ht others within their net, is something
which demands serious consideration. The subject cannot be dismissed in
the light, airy way of those people who, without any adequate knowledge
of the facts, have been saying that there is nothing new about the
sexual misbehaviour of young people and that nothing can be done to
improve matters. The situation is a serious one, and something must be
done.

_VI. Searching for the Cause_

Many have been the views expressed as to the reasons for this immorality
and the suggested remedies. After considering the evidence, after
reading much literature on the subject, and weighing up all the
suggested factors, the view of the Committee is that the matter is not
capable of simplification by regarding any, or even all, the causes
suggested and discussed below as being the main cause. In seeking to
remedy the evil it must steadily be borne in mind that we have not only
to deal with the immediately apparent causes. Letters to the press,
letters to this Committee, and many of the submissions made reveal a
failure to dig below the surface or to look beyond the factors which
came immediately to the mind of the writers or those which, from
personal experience, appeared to them to be the decisive or motivating
factors.

The way in which the Committee approached a consideration of this
problem was to distinguish between those causes which appeared to be the
precipitating causes and those which it regarded as predisposing causes.
The precipitating causes are those which are closely related in time or
circumstance to the actual misbehaviour. The predisposing causes are
those which create an emotional maladjustment in a person and thus
induce a susceptibility to the precipitating cause. For instance, a
semi-nude figure or a song with a double meaning will not incite a
properly instructed adolescent to sexual misconduct. But if by parental
neglect or failure to control a young person is predisposed to
anti-social conduct, there is danger in any form of suggestiveness.

The Committee has carefully considered many suggested causes (whether
precipitating or predisposing) and now sets out its views on those which
merit special mention.

If, as the Committee believes, immoral behaviour should be regarded as a
phase or facet of juvenile delinquency, the same influences which tend
to incite other anti-social behaviour are in operation here.

Much has been written in textbooks, in journals, and i