WHY CHILDREN STEAL
By C. L. C. BURNS
TO judge by figures alone there would appear to have been a remarkable increase in the number of young people coming before the Children's Courts within recent years. The numbers have in fact doubled in the last five years, e.g., 6,000 in 1929, over 13,000 in 1935. Before giving way to alarm, however, certain facts have to be taken into account, which to some extent explain this increase.
One is the passing of the Children's Act in 1933, which extended the age range from 16 to 17, and also evoked greater vigilance and interest in the matter. Another is the increase of treatment by probation, and decrease of commitment to schools for offenders. There are other factors, but even so the total number is sufficiently great, and the subject is very much in the public mind.
There has been a great deal of research in the matter, dating from the pioneer work of Healy in America and Burt in this country, and this has been intensified by the work of Child Guidance Clinics, of the Institute for the Scientific Treatment of Delinquency, and investigations carried out by various other bodies interested in child welfare. The latest contribution to the matter takes the form of a sum offered by the Goldsmiths' Company for the foundation of an Observation Home, where the more complex " problem " cases may be housed and treated.
It may be of interest therefore to review the leading facts which have emerged, especially from the psychological angle ; bearing in mind, however, that these facts may still bear different interpretations, as indeed must always be the case where we are considering human behaviour in any form. It might be mentioned too that the moral aspect, i.e., the responsibility of an individual for his actions, and the justification of punishment, are not touched upon, since they are not within the province of the scientific enquirer. It is obvious that delinquency is as much a social as an individual problem, and it is necessary to consider first the social factors involved. Since over 90 per cent. of offences come under the heading of stealing or, officially, larceny, this may be taken as the type of delinquency. Economic conditions therefore must obviously come into the question.
Contrary to expectation, poverty as such does not appear to be a major factor, but if we take economic conditions, in the wider sense of bad housing, overcrowding, lack of playing facilities and open spaces, there is certainly a fairly close correspondence. This was clearly shown in a spot map of London, prepared by Professor Burt for his book on The Young Delinquent. Taking the social setting in the widest concept, it has to be acknowledged that larceny, and its development at later ages into gangsterism, swindling and thieving, is almost a part of our economic system ; for this affords encouragement rather than deterrence to the covetousness which is in all of us. Those who are interested in this general aspect would do well to consult Mr. Rhodes' recent book on The Criminals we Deserve.
One interesting and important point is that the average intelligence of delinquents is decidedly lower than that of non-delinquent juveniles, and that they are among the very retarded in school subjects—unduly so, even in relation to their lower level of intelligence. This has been proved by mental tests carried out in a large number of children at a Remand Home in London. It is not possible to enter into this special problem, but it has obvious bearings on the education of retarded children as one factor in the prevention of delinquency.
Coming closer to individual factors, it has been proved in many ways that bad, or disturbed, home influence, is an outstanding feature in the majority of cases. Half the children who appear before the Juvenile Courts come from what are called " broken homes," that is, where one or both parents are dead or absent, are seriously at discord, or otherwise morally useless as parents.
When all the possible social and environmental factors have been considered there still remains the question ; why, of all the thousands who are exposed to similar con- ditions do only certain ones succumb ? Here the problem becomes one of the individual, and psychology steps in. One need only refer to two recent books, Aichhorn's Wayward Youth and Healy and Alexander's The Roots of Crime, to discover the real illumination which modern psychiatric methods have cast upon the obscure places of the mind where these particular sins of mankind take their rise.
The general conclusion that emerges is that delinquency is a result of interaction between social and individual factors, and of these the individual aspect is the more fundamental. In other words if the individual is predisposed to anti- social behaviour through the shaping or warping of his personality in early years, he will yield to it whatever the environment, but naturally more easily and readily if there are many adverse influences around him.
True, it is not a sign of neurosis or abnormality for a child to steal if he is hungry, or if he has no money and no possessions, and nothing to satisfy his sense of adventure ; the majority of offences for which children are brought to the Court may be quite natural reactions, given the unfavour- able conditions. This, however, does not go to the root of the matter, for such acts are spontaneous rather than deliberate, and isolated rather than habitual ; the future criminal is not recruited from among those examples of what might be termed normal delinquents.
A very important number of these children are, however, of the neurotic or maladjusted type, and stealing with them is but a symptom of something deeper. They are found chiefly among the children of substitute parents, or of those who are parents only in name. With these children the need for love, security and protection has been unsatisfied, and their natures have been thwarted. Stealing is their way of expressing a desire for revenge, for self-importance and for gratification of their repressed emotional impulses and desires.
It is in these cases that stealing acquires a compulsive character, so that even though the child may not wish to steal, and tries to control his desire, there comes a moment when the impulse is too strong. Mere explanation of his motives to the child will not be sufficient, although it may help, since the connexion between their emotional desires and the act of stealing is unconscious, and such motives have to be gradually realised, and as it were, worked out of the system by psychological treatment. Thus I vividly recall a little girl aged about ten, a foster child, with whom I was talking about the more usual reasons for which children might wish to steal money. She suddenly said : " I know what I need, Doctor," and paused. " What do you need ? " And she replied " love."
Even a little knowledge and common sense will show that children who have lacked security, sympathy, and real under- standing, and who show their need through the symptom of stealing, cannot be cured by punishment, and that only a really intelligent and sympathetic insight can effect a real change. This applies, of course, not only to treatment of the neurotic types, but to all delinquents, whether on probation or in institutions.
The treatment of child " criminals " in the past century, during the darker periods of industrialism, does not bear thinking of, so we may tend to congratulate ourselves too much on the advances that have been made. Although our knowledge of the subject becomes more and more precise because more differentiated, we still do not blame ourselves, and the Society we have created, sufficiently for the misdeeds of our children.
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