as the custom for boys to take the initiative in
seeking the company of girls; it was conventional for the girls to await
any advances. Nowadays, girls do not always wait for an advance to be
made to them, nor are they as reticent as they used to be in discussing
intimate matters with the opposite sex. It is unfortunate that in many
cases girls, by immodest conduct, have become the leaders in sexual
misbehaviour and have in many cases corrupted the boys. At one school
there were 17 children involved--10 of them were girls of an average age
of 13.2 years and 7 boys of an average age of 15 years. Another
disturbing feature is that in the case of boys more than half were
committing their first offence, whereas only one-fifth of the girls were
offending for the first time. The Committee has not overlooked the fact
that the offending girls may themselves have been corrupted by a male in
the first place. But the fact remains that four-fifths of the girls
involved in the particular cases that prompted this inquiry had an
admitted history of prior sexual misconduct.

The following extract from the evidence of a headmaster is impressive of
this new feature:

... We have not the same worry about boys as we have about
girls. The worst cases we have are girls, and it is quite clear
some of them are an absolute menace. They have dragged boys into
this sort of thing. In general the girls are far worse than the
boys.

=(3) Organization of Immorality=

These immoral practices have been _organized_ in a way that was not
evident before. For example, a boy of 17-1/2 years, trusted by his
parents with the charge of their home, abused the trust by arranging
sexual parties on three successive weekends for groups of several girls
and boys. There was also the case of a girl of 14 years who invited a
girl of the same age to her home during the absence of her parents for
the express purpose of having intercourse[1] with her brother aged 15.
This improper use of a parent's home has also occurred in other
districts.

=(4) Recidivism=

The second outbreak of Hutt Valley cases revealed that two boys, one
girl, and one family had become involved in misbehaviour within eighteen
months of their previous offences. In another district three-quarters of
the boys concerned had previously been before the Court as delinquents,
though not all for sexual offences.

=(5) Changed Mental Attitude of Girls and Boys=

Perhaps the