The Spirit of Social Service

3

Now we review the work that the social researcher performs in the various stages of the investigation. As soon as the task is assigned to her, she hastens to make contact with the family, for her presence is most needed while the problem is in one of its phases, since that is the most suitable time for inquiry, investigation, listening, and observation. Before she goes out on this mission — usually accompanied by students of the Lebanese School of Social Training who are under instruction — the social researcher will already have studied the file of the delinquent juvenile which the juvenile judge has sent her, and will have examined her registers, namely the register of prisoners, the register of the convicted, the register of children seen at the police station, the register of children who have appeared before the investigating judge, and the register of those who have returned to crime. Very often she can obtain from these registers useful data that help her in her task.

As soon as she arrives where she is bound — and this often requires many searches through streets and alleys — she must employ a great deal of tact in order to blend into the family circle and win the confidence of its members. She begins by explaining the mission of the institution she represents and the purpose of her visit. At this point the members of the family often hesitate to disclose what they know, so she must reassure them, instill confidence in them, and inform them that she is bound not to mention what she hears or sees, and to keep the secrets of families. There are families whose members will not begin to speak until the visit has been repeated; at last her skill enables her to obtain useful data on the following subjects:

First — the composition of the family:

Is it founded on a legitimate or an illegitimate relationship?

The father and mother: Are they divorced or separated? Has one of them married a second time? Has one of them died? What are their qualities and their morals? What is their state of health? Are there infirmities among them? Is one of them addicted to drink or to gambling? What is their conduct? Have they criminal records? What is the work by which they earn their living? Which of them holds guardianship? What is their upbringing, and what is the upbringing of their child... etc.

The children: their number, their sex, their age, their work, their health, the schools they attend, their dispositions, their conduct, whatever infirmities they have, and whatever criminal records they have... etc.

Other persons: those living in the house.

Second — living conditions:

Does the family live a life of misery and hardship? Or is it comfortably off? What is the father's income, the mother's income, and the children's income? Is any one of them out of work? What are the family's resources and what are its expenses? The drawing up of the daily budget and the individual budget?

Third — the dwelling:

Is it unhealthful? Is it clean? The number of rooms, the sanitary condition, the care and cleanliness of the house, its furniture, its rent... etc.

Fourth — the delinquent juvenile:

It is rare for the researcher to find the child at home on her first visit, for he is either at his school or at his work — if he is not wandering aimlessly as a vagrant — the police, after conducting their investigation, having handed him over to his family against the signing of a pledge. Unfortunately, however, it very often happens that many juveniles have no family in the town where they committed their offense; most often they are neglected children who came to the town by themselves in search of work. In such a case the public prosecutor entrusts them to the delegate of the Child Protection League, who begins by investigating their condition and then tries to find them a shelter or to make it possible for them to return to their families. As for the social researcher conducting the inquiry, when she does not find the child who committed the offense at his family's home, she summons him with his parents to come to her at the League's office, where she can speak in complete freedom with the juvenile alone, and can also talk with his parents. In this interview the researcher observes the child's behavior and his response to his parents' treatment of him; then she tries to deduce from this his dispositions, his conduct, his inclinations, his habits, his friendships, his means of amusement, the things he complains of, and his record — the aim of all this being to arrive at the cause of the crime's commission.

Fifth — the medical consultation:

It is sometimes necessary to extend the inquiry to the delinquent juvenile's physical and mental health, and in that case the researcher directs him to the medical consultation, which is carried out by a medical committee composed of three physicians who are members of the League's board of directors. In cases of mental illness and behavioral disturbances the juveniles are examined by a psychiatrist. But such cases in Lebanon are very rare.

Sixth — the school environment:

Among the matters of the utmost importance is the juvenile's regularity or irregularity in attending school. The social researcher therefore proceeds to make inquiries of the school principal or the child's teacher. In this way she obtains data concerning the child's attendance, his conduct, his dispositions, his results in his studies... etc. Usually the school principal does not know of the crime the child has committed unless he has been informed of it from another source.

Seventh — the occupational environment:

The social researcher must arm herself with great caution and tact when making her inquiries with the employer for whom the child works, for she must not injure the child's reputation in that environment, and his job must be kept for him if that environment is suitable. For in our country the young take up work at a very early age, given the absence of special institutes for vocational training. The social researcher obtains the following data: the nature of the work the child does and its conditions; the age at which the child began this work; the name and address of the employer; the wage the child receives and how he spends it; his conduct; his steadiness in the work or his moving about; and whether the environment is wholesome or corrupt.

