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after absconding, bringing the total to 875. The new admissions exceeded those of 1930 by 71.
The average monthly admissions were 71.3. Exclusive of staff, the average daily numbers in
the home during the year were as follows :—
January 35.6
February 42.3
March 38.7
April 36.5
May 35.7
June 36.0
July 40.0
August 30.7
September 29 .8
October 31.5
November 35.1
December 35.1
The length of stay in the home varies greatly and ranges from one night up to three
months or more. The usual period of remand is from seven to fourteen days. The courts
dealing with these cases were as follows :—
Islington Juvenile Court 137 cases
Toynbee Hall „ „ 148 „
Lindsay Hall „ „ 73 „
Carton Hall ,, ,, 32 ,,
Battersea „ „ 38 „
Lambeth „ „ 82 „
Deptford „ „ 58 „
Woolwich „ „ 33 „
Guildhall „ „ 24 „
Various Petty Sessions 140 „
Various adult courts 71 „
Place of safety cases and lodgers (no court) 20 „
Total 856 cases
As was the case last year just over one-third of all the charges were dealt with at the
Islington and Toynbee Hall Juvenile. Courts.
The subjoined table A shows the distribution of the charges according to age in regard to
839 children, of whom full reports were available, and of whom 727 were boys and 112 girls. The
ages have been divided into five arbitrary groups, the first and last of which include children
above and below school age respectively.
Very nearly half (46.7 per cent.) of all boys charged with offences, and exactly half the girls,
fall within the group of children above school age.
The table shows well how great is the preponderance of stealing and its associated offences
over all other charges. Simple larceny alone constitutes about 50 per cent, of all charges, and,
omitting those at the end of the table, such as "living in circumstances" and the like, in which
the child is the victim of parental neglect, the proportion becomes much higher. This is true for
both boys and girls.
Stealing begins early in life and becomes increasingly prevalent in both sexes as the years
go on. The youngest thief in the series was a precocious youth of 6 years and 10 months, who
had a mental age of 8 and a reading age of 10. He was admitted in February on a charge of
being a "suspected person," and again in March for larceny. One boy stole at 7 years, but it is
not until the 11.13 year group is reached that the numbers become serious. To this group belong
37.6 per cent, of the cases of stealing, and to the older group 51.8 per cent., while only 10 per
cent, are found in children between 8.10 years old.
The prevalence of petty theft among juvenile delinquents is readily explained without
reference to physical defects or psychological reactions. Its accomplishment is easy, the opportunities
for it are unbounded, the risk of detection is comparatively slight and, to the adventurous
spirit, worth running, and no great skill or ingenuity is required to ensure success. There are few
Artful Dodgers,"but many petty thieves; the former require training and experience, but
anyone can " pinch "an apple from a stall, or pocket a necklace or a penknife from stores where
goods are displayed temptingly on trays in the front of the shop.
This experience agrees with that reported last year, and seems to show that premeditation
plays a small part in juvenile theft, and that, in the great majority of cases, the root cause lies
close to the surface and is to be found in the natural acquisitive instinct, unhampered by training,
rather than in any deeper psychological reaction.
The charge that ranks next to stealing in point of numbers is that of "being beyond parental
control."The children coming under this head are, perhaps, more than any others, the victims
of circumstances. Faulty heredity and even more faulty environment play the leading part in
causation. The bulk of these children are habitual truants, many are hopeless liars and thieves.
Few of them show any outstanding signs of either functional, nervous or physical defects. The
average truant is a healthy young animal, who is simply following his normal instincts because he
has never been taught by his parents to do otherwise. The influence of his teachers is nullified
by his irregular attendance at school. Discipline in the home is either non-existent or takes the
form of cuflings and hidings, to escape which the child covers his fault by lying. A vicious circle
Charges.
Stealing.
Beyond
control.