Youth in Crisis

There is a vast increase of youth crime, doubling in the two years since the US entered World War II. With fathers off to war, women are working in the factories leaving children at home for the day or after school, unsupervised and free to get into trouble. Young men and women, some working and making an adult wage, now feel that they have the right to act and do as adults. Others are trying their hands at new thrills, such as smoking marijuana. Young women are getting into trouble by getting involved with the many servicemen that they are attracted to. This film shows how these kinds of subversive thoughts that lead to juvenile delinquency can be broken by having youths selling war bonds and organizing 4-H clubs, among other activities.

With large swathes of the adult male population drafted into the military as the USA steps up it’s involvement in the Second World War and with many of the female population having to step in to fill the gaps that has left amongst the key manufacturing industries, the youth of America seem to have lost any moral compass and are out to have a good time. With many of them turning to petty crime, drinking and even prostitution, there are concerns amongst the authorities about the rising levels of delinquency thriving without active parental supervision. It is an interesting topic to look at, as it’s not the most obvious side-effect of the large scale deployment of their fathers and brothers, but the whole presentation is remarkably sterile. It superficially skirts over just what the causes might be beyond suggesting it’s normally driven petulance or recalcitrance. It doesn’t really try to analyse just how the war might be psychologically impacting on many young people whose family lives have been put asunder by activities on the other side of the world that could see them dealing with the incomprehensible horrors of war and death. The film seems designed to shock rather than inform or explain and some of the narration is borderline patronising as it is occasionally illustrated by a vision of this rebellious youth requiring armed soldiers to police the streets. There are no interviews with any of these youngsters to explain or mitigate the behaviour of those prone to excess nor is their really anything much on the options they might have save for a sort of youth club mentality that clearly won’t work, as won’t the church, for everyone. It is thought-provoking but weakly constructed.