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Page 20
FOOTNOTES:
[17] The National Desertion Bureau, 356 Second Avenue, New York, acts in
a legal advisory capacity to Jewish organizations in matters of domestic
relations; it also seeks out Jewish family deserters, with a view to
assuring their rehabilitation or, failing this, their punishment.
[18] C.C. Carstens, Proceedings of the Fifth New York State Conference
of Charities and Correction, 1904, p. 196.
[19] See p. 65, footnote.
[20] This paragraph was submitted to the two agencies which furnished
the illustrations. Their replies are in part as follows:
_Agency A._--"Your criticism ... is purely theoretical and has no basis
in fact. The deserter is a knowing violator of the law, and while he
does not welcome it, he regards his arrest as only a question of time.
He is playing the game of 'hide and seek,' and he is applying every
trick and subterfuge to avoid detection. He is not disturbed if he has
been caught in a police trap. Our experience has been that in such cases
where he has tried to outwit the police, and the police finally have
'beaten him to the game,' he compliments his captor. This is a common
characteristic of the criminal, a sort of negative bravado, When the
deserter is arrested, all he can hope for and expect is a fair deal."
What are some concrete suggestions, developed from the experience of
case workers, as to how to proceed in searching for deserting men? A
full and careful talk with the wife is the first requisite, supplemented
by equally thorough interviews with any near relatives who can be
reached. The case worker should be familiar with the Questionnaire on
the Deserted Family in Mary E. Richmond's Social Diagnosis. A
description and if possible a photograph of the man should be procured.
Where several out-of-town clues are to be followed, copies of the
photograph can be cheaply made, and at least one bureau for dealing with
desertion cases makes this part of its routine procedure.
_Agency B._--"I have seen very few individuals in the course of my
experience who could not be brought to see the right viewpoint if they
were intelligently approached, even though the probation officer had
considerable to do with their arrest. It is in my opinion not altogether
important what occurs before the man's arrest but how he is treated
after he comes within the jurisdiction of the probation officials."
[21] See p. 69.
V
FURTHER ITEMS IN THE INVESTIGATION
It is evident that the need of finding the man strongly influences the
course of this type of investigation, especially in the early stages.
Are there other considerations, however, that modify the technique of
inquiry into these desertion cases?
There is one crisis in the lives of deserted families which is not
duplicated in the history of any other group suffering from social
disability. This crisis is the period of the first desertion. "If we
could learn what preceded and what immediately followed the first
desertion, we should know much more than we do now about how to deal
with the problem," said a case worker who has studied many court
records.
The _number_ of subsequent desertions may be both interesting and
significant, but the circumstances attending them are not nearly so well
worth study as are those connected with the critical first break. We
should go back to that spot and probe for causes. The common practice of
recording carefully what led up to a chronic deserter's last desertion
before his family applied, and of passing over his earlier desertions
with a mere mention of their number and dates, puts the emphasis in the
wrong place.
We must, however, go further back than the first desertion for a working
fund of knowledge. The importance of knowing what were the influences
surrounding the man and woman in childhood and youth has already been
dwelt upon and is so generally conceded as to need no elaboration here.
Of especial value also is careful inquiry into the period of courtship,
the circumstances of the marriage, and the history of the earlier
married life. "We should seek to know what first drew them together, as
well as what forced them apart," said a thoughtful district secretary.
The notorious unhappiness of "forced marriages" leads case workers to
scrutinize the relation between the date of marriage and the date of
the birth of the first child. It should be remembered, however, that not
all marriages which are entered into during pregnancy are forced
marriages. Studies of forced marriages, so-called, have not always taken
this fact into consideration.
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