INDEX OF QUOTES
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Children who are criminal or vicious or ill-adjusted to the society in which they move, or even children who are merely badly behaved, have often served a long apprenticeship of distress. In the course of their deterioration they may do something which enables the social services to step in and help them. Probably some 2 per cent are fortunate in this way, but many others, perhaps 10 or 12 per cent of the whole, and amongst them some who live through extremes of wretchedness, do not qualify to be taken into care or custody ... There are very many children struggling against conditions which are adverse in the extreme; only a fraction of this army of distressed and deprived children will reveal their need by some form of aberrant behaviour and of this fraction only the few that do harm to themselves or offend society in some way will be offered help. We do not for one moment suggest that all children who break the law or are maladjusted come from wretched homes, nor do we imply that all children who are wretched in their homes will eventually break the law or become maladjusted. But just as it cannot be assumed that a child who suffers may not recover and become a happy and normal adult, neither unfortunately can we say that all distressed children who fail to reach the stage of being taken into care or custody reach adulthood unscathed. We just do not know what permanent damage is done to those who as children reach the threshold of Borstal or child care but do not cross it; we do not know how many prove to be adequate as parents or citizens or workers, or how many, if any, succumb and eventually lead worse lives than many who were apprehended and received treatment during their childhood. |
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