the boy’s own good.”