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15 Syracuse L. Rev. 660 (1963-1964)
Juvenile Delinquency or Youthful Criminality

handle is hein.journals/syrlr15 and id is 672 raw text is: JUVENILE DELINQUENCY OR YOUTHFUL CRIMINALITY? JOHN EDGAR HOOVER* A story is often told of the Devil. He was auctioning his weapons to those who were interested. Hate, greed and lust were among those weapons on his counter. Someone noticed that he was keeping one of them back and not showing it for sale. An interested spectator asked about this particular weapon. Oh, replied the Devil, that is my favorite and most effective one. On closer inspection, it turned out that this weapon carried the label Indifference.1 I am reminded of the Devil's evaluation of this particular weapon each time I consider the seeming indifference of the general public to the rising crime rate, and I am especially appalled at the consequences of public apathy in the surge of youthful criminality across this nation. There is a growing possibility that Nikita Khrushchev will never be forced to make good his boast of burying us-we may save him the trouble by doing it ourselves through the dissipation of the youth of our country. An emotional overstatement of the case? Not at all. Reach no quick decision that this is the prediction of but another calamity-howler, indulg- ing himself in a very old and traditional lament about the moral climate of his native land. Think back for a moment upon the history of former great empires-Babylon, Greece, Rome-and recall how each was brought down, either through internecine warfare or because a weakend moral fiber made it easy for cynicism and indifference to replace dedication and responsibility. America is a land of wonder in which there is a strong conviction that everything will be superseded by something better tomorrow. We are driven by a feverish desire to excel and haunted by a vague dread we may fail in our desire to produce the best. I hardly think we can afford the enervating luxury of producing the best and the biggest crime wave in historyl Even more ominous is the apathetic attitude with which the general public seemingly views the current number of young people who represent crime statistics in the United States. Cynicism and indifference are evident in the shock resistance we have built up concerning the serious depreda- tions of our young people, and when I consider the very disquieting increase in the viciousness of the crimes they are committing daily, I am not too certain that internecine warfare has not already been declared. Crime is not a new development; it is as old as time. And juvenile delinquency has been its constant companion. I understand there is a * Director, Federal Bureau of Investigation, United States Department of Justice 1. Droke, Speaker's Book of Illustrative Stories 183 (1956).

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