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Sociologists Who Provf!d Juvenile
Delinquency Can Be Predicted
I
n the 1940s and 1950s,
Drs. Sheldon and
Eleanor Glueck, a
husband-wife sociologist
team at Harvard Law
School, developed a
delinquency prediction
scale for young persons.
lt is based on tive social
factors: affection of the
father for the child,
discipline by the father,
affection of the mother
for the child, supervision
and discipline by the
mother and cohesiveness
of the family. Sorne of
their studies also
considered traits of
juvenile temperament and
character.
The Gluecks' rating
method was developed
from what they found in
the family background
and youthful temperament
and character of
delinquents and
nondelinquents.
They found delinquents
far more than
nondelinquents carne
from homes of little
affection, stability, moral
tiber or understanding of
parent-child
responsibilities. The
delinquents
temperamentally tended
to be more restless,
impulsive, aggressive and
destructive; in attitude,
more detiant, hostile,
resentful and
nonsubmissive to
authority.
The Gluecks'
predictions of individual
delinquency or
nondelinquency among
groups of youths they
studied preved out to be
remarkably accurate.
They were often able to
predict future criminal
delinquency in children as
young as ages 5 or 6 by
looking at their family
background and existing
character.
The Gluecks' research
can be found in numerous
books and papers
authored by them.
Unfortunately, the
Gluecks' sound
methodology is largely
ignored by criminologists
and sociologists today.
In 1952, for example,
the Gluecks studied 244
six-year-old boys of
white, black and Puerto
Rican origin in high
delinquency areas for the
New York City Youth
Board. They predicted
which would be criminal
delinquents by age 17
and which would not. But
since fathers of this group
were so often missing,
they made their
predictions using only the
three family factors on
their scale not involving
fathers.
Still, 10 years later they
found 85 percent of the
boys they predicted to
become delinquent
actually did so. And 97
percent of those thought
unlikely to become
delinquents did not. Out
of 19 boys predicted as
having an even chance of
delinquency or
nondelinquency, nine
became serious or
persistent offenders and
10 did not.
Other researchers
using the Gluecks'
methods in studies of
juveniles often found that
nine out of 1
O
persistent
juvenile offenders could
have been identitied at
age 6; if not then by age
10; and 90 percent of
nondelinquents could also
have been identitied .
Blind Eyes
Juvenile delinquency is
for the most part
predictable. But many
parents and other
persons blind their eyes
to the signs of
delinquency in children
and make excuses for
them.
In one interview, the
Gluecks concluded ,
"Poverty, by itself,
doesn't make a
delinquent. . .. You
cannot make good
parents out of bad ones
simply by raising their
income or moving them
into a new house ."
The Gluecks said after
another study, "In
Boston, our research
investigators could often
tell just as soon as a
tenement door opened
whether they were
entering the home of a
delinquent or a
nondelinquent. All the
families in the
neighborhood would be
poor, but there would be
enormous variation in the
under-the-roof
atmosphere from one
household to the
next. . .. In a suburban
neighborhood or middle
income, you could tind
similar variations.' '
The primary roots of
delinquency are basically
the same in poor, middle
class or upper class
areas: parents. fail to
properly instill in their
children respect,
discipline and concern
for others and their
property.
Often these parents
themselves were raised
by permissive parents. or
were raised by parents
that swung between
extremes of laxness and
harshness in discipline.
Such parents don't know,
and their children can't
know, what discipline with
lave is.
The things that count
most in raising children to
be law-abiding citizens do
not depend so much on
income as they do upon
the parents' right values,
affectionate attitudes and
fair but firm discipline.
Many parents try to
express love or buy the
lave of their children
through overindulgence or
gifts to make up for their
lack of parental guidance,
affection and concern
day by day. Parental love
is not purchasable. True
parental love is more
than providing material
comforts of life. lt
involves training children
in right values and
character!
in him a sense of self-discipline,
then it later becomes the almost
hopeless job of the courts to try to
do it. For that is where this
type of youngster always ends up."
If
parents fail in tbeir responsi–
bility to show affection, guidance
and proper discipline, it is unlikely
any other institution will success–
fully pick up the reins. "We look
for quick solutions, but family sta–
bility is the only long-term solu-
September, 1981
43