146
PART VI CONCLUSIONS
548. Its primary aim is to steer protential offenders away from trouble, and that there may be an increasing need for this preventative work is well illustrated in the 1963 Report where it was pointed out that, in more developed countries, increasing affluence had not resulted in the expected lowering of the juvenile crime rate. Far from it: where previously there had been small gangs, now there were large well-organized gangs and a class of juvenile criminal more conscious of its deliberately anti-social character, and, what was perhaps even worse, juvenile criminals were no longer coming from the poorest classes but from the middle and wealthy classes also. That is not the position in Hong Kong, at any rate, as yet; here the traditional causes-poverty, broken homes, lack of parental control, idleness and low educational standards-still remain very much the predominant factors. In this and in other wider fields it certainly appears to us that the extension of youth services presents a need more urgent than some now being pressed on Government's limited resources.
549. Increased financial resources, which must come mainly from industrial development, are, of course, a basic and limiting factor but there are others amongst which we would particularly mention leadership. This is an urgent need amongst youth in our community and one which places an exacting demand on the goodwill, the charity, the energy and the ability of those who are prepared to give their time and their efforts voluntarily to the service of others. It is a respon- sibility falling particularly on the more affluent or better educated sections of the community, whether local or expatriate, and there are a number in both groups who have most gallantly accepted it, but there may well be room, particularly amongst younger men, for a wider sharing of this task. More, or more effective, leadership in the right direction and at the right level might have done much to avert the danger of rioting in Kowloon last April or to check it after the first eruption.
Summary
550. At the risk of over-simplification we would sum up as follows this prob- lem of youth and its 'discontents' as revealed to us by the evidence and material put at our disposal during this riots inquiry.
(1) Some commentators trace the problem of youth to the existing structural divisions in our society and to conflicts between old and new values or the emergence of new aspirations. Whilst recognizing the need for care and caution, which comes from the complex implications that must attend a change, some of them think that drastic measures are necessary to overcome the flaws in the present social structure if further disturbances are to be prevented.