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-delinquency expert Edward M. Barrows, who lived in and reported his findings from the Hell's Kitchen area.

...the children of Hell's Kitchen were arrested more frequently than children of other neighborhoods.

It is clear at the very start that the punishment, as far as law goes, has little relation to the alleged crimes as listed above. The same section of the penal code punishes baseball and burglary, and both of these acts are punishable under several other sections of the penal code. Frequently the arrest brings out a series of acts, committed in previous days or weeks, which bear little relation to the direct cause of the arrest. We find cases of children arrested for playing ball but whose story in court reveals stealing, assault and burglary. Again, we find a child rearrested under three or four different sections of the penal code for the same repeated act, be it the kicking of a garbage can or assault and battery. We find in the court records the most indiscriminate blending of arrest and punishment for innocent play with arrest and punishment for deviltry or perverse crime of a serious nature. Be it remembered that this is the hand of the law as the child knows it. This is the real organized society - the political state with which he is in contact.

Barrows then used records from the 20th precinct to further illustrate his point:

John C. was arrested for creating a disturbance. This is a nuisance and, from the standpoint of the adult, a moral offence in a crowded city. Special inquiry developed that John C. was one of a number of boys who gathered in front of a tenement home late one evening and sang in chorus. Incidentally, only one of the several malefactors was caught. Most of the arrests of children are for acts committed by groups of children ranging from two to fifty, and as often as not there is only one boy in the whole group who is caught.

Charles C. was arrested for violating Penal Code Section 675, relating to disorderly conduct and committing nuisance. His act consisted in throwing a baseball on a public street.

William C., arrested for disorderly conduct, was charged with playing football on the street. The record showed that he was an athletic enthusiast, and there was no other football field but the street. In contrast with this fact, it should be mentioned that the New York Board of Education maintains an elaborate and costly organization for encouraging the athletic spirit among boys.

George C. was arrested for throwing stones. The record showed that George C. had been one of a group engaging in a street fight, the street fight being a typical form of vigorous play among children of this district.

Thomas C. was arrested for throwing stones. He had thrown a stone in revenge and with murderous intent at an unsuspecting enemy. His motive was wholly different from that of George C., but they were classified together in law.

William L. was arrested for playing ball. Actually, he had been holding some bats while the other boys were playing. He remonstrated with the police officer, but the officer told him he could not get the other fellows and so had to take him.

Harry M., charged with pitching pennies, had been actually playing marbles near by, but the boys who were pitching pennies ran faster than he.

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December 1938, writer Herman Spector documents historical narratives for the Federal Writer's Project. Joe Einstein, a Dutch Schultz mobster:

One day he persuaded me, against my better instincts, to make the rounds with him. It wasn't busy that day and I had lots of time; I guess that's why I let him take me along.

"You're taking beer from the Dutchman," Joe tells him, "and that's all you gotta know. He's treating you right, ain't he? So don't be foolish." - And he signals to me, and out we walk. I'm shaking in my shoes all the time, understand. If one of those Coll babies came across us, I'd have been cooked.

So when we get outside I turn to Joe: "For chrisssakes, this ain't no joke! It's alright for you maybe, this is your bread and butter, but it doesn't mean a cent to me. I've got a mother to take care of, and she's expecting me home tonight." And I made him take me over to the Morris Park trolley line, and I got into a trolley-car and went home, and believe me, I felt I had escaped from the jaws of death. I don't care how much dough this guy makes, I said to myself, from now on I stick to my own business.