William Healy

Youthful Offenders: A Comparative Study of Two Groups, Each of 1,000 Young Recidivists

The after-careers ofyoung offenders of our first series, studied some years ago, show very clearly the immense importance of studying the causation of delinquency at the only time when it really can satisfactorily be studied, namely, during the years when delinquency begins. All of our experience goes to show that the many writers who insist that practically all criminal careers begin during youth are entirely correct. Not only is the high point for crime, according to ages, well within the later years of adolescence, but very many delinquents begin their careers even younger. That thorough case studies can only be made during these earlier years is amply witnessed to by many facts we have observed. Later, the individual has broken away from his family, has frequently taken on a new attitude which makes the ascertainment of fundamentals difficult, is more likely to have drifted from his home town, perhaps shows deterioration from dissipation that is altogether hard to distinguish from innate mental defect. Besides this, the many interesting and more subtle psychological considerations concerning the earliest growth of criminalism steadily become more difficult to discern. Treatment of delinquent endencies, to say nothing of prophylaxis, rapidly becomes more difficult with the increment of years; while etiology and diagnosis may not be fairly developed without a wide range of facts. There should be every rational demand for this more thorough study, both as a large social issue and because, if anything is going

Psychoanalytic Contributions to the Understanding and Treatment of Behavior Problems

Without denying the tremendous influence of psychoanalysis upon the study of human behavior, yet a tendency toward overvaluation of psychoanalytic concepts as providing solutions for many individual and social ills has to be recognized. Freud is not to be blamed for this-he has clearly recognized physical and social determinants and that what has been built upon the foundations of psychoanalysis is not a closed system. Behavior problems are mainly such because of their social significance. Although many illustrations are possible of the deeper causations of misconduct, yet these factors have often been overplayed. There is no reason why the strengths of psychoanalysis cannot be retained while a broad scientific orientation concerning behavior problems is maintained. Psychoanalysis and sociology should represent collaborative efforts.

PECK, HARRIS B., and VIRGINIA BELLSMITH. Treatment of the Delinquent Adolescent: Group and Individual Therapy with Par-. ent and Child. Pp. iv, 147. New York: Family Service Association of America, 1954.

von Hentig since his return to Germany where he is now professor of criminology at the University of Bonn. Professor von Hentig is known to a number of American criminologists from his teaching and research in several universities in the United States during the past decade. In this short publication, which purports to be the first in a series sponsored by an association of German jurists, Professor Hentig analyzes some of the psychological, sociological, and statistical factors involved in three specific types of offenses: theft, burglary, and robbery. Somewhat after the method of the late Dr. E. Sutherland, the author explains the patterns of behavior of criminals (professional, white collar, and so forth) in terms of motives and certain .pathological conditions. He explains how the &dquo;purse snatcher,&dquo; the jewel thief, the fur-coat thief, and others operate in the larger cities. In the material dealing with burglary the author describes the various Modi Operandi in breaking and entering homes, business houses, and public places. He gives an account of how burglars work in pairs or in gangs and their relationship to the &dquo;fence.&dquo;

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genesis and course of the Malthusian controversy in Britain. While the list is extensive, it does not claim to be complete. ... The period covered begins with Godwin and ends shortly after the establishment of the Malthusian League&dquo; (pp. 81-82). Perhaps partly because the bibliography closes with 1880, the paper by Peacock at the close of his article lists some citations of recent works on the economics of population. The volume ends with reprints of two compositions by Malthus that are seldom seen. &dquo;The first is A Summary. View of the Principle o f Population, originally published in 1830, and consisting of the larger part of Malthus’s article on ’Population’ which appeared in the 1824 Supplement to the Encyclopaedia Britannica.... The second is Malthus’s Letter to Samuel Whitbread,&dquo; the first edition of which was published in 1807. In this letter, &dquo;Malthus stated in clear and explicit terms his views on poor relief, views which, both his supporters and his critics agree, powerfully influenced the course of Poor Law reform

STOTT, D. H. Saving Children from Delinquency. Pp. x, 266. New York: Philosophical Library, 1953.

HE great interest that American sociology manifests in crime and what produces it certainly is warranted by the gigantic proportions that this social phenomenon assumes in our national life. Studies of incidence and causations are only first steps toward planning relief from one of our costliest burdens. Then what are the next steps? Should the sociologist, rightfully stressing the ounce of prevention, lay most emphasis on those factors in early upbringing and in economic and group pressures which tend to foster criminality? Perhaps so, especially if the prevalence of misconduct in high places is stressed as it influences our population and even in young people breeds cynicism about their world and consequent contempt for the law; and also if due weight is given to the incitements to crime deriving from the continual bombardment of youth with fact and fiction about criminalistic exploits and gains. Some of your eminent members, among them W. I. Thomas, have called attention to the inevitable results of this, and all of my craft who delve into causations in individual cases know that ideas of criminality are antecedents of criminal behavior. Other aspects of the problem of prevention are also of vital importance to society. In medicine, when symptoms of disease appear, a prime consideration is to give the person treatment that will not only afford immediate relief but prevent later recurrence of the symptoms. If criminality is displayed, it is a symptom. When an offender is taken in hand by the law, is he treated by methods that are calculated to prevent recurrence of his symptomatic behavior? Here is a matter of great sociological import: the law itself and the assets and weaknesses of its structure and methods as it attempts to check crime by prescribing what shall be done to the criminal. In presenting to sociologists certain proposals of a committee appointed by the American Law Institute, the need appears for asking some little consideration of what the law really is as a basic instrument of cultural organization, and this particularly, because some of the proposals may seem rather revolutionary. To orient myself, I reread that product of a preMachiavellian Germany, Berolzheimers The Worlds Legal Philosophies. Nothing in this scholarly review stands out more clearly than the sociological implications of the nature and evolution of the law. Though we are

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O UR ideas and our concern about detention homes for juveniles are based on long experience. We have worked for years with young people in an office within a detention home, and also in a large city which gets along very well without such an institution. Besides this, we have had opportunity to observe many other detention homes, large and small, and often have had direct contact with those who are or who have been inmates. Consequently, we can very well sum up the administrative advantages of detention and, on the other hand, through direct knowledge we are well acquainted with the great disadvantages that accrue to individuals through detention.