The text authors conclude that “during the late 1940s and 1950s juveni

The text authors conclude that “during the late 1940s and 1950s juvenile delinquency was not on the upswing.” Explain why, then, there was such a great to-do about the moral decline of America’s youth in these years.

What will be an ideal response?

ANSWER
The concern over juvenile delinquency was an aspect of the “paranoid style.” That is, Americans became used to seeing evil influences where there were none, and adolescent rebelliousness was thought to be a manifestation of dark forces at work in American society — probably associated with Communism, or at least with those who were “soft on Communism.” The ordinary disrespect for authority and disorderly tendencies of adolescent life took on more menacing qualities to postwar Americans who were extraordinarily anxious about the nation’s capability of meeting the communist threat.