A Lot of Questions
| Author | Logie Bruce Lockhart |
| Published date | 01 July 1985 |
| Date | 01 July 1985 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/0032258X8505800306 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
LOGIEBRUCE LOCKHART
A LOT OF
QUESTIONS
Why have we been quite unable to check the frightening rise of
juvenile crime? In 1982 I completed 27 years as a boarding school
headmaster responsible for some 600 children between 8 and 19.
That
extended from the days before it
al1
happened, through rock,
the Beatles, the Rol1ing Stones
and
the
Student
Revolution with its
"little red school book", to
what
Ihope may prove to be the
beginning of a swing back of the pendulum.
The
main
hope
seems to lie in the fact
that
the best of the boys
and
girls of the 1980's
are
squarer, better at sports and at academic work,
harder working
and
better turned
out
than
they ever were.
The
scene
is changing: Cliff Richard (is it real1ythe same one
that
was singing
when I was first a Headmaster?) has given pop a Christian
dimension, and the Beatles now sound quite quaint
and
old
fashioned. Even Mick
Jagger
at
40+
is tucking up early
after
his
jogging with his copy of Jane Eyre or Barchester Towers.
Yet the new trend has not been reflected at the
bottom
end,
and
the
impact on juvenile crime figures is as yet negligible.
As headmaster, I have had many contacts with the police -
admittedly in a smal1country town which offers only a pale reflection
of the problems in the big cities. They have been helpful, courteous
and understanding.
.I
developed as much sympathyfor the difficulties
of their
job
in the sharply changing modern world, as they appeared
to have for mine. We
are
both
working to improve relationships
and
behaviour in a time of slipping standards.
What
puzzles me is why we
never joined in high level discussion of
what
to do
about
it all: except
in individual cases, or at local level, we never benefitedfrom the fruits
of each other's experience. So a child cyclist without lights goes
before the courts, while a third time thief is just warned again.
Did we, or do we, ever get together? Iknow there
are
local
committees where social workers, the
probation
service,
J.P.'s,
police officers and teachers sometimes discuss specific issues.
AJuvenile Delinquency Action Group
In my part of Britain, for instance, ajuvenile delinquency action
group has been
born
of discussions between the
Probation
Service
and the Social Services. It intends to invite ajustice from each of the
local juvenile benches.
It has no executive powers, except the al1ocation of financial
resources.
The
aim is to discuss local problems, to
monitor
the
working
ofthe
juvenilejustice system in the area, to recommend local
policy and action, and to initiate
and
plan services; to allocate funds,
to evaluate projects, to publish annual reports, to encourage and
support social workers
and
probation
officers - and to keep courts
228
July
1985
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