Juvenile Crime and War

Effects of War on Juvenile Crime

To understand the effect of war on juvenile crime, it is necessary to know what capacity children and juveniles have for understanding war. There are considerable age-group variations, as well as variations according to the developmental stage of a given child before the war.

Tiny children are indirectly affected by war. The worst effects come from separation from familiar sights and smells, from loss of contact with the father, and perhaps from separation from the mother. It is also possible that they come into more contact with their mother's body than they would ordinarily, and sometimes they become aware of what their mother feels like when she is scared. Quite soon, children begin to think and talk in terms of war instead of talking in terms of play and fairy tales. Children of between five and eleven years of age learn what is accepted as right and wrong. During war, violence and aggression appear to be favorable means of solving problems, and children learn this; after the war is over, it is sometimes difficult to adopt nonviolent models as preferable means of attaining goals. The situation is similar in the case of children of twelve and over; these children normally tend to be controlled and directed by an idealized authority. During war, war heroes become role models, which is less healthy when the society is no longer at war. Postwar society chooses new heroes, and war heroes tend to be forgotten or even pronounced undesirables and criminals; this is a source of confusion for young people.

After war, people usually have great expectations, and they believe in new beginnings that are quite unrealistic, as economic, social, and political resources are often exhausted by war. So, people soon become frustrated again, producing a new source of aggression in the population. Children and juveniles are also affected by this typical postwar macrosocial process: Because of decreases in the standard of living, unemployment, confusion of moral values, and lack of social support, they feel bad, which make them behave badly. For men, war-induced posttraumatic stress disorder and postwar changes in family structure (men return to families that have learned to live without [Page 982]them) can provoke domestic violence, which may produce delinquency in children. Finally, other factors that contribute to juvenile crime increase in postwar periods including reductions in the size and effectiveness of the police force; the disruption of families by conscription, long employment hours, or evacuation; the existence of special crime opportunities in places such as bombed-out houses and other unguarded property; and the creation of new types of crime by special wartime regulations such as rationing.

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