Word: slackly
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...Slack's success in gaining the cooperation of municipal authorities has not equaled his success with delinquents. He has even been informed of the possibility of arrest under state pornography laws. This incident occurred after Slack played for a judge and his court psychiatric staff a tape recording in which a youth explained exactly why he had refused to work with police psychiatrists. Slack thought the information might be of value to the authorities. While not accepting the youth's statement as literal truth, Slack believed that it characterized the boy's reactions...
Apalled at the language used and the naughty episodes related, the judge indirectly informed Slack that playing the tape to anyone, even the subject of the recorded interview, might constitute a violation of state law. Since Slack's program derives its chief benefit from allowing the subject to hear and consider what he has said at an earlier date, his work was severely hampered. Piqued by the attitudes of juvenile authorities and exasperated by their generally futile techniques, Slack has compiled "a list of steps to be taken by those who are not interested in reducing adolescent crime." Among...
...Slack does not claim, of course, to have found a panecea for juvenile delinquency. "I'm not a crusader or 'mad scientist' saying that I have all the answers," Slack emphasizes. "However, I do believe that we have found one possible answer." He readily admits that a better method may be discovered in the near future. For the present, however, the experimenter-subject approach appears to offer the greatest hope in curbing juvenile crime...
With the encouraging three-year pilot project in Cambridge completed and with the basic methods thoroughly tested, Slack believes "Street-corner Research" methods could be set up on a full operating scale. Finding a city willing to implement the project is not an easy task, although supporting the program would put no burden on the taxpayer. Indeed, the taxpayer would save because there would be fewer youths to support in reformatories and later in prison. Streetcorner Research could actually be set up as as a non-profit business and receive payment for each predicted delinquent which the program is able...
...Slack admits the program is a little cold-blooded and calculating. But its primary goal is to reduce crime, and if that aim is achieved, society and the community have gained. "We're not 'do-gooders' concerned only with 'helping youth,' and we're not a social service organization," Slack has pointed out. "We want to reduce the amount of crime committed by adolescents." Thus the program is not primarily interested in causing delinquents to conform with American middle-class ideals and may even employ methods which the middle-class would not approve. "If the kids hang...