This, one of the most important films in the history of British documentary filmmaking, had been banned for 15 years. Images of the police working with petty juvenile delinquents, which once shocked the public, are even more shocking to modern viewers because accepted norms of dealing with children have so diametrically changed since the 1970s. The film does deal with actual children, including seven-year-olds accused of stealing a cowboy costume or an apple. To get these perpetrators onto the right path and protect them from the courts, Sgt. George Ray, probably in the best of faith, screams at them, roils them out of bed with force, humiliates them and makes them weep.  

Maciej Nowicki