One focal point of juvenile trouble in this area has been the two federal housing projects of New Towne Court and Washington Elms. Built in 1937 and 1941 respectively as slum clearance undertakings for families of low incomes, the developments are comprised of three-story brick and concrete apartment structures. In housing quality they rank better than any census tract in the city, but in human relations they show up very poorly. It is mostly the lower elements of society which tend to gravitate to these projects, and the more ambitious families are continually moving out. In addition, the projects crowd together a large number of juveniles in a fairly small area.

A similar deterioration of family and community structure characterizes the City's other delinquent areas. As one social worker from the Western Avenue section put it, "The parents around here seem more interested in having a good time than in being parents. They spend a lot of time away from home and leave the kids on their own. And when they are home they drink, and swear, and fight, and engage in illicit sexual relations. It's no wonder the kids go bad."

It is probably true that no one cause or set of causes can explain every case of juvenile delinquency in Cambridge. But the influence of the family would seem to be the most important, and when this is combined with a decadent neighborhood environment, the result is usually delinquency.

The life of the Cambridge delinquent is very little known to the rest of the City. Right behind Dunster, virtually unnoticed by most of the University, exists a brutal and anti-social society with a moral code all of its own. And the situation is even worse in the Neighborhood Four area. As one social worker from this district said, "When you first come down here you are shocked at your new surroundings. Then you take another look and think that it's a pretty ordinary neighborhood. But after you've been here awhile, and bits of information come seeping in from all over, you become appalled. If people really knew what went on down here, they would probably rise up in arms."

Delinquent life in Cambridge centers around the gang and the street corner. Driven out of the home by an unpleasant family situation, the typical Cambridge delinquent finds companionship and prestige as a member of the gang. Within the gang itself, he may also gain prestige as a leader. This post usually falls to the boy who can outfight his contemporaries.

Each gang has a regular meeting place, usually at some corner store. The store serves as a communications center for the gang, for everyone usually stops by there at least once a day, and there are almost always one or two members around to pass on the word. On rainy days these places are jammed, as anyone who has walked past the corner of Mt. Auburn St. and Putnam Square can testify.

It is almost unbelievable to an outsider just how much time the gang members spend loafing on the corner. "Some of the guys spend hours and hours and days and days on the street corner," one gang leader said. "Last summer, some of them would get up around 11 o'clock, go up to the corner, go back home when they felt hungry, go back up to the store until dinner, and return after dinner to stay till midnight."

The gang is formed chiefly on the basis of geographical proximity. The ties of the neighborhood are strong, and those established at school or elsewhere are insignificant. At virtually every age level from eight to 21 you can find some sort of gang functioning somewhere in the city. Many are not formed until high school, while some begin much earlier. Just this year a gang of nine-year-olds in Neighborhood Four successfully carried out many thefts and was finally apprehended while pulling off a highly-organized burglary of a local house.

Few Gang Wars

Surprisingly enough, there are very few large-scale gang wars in Cambridge. A few years ago, about 200 Cambridge youths invaded Belmont to redress an alleged grievance, but nothing came of that foray. On the whole, the fighting has been confined to chance encounters between a few members of rival gangs. The odds are seldom even, and if one gang is able to obtain an eight to one numerical advantage, more power to it.

Most gang acts in Cambridge are directed against the Society at large rather than rival gangs. Juveniles engage in a wide variety of illegal activities here. Out of a total of 509 complaints received against juveniles last year by the Crime Prevention Bureau of the City Police Department, the following ten, with the number of complaints in parentheses, were the most frequent: larceny (53), destruction of property (46), stubbornness (42), trespassing (38), running away (36), using motor vehicle without authority (30), attempted larceny (26), disturbing the peace (24), assault and battery (19), and gaming with dice and cards (15).

Although Society may regard these acts as criminal, within the gang they are looked on in a different light. Sometimes they are revered because they strike at the unfriendly outsiders. And in almost no gang are they really felt to be wrong. It is much the same situation as when a Harvard student throws a candy wrapper on the grass. Technically, he knows it is wrong. But there is no heartburn, no feeling of guilt, over the act.

Motivations

The basic causes of delinquency have been mentioned. The more immediate motivations for these crimes are varied and complex. Some are of a deep psychological nature. Others can be traced to immediate wants or boredom. Still others to meanness.

It is hard for most students to realize just how far poverty can drive a boy. One youth from the Dunster area told of stealing coke bottles from University buildings to collect the deposits and go to a show. "If it wasn't for those two cent bottles," he said, "there would have been several hundred less times that I would have been able to go to the movies."