Passivity and Delinquency
| Author | Geoffrey Parkinson |
| Date | 01 June 1966 |
| DOI | 10.1177/026455056601200208 |
| Published date | 01 June 1966 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
59
excellent,
but
I
maintain
they
produce
a
rather
stolid,
uninteresting
type
of
character,
and
also
rather
tend
to
make
children
selfish
when
they
have
to
go
into
the
world
again
to
look
after
themselves....
Now,
a
boy
or
girl
brought
up
in
even
a
poor,
dirty,
indifferent
home
can
face
life
better
than
the
institution
boy
or
girl,
because
in
the
family
life
there
is
always
some
problem
cropping
up,
and
they
are
far
more
used
to
the
ups
and
downs
in
life
than
the
child
safeguarded
in
an
institution
from
all
the
uncertainties
of
life ....
We
often
hear
the
parents
say
&dquo;I
don’t
mind
him
going
away
to
be
made
good&dquo;.
Can
institutions
make
children
good?
A
very
wise
and
shrewd
Scottish
writer
has
said,
&dquo;To
try
too
hard
to
make
people
good
is
one
way
to
make
them
worse;
the
only
way
to
make
them
good
is
to
be
good&dquo;.
I
think
this
is
very
true.
We
can
send
children
to
&dquo;institu-
tions&dquo;
to
keep
them
from
bad
surroundings
and
influences
and
to
make
thieving
impossible
by
taking
away
their
liberty:
we
cannot
send
them
to
make
them
good,
though
there
are
no
doubt
hundreds
of
cases
in
which
they
are
made
good
by
the
influences
they
are
brought
under
in
institutions.
PASSIVITY
AND
DELINQUENCY
Geoffrey
Parkinson
Inner
London
Probation
Service
CASL;WORK
LITERATl IRE
deals
extensively
with
aggression
in
its
many
forms.
Concealed
hostility
in
the
client
and
unconscious
resentment
in
the
worker
have
particularly
attracted
attention
and
in
probation
it
has
been
assumed
that
since
the
delinquent
act
is
by
its
nature
profoundly
aggressive,
this
must
be
a
major
area
of
consideration
in
an
officer’s
approach
to
clients,
and
an
important
feature
of
the
whole
legal
framework
dealing
with
the
delinquent.
Certainly
students
first
entering
the
probation
service
seem
to
have
two
major
fears-the
imagined
aggressiveness
of
the
delinquent
and
&dquo;the
Majesty
of
the
Law&dquo;,
the
latter
being
particularly
related
to
the
attitudes
of
the
Stipendiary
Magistrate,
or
in
country
areas,
the
Clerk
of
the
Court.
Training
usually
almost
totally
removes
all
fears
of
the
delinquent
and
modifies
attitudes
towards
authority,
though
the
Stipendiary
and
the
Clerk
linger
as
anxiety
provoking
figures.
Delinquents
on
probation
are
rarely,
if
ever,
threatening
even
in
a
concealed
way.
Indeed
except
in
cases
where
there
is
a
psychotic
element,
the
more
disturb-
ing
the offence
the
milder
the
man.
Tncidents
of
assaults
on
probation
officers’
are
extremely
rare.
This
docility
on
the
part
of
the
client
is
probably
caused
by
psychological
&dquo;splitting&dquo;
on
many
levels.
The
offender
has
isolated
his
attitude
towards
probation
officers
and
people
who
&dquo;don’t
affect
him&dquo;
from
significant
people
in
his
environment
such
as
policemen,
employers,
relatives,
friends
and
the
unknown
members
of
the
public
he
violates
by
his
crimes.
This
social
outlook
is
the
expression
of
a
more
fundamental
dividing
off
of
angry
childhood
responses
to
frustration
from
the
rest
of
the
personality,
making
it
possible
for
the
offender
to
show
mild
responses
to
everything
that
does
not
directly
conflict
with
his
primitive
needs.
However
even
this
mildness
serves
a
secret
and
subversive
purpose
but,
because
it
shows
so
many
positive
ingredients,
often
eludes
close
scrutiny.
Frequently
in
the
probation
setting
there
is
a
curious
and
unwitting
collusion
not
to
frustrate
the
delinquent.
Casework
techniques
encourage
ingratiation
pro-
cesses.
The
caseworker
must
not
be
judgemental,
he
must
accept
the
client
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