United States Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency

TheUnited States Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquencywas established by theUnited States Senatein 1953 to investigate the problem ofjuvenile delinquency.

Background

The subcommittee was a unit of theUnited States Senate Judiciary Committeeand was created by a motion of SenatorRobert Hendrickson,aRepublicanfromNew Jersey.Its initial budget was $44,000. The first members of the subcommittee consisted of Senator Hendrickson, and SenatorsEstes Kefauver(DemocratfromTennessee),Thomas C. Hennings, Jr.(Democrat fromMissouri), andWilliam Langer(Republican fromNorth Dakota).^[1]Senator Hendrickson was initially the chair of the committee but was later replaced as chair by SenatorKefauver.

1954 comic book hearings

The public hearings took place on April 21, 22, and June 4, 1954, in New York. They focused on particularly graphic "crime and horror"comic booksof the day, and their potential impact on juvenile delinquency. When publisherWilliam Gainescontended that he sold only comic books of good taste, Kefauver entered into evidence one of Gaines' comics (Crime SuspenStories#22 [April-May 1954]), which showed a dismembered woman's head on its cover. The exchange between Gaines and Kefauver led to a front-page story inThe New York Timesthe following day.

Chief Counsel Herbert Beaser asked: "Then you think a child cannot in any way, shape, or manner, be hurt by anything that the child reads or sees?"
William Gaines responded: "I do not believe so."
Beaser: "There would be no limit, actually, to what you'd put in the magazines?"
Gaines: "Only within the bounds of good taste."
Sen. Kefauver: "Here is your May issue. This seems to be a man with a bloody ax holding a woman's head up which has been severed from her body. Do you think that's in good taste?"
Gaines: "Yes sir, I do — for the cover of a horror comic. A cover in bad taste, for example, might be defined as holding her head a little higher so that blood could be seen dripping from it and moving the body a little further over so that the neck of the body could be seen to be bloody."
Kefauver (doubtful): "You've got blood coming out of her mouth."
Gaines: "A little."^[2]^[3]

What none of the senators knew was that Gaines had already cleaned up the cover of this issue. ArtistJohnny Craig's first draft included those very elements that Gaines had said were in "bad taste" and had him clean it up before publication.

Because of the unfavorable press coverage resulting from the hearings, the comic book industry adopted theComics Code Authority,a self-regulatory ratings code that was initially adopted by nearly all comic publishers and continued to be used by some comics until 2011. In the immediate aftermath of the hearings, several publishers were forced to revamp their schedules and drastically censor or even cancel many popular long-standing comic series.

Notes

^"Senators to Hold Teen Age Hearings".The New York Times.Sep 19, 1953. p. 16.
^Kihss, Peter (April 22, 1954)."No Harm in Horror, Comics Issuer Says".The New York Times.p. 1.
^Nyberg, Amy (February 1, 1998).Seal of Approval: The Origins and History of the Comics Code, Volume 1.University Press of Mississippi. pp. 61–63.ISBN 0-87805-974-1.Retrieved9 November2016.

References

Bibliography

Beaty, Bart (2005).Fredric Wertham and the Critique of Mass Culture.University Press of Mississippi,ISBN 1-57806-819-3.
Nyberg, Ami Kiste (1998).Seal of Approval: The History of the Comics Code,University Press of Mississippi,ISBN 0-87805-975-X.
Juvenile Delinquency (Comic Books) hearings before the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee To Investigate Juvenile Delinquency in the U.S., Eighty-Third Congress, second session, on Apr. 21, 22, June 4, 1954.(OCLC Worldcat link to5320509or27331381)

External links

1954 Senate Subcommittee Transcripts
Comic Books and Juvenile Delinquency Interim Report of the Committee on the judiciary pursuant to S. Res. 89 and S. Res. 190
1955 hearings transcripts: U.S. Congress, Senate, Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency,Juvenile Delinquency (Obscene and Pornographic Materials): hearings before the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee To Investigate Juvenile Delinquency Pursuant to Senate Resolution 62, Investigation of Juvenile Delinquency in the United States,May 24, 26, 31, June 9 and 18, 1955,84th Congress,1st session.

[1] "Senators to Hold Teen Age Hearings".The New York Times.Sep 19, 1953. p. 16.

[2] Kihss, Peter (April 22, 1954)."No Harm in Horror, Comics Issuer Says".The New York Times.p. 1.

[3] Nyberg, Amy (February 1, 1998).Seal of Approval: The Origins and History of the Comics Code, Volume 1.University Press of Mississippi. pp. 61–63.ISBN 0-87805-974-1.Retrieved9 November2016.

[1]

[2]

[3]