With all of the recent attention on gangs, teen-ager trouble and gangsta rap, many seem to believe this is all new. Actually, we have been through several revivals of Juvenile Delinquency, the most colorful and well documented in Popular Culture was from the 1950's. There were movies, magazines and those great Paperbacks that every adolescent boy had stuffed in his back pocket. Not many survived as most were read to death or found by zealous parents and destroyed. A popular sub-genre is the GIRL GANGS which has a page of its own. Ace and Avon were the premier publishers of "Juvie" books but because of their popularity, every publisher had a few titles. Here are a few of my favorites:

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	D For Delinquent is a great 50's 'Cellar' or 'Basement' Club cover with the pointy sweater temptress and mildly threatening 'boy'. It was believed that youths and delinquents found space in cellars that they refurbished into clubhouses and partied into the night with sex and booze and occasionally marijuana.
	Here is the most sought after Harlan Ellison JD book, published by Ace. Why this one and not The Deadly Streets, which is harder to find, is beyond me. Not even that great of a cover.
	All Shook Up is another 50's 'Cellar' or 'Basement' Club cover, again with the pointy sweater temptress and leering boys. Here, the Pool Room, also regarded as a delinquent hang-out, was worked into the image.
	Harry Whittington jumped on the Juvie bandwagon by retitling his Sinner's Club to Teen-Age Jungle, which was not exactly a great leap. After Ace, Avon was the second biggest publisher of JD literature, often with original titles or movie novelizations. They also came a little later by which time the cover art had changed from realistic (in image if not always in content) to more stylized. So in this cover, the surroundings are stripped away to focus on a pretty girl with rolled up cuffs. Of course, by this time all teen-age girls wore rolled up cuffs.
	This is the Canadian Avon edition of this book from 1952. Did JDs really dress like this in the 50's? My mother would have been very pleased if I dressed like that. I guess the hats on the back of the heads and the one swinging a chain is what does it.
	Here are two more from Avon. These are a couple of movie novelizations (After all, the film industry is not immune to fads) and have a combination of movie stills and again, the more stylized figure. There were a bunch of these, the best known is High School Confidential which featured Jerry Lee Lewis driving 'the kids' into a frenzy with his pounding piano.

Here are a few more:

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