It is safe to say that almost all crimes are committed by boys in their early teens
or by those who began in effect a criminal career at that age. Saving criminals is,
in the last analysis, only saving children; and saving children means not only
saving criminals but their victims, too. Most of the criminals come from cities and
most of them were born and reared in the poor and crowded districts where they
had little chance to develop into anything but criminals. A little knowledge of
biology, psychology, and life makes this plain to understand. No well-informed
person believes that one is born a criminal or with even a tendency to crime. If
so, crime would not be of the individual’s own choosing nor his end be due to his
own volition. No child is born a criminal. He may be born weak or strong and,
therefore, his power of resistance be more or less; but the course he takes is due
to training, opportunity, and environment. The protection of the child or the
grown person comes from habit. Religion many teach precepts, but this means
nothing without habits. The school may give a certain kind of education, but
unless this creates habits which fit the child for life it is of no avail.
Most of those who follow a criminal career have had little education and cared
little for books. Most of them could not be fitted for professions by education;
their only chance was some sort of work. They passed the school age without
becoming scholars, and the schools have given them nothing in the place of what
is generally called an education. When very young they began a life that almost
inevitably leads to crime. If it is the duty of the state or any organized institution
to provide for the education of the youth, then the most important thing is to fit
them for the job of living. Many boys come to the adolescent age with only scant
education in books and no education that fits them for any self-reliant life. For
the large class who have no taste for books society furnishes no training in the
schools. These boys are thrown on their own resources with no occupation that
will furnish them a chance to live. The schools could as well teach manual trades
as books, and a large part of those who cannot succeed with books could do well
in working with their hands. There is no more reason why schools should
prepare one to succeed in a profession than why they should teach certain ones a
useful trade. Most boys like to use their hands, and the proper training for trades
should be begun when very young. It is seldom that a mechanic enters on a life of
crime. He forms habits that keep him safe.
The child is born with the same instincts that move all other animals. When he
wants something he feels the urge to take it in the easiest way. It is only training
that teaches him that he may get things one-way, but not another. His training
must be developed into habits. The life of a child is a conflict between primal
emotions and social restrictions, and he must be fortified, not alone by teaching,
but by habits, if he is to live the rules that society lays down. Intelligent teachers
and wise parents know what this means. It is only rarely that a boy is carefully
trained and fitted for life is sent to jail.
Submitted By John Costello