Evening star., 1952-11-28
British Seeking Way
To Stop Expanding
Juvenile Crime RATE
By WiIIiom McGoffin
Foreign Correspondent Of The Star and
the Chicago Dolly News

the Chicago Dolly News
4 LONDON, Nov. 28.-Some of
Britain's best brains and most
prominent citizens are currently
struggling over the problem of thel
country's crime wave.
q Violent crimes mostly COM
mitted by juveniles have BEEN
gradually increasing ever since the
wave started 10 years ago duringl
the war. Now the pace is fright
ening. Last year. 75,804 boys andI
girls between the ages of 8 and 16I
were caught and convicted.
Women and old people are the
principal victims. Their aSsail-
ants beat them up with anything
from lead-weighted billy clubs to
bicycle chains and rob them.
Sometimes guns are used. Re-
Gently two teen-age boys fought
what the London newspapers
called. a Chicago gun battle" with
police who found them robbingI
a candy warehouse in Croydon.
One policeman was killed.
Worse Than Chicago.
The London Daily Graphic re-
Gently published a letter from
Mrs. E. Dunn of Biggin Hill, Kent,
In which she said:
Il have lived in the United
States for many years but find
England is much more unsafe
than Chicago, Detroit or Cleve-
land"
Another Englishwoman wrote to
her local council: It am afraid to
answer a knock on the door at
night"
I'VE are afraid to go to bed at
night" complains an aged couple.
There are a lot of remedies be-
ing suggested though they do not
include arming the British bobby,
who patrols his beat unarmed ex-
cept on special occasions when he
is issued pistol.
The English still stick to their
age-old view that to arm the police
would only encourage the young
hoodlums to carry guns them
selves.
Resumption of FlOgging Urged.
Many people advocate the return
Of f1ogging. which the Socialist
dominated Parliament abolished in
l94S
Lord Goddard, Lord Chief
Justice, is one. He recommends
the birch instead of the cat, how
ever. The cat is a brutal thing
a handle with nine long leather
knotted thongs tied to it. 1t draws
blood, leaves a permanent mark
and is so vicious that the kidneys
have to be padded and a doctor
must stand by when it is used.
The birch is a willowy whip or
cane from a birch tree when it
is laid on by a chief warder who
knows his business" says Lord
Goddard. 'it gives a certain
amount of pain without leaving
marks afterward." It does not
make a martyr out of a man. It
does, however, cause him to be
ridiculed for having received a
"schoolboy punishment" Lord
Goddard thinks ridicule is as eff
fective a corrective as physical
pain.
Other people argue that fear of
hogging is no deterrent to crime.
American Influence Blamed.
Many mothers feel that the
American gangster-type movie to
which their youngsters are ex-
posed, and American crime comic
books that keep flooding in faster
than they can conflscate them, are
bad influences.
Meanwhile, as the nationwide
debate on what must be done goes
on. each community is carrying on
Its own struggle against crime.
The Mayor of Birmingham has
appealed to toy shops to stop SELL
ing toy weapons. He says they're
bad for morals and also that they
can easily be made into dangerous
weapons by filling them with sand
or lead.
Other communities are trying
to get the sale of brass knuckles
outlawed.
At Stockport in Cheshire, so
neighbors have banded together
into a vigilante society to patrol
their neighborhood at night. They
pay particular attention to the
houses of the hoodlums' favorite
VictinS-the sick and the old