Crime Must Be Tackled When Boys Are at School
(By Dr. Alfred Adler, The Famous Psychologist—By Air Mail)
LONDON, July 2
In a group of boys the trained observer can quickly detect the potential delinquent. If all teachers were trained to recognise and deal with such boys there would be an enormous reduction in juvenile crime.
There is nothing mysterious in the factors which go to make up such a boy. No child is foredoomed from birth to criminality.
Naturally, heredity and a bad home are influential factors, but children use and often triumph over such handicaps and become successful citizens. Others are not fortunate enough unless helped.
A characteristic which all potential delinquents have in common is a lack of social interest. By this I mean inability to cooperate with others to contribute something to life. The development of social interest is absolutely essential if a human being is to be healthy and happy.
PAMPERING, on the one hand; neglect on the other, are able to inhibit in a child the development of this all-important social interest.
I do not mean you to infer from this that every pampered or neglected child is a potential delinquent. Such a child has a worse start, but may become not delinquent, but sometimes neurotic.
Both delinquents and neurotics are characterised by an inability to cooperate in life. They do not understand the principles of give-and-take on which all human relationships are based.
They expect life to do everything for them. They do not wish—or feel unable—to make a contribution in return.
In the neglected child this attitude is caused by a fear of life, which he feels to be hostile.
In the pampered child it is caused by an expectation that everything should be brought to his feet.
In either case, they become “getters” rather than “givers.” In the neurotic this taking attitude is more passive. He wails for what he wants. He is afraid to stand alone. He clings. As he grows older he knows that there is something wrong and feels unhappy.
He does not deny the necessity for social interest, but he always feels there is an insurmountable difficulty. If one difficulty is removed he discovers another. His answer to the demands of life is invariably: “Yes . . . but . . .”
The potential delinquent, however, refuses to recognise social interest. His answer to the social demands of life is not “Yes . . . but . . .” but “No.”
His “getting” is followed by “taking.” He is distinguished from the potential neurotic by his higher activity. While the neurotic wails for life to bring him things, the delinquent completely disregards the rights of others and sets out to help himself.
It is easy to detect the type with this tendency in any group of boys, and one can safely prophesy that sooner or later, when the pressure becomes strong enough, or opportunity sufficiently tempting, such a one will become delinquent.
Any group of juvenile criminals contains neglected or pampered children with a high measure of activity. It has often been remarked that such groups contain a high proportion of particularly unpleasing-looking boys; also of ones physically malformed.
This has been taken as an indication of an hereditary criminal type. It means nothing of the kind. It is simply that such boys tend to be neglected and thus do not easily develop a normal amount of social interest.
An observer will also notice amongst a group of young criminals some boys who are exceptionally handsome. These are probably those who have been pampered.
A handsome face can be a boy’s ruination if it leads his relatives and friends to make such a fuss of him that he comes to think he has a sort of pre-ordained right to the best of everything.
Such a boy (or girl) when finding that the big world does not conform to the pattern he has been used to, is inclined to think himself entitled to go out and take what he fancies.
Vanity is another characteristic. The true delinquent almost always considers himself too clever to be caught.
It is quite the exception for a law-breaker to be caught with his first offence.
This naturally strengthens his faith in himself.
Your typical delinquent is never on the wrong track—it is simply that for once he has made a little mistake. Even with repeated failures he will not admit that his foundations are wrong.
He continues looking for his “little mistake.” It is probable that the last thought of a man going to be hanged is not, “If only I had not attempted this,” but, “if I had just done so-and-so instead of such-and-such everything would have been all right.”
Persons who visited Napoleon when he was in exile reported that his constant remark was, “If I had just gone into Spain instead of first going into Russia, everything would have been all right.”
When you understand the mind of the delinquent you realise how hopeless it is to send such a person to an ordinary prison.
He does not spend his time there repenting the error of his ways and deciding to reform in future. He spends it in searching for his “little mistake” and vowing to be cleverer next time. He is itching to get out and try in order to reinstate his self-respect.
He exchanges experiences with the other prisoners, each of whom is also looking for his “little mistake.” They pool their experiences and are encouraged to try again in the light of increased knowledge. Prisons, as at present constituted, are not a reforming influence but a breeding-ground for increased delinquency.
The prisoner comes out sure that this time he will be master of the siutation and with the added motive of desire for revenge on the society that has humiliated him.
The true delinquent never reforms so long as he retains his confidence in his ability. This is the deciding factor. When it is shaken, many criminals voluntarily retire.
The criminal’s attitude to his work is rather like that of the sporting champion to his game. It is a commonplace that many athletes retire when they begin to feel the waning of their powers.
In the same way burglars frequently retire after thirty! The burglar’s vanity will not permit him to continue when he is getting too heavy and stiff to hold his own at the head of his profession.
So he pulls out and takes up some trade where his quick fingers and technical skill carry him rapidly to the top.
The fact that retired criminals often make tip-top craftsmen shows what society is losing through so much of its human material operating during its prime as an enemy rather than as a friend. The loss is the worse in that it is unnecessary.
There is no reason why, now that we understand it, potential delinquency should not be cured in youth.
The remedy is to develop social interest by providing creative instead of destructive activity.
In the United States eighteen billion dollars a year are spent on dealing with crime. Imagine into how many useful channels this money could be directed if the criminal element were removed from the community!
I believe that in one year great strides could be made. I would not allow any child to leave school until it had a certificate from a psychologist certifying it to be normal.
I believe that if teachers and psychologists could cooperate in schools to this end we could arrest delinquency at its source and direct what is at present a destructive force, feeding on society, into a powerful influence for construction and good.
Fuente: Alfred Adler, «Crime Must Be Tackled When Boys Are at School», The Newcastle Sun, Newcastle (Nueva Gales del Sur), lunes 20 de julio de 1936, p. 6, fechado «London, July 2» y enviado «By Air Mail». Transcripción hecha sobre la imagen de la página en Trove (National Library of Australia, nla.news-article166561621), corrigiendo el OCR de la plataforma, que funde los párrafos. El artículo se publicó primero en Londres, muy probablemente en el Daily Herald a fines de junio de 1936 con el título «Crime Can Be Stopped in the Schoolroom»; ese original (British Newspaper Archive, de pago) no se ha podido cotejar, por lo que no se puede asegurar que la reimpresión australiana no lo abrevie, aunque el texto está completo de principio a fin y firmado por Adler. Hay extractos en The Telegraph (Brisbane), 1 de agosto de 1936, y The West Australian, 8 de agosto de 1936, y una reimpresión en el Buffalo Evening News, 5 de diciembre de 1936, no cotejados. Los cuatro primeros párrafos van en cursiva en el impreso. Se respetan «siutation» y «wails» (dos veces; probablemente errata por waits), tal como se imprimieron.