Juvenile Delinquency and the School
By W. C. Kvaraceus. World nook uo., Mew York. London Agents, Geo. G. Harrap & Co., Ltd. 12s. 6d.
The title of this book might suggest that here again is another on the subject of juvenile delinquency which, as in the case of so many before, describes a ” fractional attack ” on the problem. As a contrast, however, to the more usual segmental approach, influenced by prevailing trends of interest, this account of an attempt, and a surprisingly successful one, at a really constructive policy of prevention, not merely acknowledges, but maintains as a central guiding principle, the fact that ” delinquency is a dynamic process of interaction between the total personality and the total environment “. The account of the quest for causes neglects neither the exogenous nor the endogenous factors. The conclusions reached that ” … . the delinquent act itself may be relatively unimportant; it may have significance only as a symptom of a deeper maladjustment “, serves as a basic principle underlying the development of the work of the Passaic Children’s Bureau.
Duplication of existing services is not the aim of the Bureau. The contributions of education and welfare agencies are not merely acknowledged, but every effort is made to adapt and integrate, as far as possible, their methods and aims in a community-wide attack on the problems to which juvenile maladjustment gives rise.
The staff of the Bureau represents from various aspects the interests of the community and so includes representatives of education, health and social agencies, the police, child guidance and other bodies interested in the physical, social and intellectual development of young people. Without the active interest and support of these bodies, the work of the Bureau would not have progressed as it did.
The author does not deprecate the work of ” coordinating councils ” but from experience has found that such committees tend to have a rather ” high mortality “. It is for this reason that Mr. Kvaraceus considers that no agency is better adapted to preserve continuity in progress and maintain public interest and support than the school.
The study describes how investigations were made into such matters as the health history of families, their size, their economic and social status; the effects of broken homes and disharmony; school and work records and achievements and the intelligence of children whose difficulties brought them to the notice of the Bureau. The writer makes clear however, that the results of exhaustive inquiry indicated that the subjective elements in family life were found to have an even greater influence in many cases than those factors which lent themselves more readily to quantitative analysis.
Inevitably, to some extent, the work described reemphasizes and corroborates the results of previous studies. Once again the fact that the percentage incidence of subnormal intelligence found was greater than that in a cross section of the general population is made clear; that serious educational retardation occurred almost three times as frequently and that truancy was five times as prevalent among these maladjusted children as among those who were socially more stable is also demonstrated.
An interesting feature of the report is that each of the factors investigated is assessed, not in isolation, but in relation to the situation as a whole. Throughout the development of the Bureau’s work the emphasis and attack is upon the causes and not merely upon the symptoms of social maladjustment.
The account of the work in no way suggests that further inquiry would be redundant. The author, as former Director of the Bureau, does not fail to point out that much work remains to be done. The book is written from a healthily self-critical standpoint. There is no attempt at suppression of data which does not fall in line with the principles which informed the work. Sufficient space is given to supporting statistics to illustrate the discussion, but quantitative assessment does not supplant the qualitative aspect.
The book offers stimulating and provocative reading. An ample bibliography is proved, though inevitably the references are mainly to publications which are at present difficult to obtain from U.S.A. M.I.D.
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