A Study of Problem Boys and Their Non-problem Brothers by the Sub-commission on Causes and Effects of Crime
Albany: J. B. Lyon Company, 1929, 40S p.
This is the tenth report of the Sub-commission and is concerned with a study of problem boys and their non-problem brothers. The cases were selected from two areas in New York County where juvenile delinquency was known to constitute a serious problem, a part of the lower East Side and a part of East Harlem. Forty pairs of brothers are included. In each instance one of the brothers had been brought before the Children’s Court because of delinquency while the other lived a well conformed life, at least had never been a problem. The problem boys belonged to the milder probation group of children under the Children’s Court. The median age of both groups was fifteen years, and in no case was there a difference of more than four years in tlie ages of the brothers. The average difference in age was two years and five months. The small difference in age precludes the possibility of difference in family environment.
Case studies of each pair of brothers are included and make up more than three-fourths of the report. In a brief review only a few of the findings can be summarized. A marked difference in mental ability as measured by the Stanford Revision of the Binet-Simon scale was found. The median Intelligence Quotient for the problem boys was 75, for the nonproblem boys it was 86. The authors of the report take this as an indication that inferior intelligence is one of the factors contributing to the delinquency. The claim might be advanced that the lower Intelligence Quotient is an effect as well as a cause of the delinquency. The median Educational Quotient as determined by Part I of the Otis Classification Test, is 81 for the problem boys, 92 per cent for their brothers. School retardation is two and one-half times as frequent among the problem boys. On the Haggerty Rating Scale for school behavior 91 per cent of the problem boys and 42 per cent of their brothers exceed the median in Haggerty’s standards. The traits which differentiated the problem group in the order of their importance are: truancy, stealing, temper outbursts, unpopularity with children, bullying, defiance of school discipline, lack of interest in school work.
Some of the offenses committed by the boys who appeared in court seemed to indicate to the investigators that these boys were possessed of superior mechanical ability. Their mechanical ability was tested by means of the Steuquist assemblying test of general mechanical ability. On this test the problem boys were not only superior to the non-problem boys, but GO per cent of them exceeded the median of an unselected group of New York City school children.
The investigators find that delinquency is due to a thousand different influences, and thus each case requires individual treatment. A detailed study of how delinquents live in their group is needed rather than mere romancing over gang life. Schools should utilize the superior ability which these children show with concrete material, and vary the subject matter of the curriculum to suit individual ability and thus prevent the discouragement which follows repeated failure. Superficial probation supervision is ineffective, and the police officer type of probation officer should be replaced by scientifically trained caso workMiles Murpiiy
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