Running Wild

At Seaside, Ore., some 2,000 teen-agers rioted over the Labor Day weekend. At Hampton Beach, N.H., police estimated that there were as many as 10,000 disorderly young people. At Grand Bend, Ont., there were 600, and resorts all over the country experienced some degree of vacation-end violence at the hands of the young. But even more disturbing were some crime statistics released by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which indicate that teen-agers were up to a lot more than throwing bricks and beer cans. Items:

>> Teen-agers account for 63% of all U.S. auto-theft arrests (88% of all car thieves arrested are under 25), and arrests for auto theft increased 13% last year.

>> For all criminal acts, excluding traffic offenses, the arrests of youths under 18 increased by 11% in 1963. In suburban areas the increase in across-the-board teen-age criminality was 15%.

>> For crimes in the categories of criminal homicide, forcible rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny and auto theft, youngsters under 18 accounted for 46% of all arrests in 1963. In the suburbs the rate was 51%.

>> In the first six months of 1964, serious crime in the U.S. increased 15% over the same half year in 1963. In the suburbs--where many parents have moved "for the sake of their children" --the increase was a whopping 23%.

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