Eighth — visiting the child in prison:

It sometimes happens that the social researcher's interview with the child takes place in prison, where she must go and begin her inquiries. Given the absence of an observation center set apart for the purpose, children who commit crimes are detained in the Ramleh prison, where two rooms have been set apart for them. Their condition in prison is wretched and miserable, so the social researcher always assists them at this time, and provides them with clothing in particular. She visits them there every week and takes special care of them by hastening as much as she can to finish the inquiries concerning them, so as to work toward the fixing, at the earliest possible date, of the sessions at which their cases will be heard, thereby sparing them a long stay in detention. Those held are for the most part neglected children with no one to support them. These little wretches — their nerves break down quickly, and they wait with the greatest impatience for the social researcher to come to them. Miss Abi Samra tells us that the little prisoner jumps for joy when she calls him by his name for the first time and then takes him along with her in complete freedom; the child does not hesitate for a moment to speak of the offense he committed and of his past, and this is usually accompanied by weeping. Before long he places all his trust in her and hangs all his hopes upon her, and here the social researcher proceeds, with her words and her counsels, to stir the latent conscience in his heart, so that he feels the ugliness of the offense he committed and the gravity of the act he undertook. When the social researcher leaves, he utters that sentence which has so often been repeated on the lips of all his fellows: "Will my session be fixed soon?"

After finishing the study of the various environments surrounding the juvenile, the social researcher becomes fully acquainted with the causes of the crime he committed, and she concludes her inquiries by proposing to the judge charged with trying juveniles

the best means of treating and reforming him.

Yet the social researcher's mission does not stop at this point, for after the child has been sentenced and sent to the reformatory he remains subject to her supervision. She visits him often and makes of herself an intermediary between him and his family and kin, for her counsels and her guidance are necessary for the child himself and for his family. The social researcher is notified when the juvenile's release and his departure from the reformatory draw near, and she then undertakes to look for work for him, since in the reformatory he has learned a trade by means of which he can earn his living lawfully and honorably. Beyond that, she organizes his leisure hours and his amusements, from night classes to useful encounters and contacts, while taking care to make the family environment calm and suitable for the child's growth and advancement. She strives not only to reform the child but to reform his family as well, so as to instill in them the spirit of a feeling of responsibility and of dignity. And this demands of her much tact, intelligence, and respect.

Conclusion:

Thus we see that the role of social service in the field of crime and criminals is a human role before all else. I have already mentioned that engaging in social service demands before all else an innate aptitude, for the lessons of social training, technical knowledge, and academic degrees — all of that avails nothing if the social specialist does not possess the "social spirit" whose warp and woof are justice and love.

If the understanding of the law is confined to its letter, it is a barren understanding that avails nothing. Social service has begun to appear more and more in our modern legislative institutions, especially with regard to juvenile offenders, and it appears in the form of the spirit of legislation — that spirit which reforms the individual and protects society.

Today we feel a pressing need to multiply the forms of social services in our country. We must all demand a sufficient number of good workers in the social services, and strive to bring about a broader, closer, and more continuous cooperation not only with the courts but also with the reformatories. And since our task is to reintegrate the individual into the social environment, it is our duty to be — with the social specialists at our side — always present, and everywhere, beside the human being who suffers and is in pain. We must work to protect society from evil; and when evil appears and the forbidden thing occurs, we must acknowledge that behind every fault committed by the individual there lies hidden a greater fault committed by the whole, and that in his crime a victim has fallen, atoning for the fault of the social body. We therefore demand, beyond all doubt, a just and effective social protection — and especially a protection of childhood more just and more potent in its effect. To attain this lofty aim, peace at home and security among the nations must be realized for us. Work must be available to all, and to all likewise the ways of education and the blessing of freedom.

We must also have more holiday camps, more reception and observation centers, more specialized judges, and — more than all this — more families that are loving, mutually supporting, and firm of structure.

Our social policy must be a bold, enlightened policy, capable of averting evil at its very root and of carrying the remedy to the origin of the disease.

It is better for us to work at fighting crime among juveniles than to have to treat these juveniles in the future when they have become criminals. The means of this fight are many, among them supervision of the cinema houses and the censoring of obscene publications.

And if the child should suffer a fall, and it becomes inevitable that the courts take up his case, then it is a duty that the judge's ruling be issued in the juvenile's interest, and that this ruling not be final; for the judge must always be able to modify the penalty he has imposed and to substitute another for it whenever the child's condition calls for that.

Perhaps it is fitting to point here to the title of a recent book by Jean Paulhan, which the children toward whom our efforts are directed today may repeat without any embarrassment: "We did not ask to be given life."

We must direct our efforts toward making life honorable and beautiful in the eyes of children, for this is the task for which we were created and which we strive, to the limit of our powers, to fulfill.