Increased , Crime Among the Young The most disturbing feature in
, the report of the Commissioners of Prisons for 1932 is the serious increase in the number of youths sentenced to imprisonment, and in the number of youths between 16 and 21 found guilty of indictable offences. (It is impossible to discuss a later period than 1982 owing to the usual protracted delays in issuing these reports.) Of those found, guilty of indictable offences there is a steady crescendo through. out the period of the trade slump-9,209 in 1929, 10,700 in 1930, 11,130 in 1981, and 12,663 in 1932: It is impossible not to conclude that unemployment is the main cause of this alarming increase. The provisions of Part I. of the Unemployment Bill will do something to 'mitigate the evil of enforced idleness among the young. Never- theless one cannot but view with apprehension the ' great increase in the numbers of children who will be released from school during the next four years (owing to the large post-War birth-rate). 'The result will be more unemployment among youths, and that points to an increase in the crime lists. The surest corrective to both of these evils is to keep the children one year longer at school.
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