West Side Studies: Boyhood and Lawlessness; The Neglected Girl

by Unknown

The aim of this study, therefore, is to trace the principal influences which have formed the West Side boy; to consider some of the means which have heretofore been employed to counteract these influences; and to picture him as he is, exemplifying the results of circumstances for which not he but the entire community is responsible.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER		PAGE
Introduction		ix
I.	[His Background]	1
II.	[His Playground]	10
III.	[His Games]	24
IV.	[His Gangs]	39
V.	[His Home]	55
VI.	[The Boy and the Court]	79
VII.	[The Center of the Problem]	141
[Appendix.]
	[Tables]	165
	[Excerpts from Report of Children’s Court,County of New York, 1913]	177
	[Index]	201

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Photographs by Lewis W. Hine

	FACING
	PAGE
[Just Boys!] Frontispiece
[Tenth Avenue]	4
[Eleventh (“Death”) Avenue]	4
[Bounce Ball with Wall as Base.] Property is Safe	10
[Bounce Ball with Steps as Base.] Windows in Danger	10
[Wading in Sewage-laden Water]	20
[A “Den” Under the Dock]	20
[Pigeon Flying. A Roof Game]	28
[Marbles.] A Street Game	28
[Prize Fighters in Training]	34
[Craps with Money at Stake]	34
[Boy Scouts and Soldiers]	40
[After the Battle]	40
[Resting.] What Next?	48
[Early Lessons in Craps]	48
[Approaching the “Gopher” Age]	64
[One Diversion of the Older Boys]	64
[Replenishing the Wood Box]	74
[A Rich Find]	74
[A Ball Game Near the Docks]	82
[“Obstructing Traffic” on Twelfth Avenue]	82
[“We Ain’t Doin’ Nothin’”]	98
[The Same Gang at Craps]	98
[An Embryo Gangster]	122
[The “Toughest Kid” on the Street]	122
[Carrying Loot from a Vacant Building]	142
[Closed by the Gangs]	142
[De Witt Clinton Park]	146
[A Favorite Playground]	146

LIST OF TABLES
APPENDIX

TABLE		PAGE
1.	[Sources from which the names of the 294 boys studied were obtained]	167
2.	[Ages of boys]	167
3.	[Length of residence in the district of 183 families]	168
4.	[Country of birth of parents]	168
5.	[Nationality of American-born parents]	169
6.	[Two hundred families classified according to number of persons in households and number of rooms occupied]	169
7.	[Living children in 231 families]	170
8.	[Status of mothers in 222 families]	170
9.	[Conjugal condition of parents in 233 families]	171
10.	[Relief records of 241 families]	171
11.	[Duration of relief records of families known to have received aid from relief societies]	172
12.	[Court disposition of cases involving 454 arrests affecting 259 boys and 221 families]	172
13.	[Final disposition of 92 West Side paroled cases and of 1,492 paroled cases disposed of by the Manhattan Court in 1909]	173
14.	[Truancy records of 215 boys, classified as delinquent or not delinquent]	173
15.	[Status of 163 boys not gainfully employed]	174
16.	[Occupation and wages of 100 boys gainfully employed]	175

CHAPTER I
HIS BACKGROUND

The influence of environment on character is now so fully recognized that no study of juvenile offenders would be complete without a consideration of their background. In the lives of the boys with whom this study deals this background plays a very large part. One-third of the 241 families studied, 82, are known to have lived in the district from five to nineteen years, and a somewhat larger number, 88, for twenty years or more.[4] This means that the boys belonged almost completely to the neighborhood. Most of them had lived there all their lives, and many of them always will live there. If they are to be understood aright, this neighborhood which has given them home, schooling, streets to play in, and factories to work in must also be pictured and understood.