Juvenile Delinquency
The increase of deliquency among children and young persons up to the age of seventeen in the early period of the war was one of the disturbing consequences of the unsettle- ment caused by the war itself and more especially evacuation. A memorandum issued by the Home Secretary and the Presi- dent of the Board of Education shows that the indictable offences committed by children under fourteen increased in the first twelve months of the war by 41 per cent. as compared with the previous year, and that in groups up to the age of seventeen the increase was 22 per cent. The worst period was in the first four months of 1940, when the increase was 62 per cent. among children. It is a pity that reports of this kind are always so much behind the time. It would be of the greatest value to know how far there has been an im- provement since school attendance has been regularised and some—though by no means all—of the problems of evacua- tion have been solved. The recommendation made in the memorandum that there should be stricter enforcement of school attendance deals with a point that was much in the public eye more than a year ago ; and as long ago as that the Board of Education was already speaking of its efforts to improve the organisation of the youth service movement. Much already has been done, but the need to provide youth with recreation and other interests is still there, and makes its call on both public servants and volunteers.
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