Advertisement

A Cancer in Cambridge: Juvenile Delinquency

Local Teenagers Commit More Crimes Than Any Similar Group in Country

To meet their real or imagined needs, most gangs develop bold and ingenious theft techniques. One gang used to walk into five and ten cent stores wearing baggy, long-sleeved coats. One of the boys would sidle up to a counter and, standing not five feet from a clerk, would cram everything he could lay his hands on up the sleeve of the coat. Another gang pretended to collect newspapers and went around ringing doorbells until it found an empty house to break into. No matter how dumb these boys may appear, it is important to remember that they are trained experts and very clever in their field.

Pure want cannot explain most of the delinquencies. A gang leader from Banks Street told of breaking into a fifth floor room in Adams House one summer and stealing 85 ties. These did not have a great resale value, and the leader obviously had no use for all of them. Here the search for excitement played an important role, for as the leader said, "it's pretty scary business rummaging through someone's room."

Juvenile Boredom

The fact is that boredom pervades a good part of the delinquent's life. Walking through the federal housing projects in Neighborhood Four, one sees many boys sitting on the door-steps staring off into space for hour after hour. The same is true of the various street corner hangouts.

With no money to spend on amusement, and few places he wants to go for recreation, the juvenile is led to escape his boredom elsewhere, often in crime. A convicted delinquent from the housing project area explained it this way: "We always liked to hang around together at night. Sometimes we'd play the pinballs at the Spa, but usually we got kicked out. Then someone would say 'Let's take a walk' and pretty soon we'd end up down near the railroad tracks. Then, we'd hop a freight and clip a case of beer and get high."

Advertisement

Many juvenile crimes, especially in the advanced teens, are motivated by downright meanness. Around the ages of sixteen and seventeen some of the boys become so tough and anti-social that their acts become increasingly brutal. A good example occurred a few years ago when one local tough stood on a street corner flipping a coin in the air for fifteen minutes. He then let it drop to the sidewalk. Another boy standing nearby bent over to pick it up for him, and promptly received a kick in the face from the flipper. "That guy was real mean," a local gang leader reminisced later. "He was sort of insane. Playing football, he used to bite guys and wouldn't let go until he drew blood. He was sure a good 'jammer', though." (A jammer is a street fighter who can use his legs and arms and anything else effectively.)

Exaggerated Toughness

Kicking people is one way the Cambridge delinquent gains prestige in the eyes of his contemporaries, for the "tough guy" is feared and respected. Consequently toughness is to a great extent put on and exaggerated. The local youths play a never-ending game of bluff and test and bluff again.

All of these motivations play a part in making Harvard a prime target of juvenile attacks. Harvard has undeniably become associated in local minds with the rich and the "haves," and is regarded as fair game for any pilfering the locals may have in mind. Covetous eyes, unaccustomed to any luxury, gaze longingly at the University's obvious material wealth. Sometimes a theft results. Other times a youth merely crosses two wires of an open car in fender alley, starts it up, and just sits there pretending he is driving it.

Sometimes the reaction against boredom erupts against the University, and then the answer to the perennial question "What'll we do tonight?" becomes "Let's go up to the Square and jump a few students." Other times the University just happens to be conveniently nearby when a g takes it into its head to do something Still other times, maliciousness ters then a brutal mugging curs or someone's tires are slash

University Soon Forgets

On these occasions, the student b becomes aware of the problem right the University's back door. But uproar quickly dies down, and remain interested long enough worry about a cure. Yet the astounding fact remains that no method of meeting the problem of juvenile delinquency has proved conclusively successfull in Cambridge.

Police methods have proven on the whole unfortunate. It is probably true that reform schools have seldom reformed anybody, and those in Massachusetts are no exception to the rule. Nor has the cop on the beat5Basketball provides a temporarily constructive release of energy.

Advertisement