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KINGDOM HOUSE PROGRAM
FOR TEENAGERS
Primary Emphasis and Rationale:
The Primary emphasis
of the Kingdom House teenage program this year is to work
toward the prevention of delinquency in our neighborhood
and where possible the treatment of the delinquent when he
comes into contact with the law. Delinquency is a catch-all
word...For our purposes, delinquency is considered any act
by an individual under the age of twenty-one which would
be considered a crime if committed by an adult or any act
specifically defined as delinquency in the juvenile code of
our state. As we all know, delinquency in the United States
(as measured by the number of delinquency cases handled
by juvenile courts and police arrests reported by the Federal
Bureau of Investigation) has increased each year for the
last decade. It is now estimated that roughly a half-million
juveniles are handled by our courts each year. St. Louis, and
more specifically our neighborhood, is no exception to this
increase in juvenile crime. In fact it has grown to be one of our
neighborhood’s most pressing social problems. Observation
by our staff, conferences with city officials and reports from
our district police department indicate that although there are
few, if any, organized gangs in our area, the rudiments are
there. While the number of crimes committed in our area by
juveniles is on the increase it is felt that there is little in the way
of organized crime involved. Most crimes are committed by
C
hapter
T
hree
:
‘S
uffer
the
C
hildren
…’ (1956 – 1977)
89
C
D
E
P
hotos
:
C:
Ralph Koeppe
plans for the future
D:
Giving thanks
E:
Cooks in the
kitchen