Book Review: Delinquency Research: An Appraisal of Analytic Methods
| Author | Kim Wyman |
| Published date | 01 September 1969 |
| Date | 01 September 1969 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/000486586900200311 |
AUST. &N.Z. JOURNAL OF CRIMINOLOGY (1969): 2, 3 181
1920 - 1950 (Chapter 1)
and
since 1950
(Chapter
2).
The
authors
demonstrate
by
this
division
the
change in
approach
whicb
the
modem
trend
to
close-up inspection
of
the
individual
has
brought
about. The
following
chapters
are
devoted to
tbe
attempt
to isolate
the
delinquencies of
girls as
they
could be
studied
within
the
Magdalen Hospital, London.
Functioning from 1934 as a Classifying
and Approved School,
this
institution
provided an
intake
of 322 girls (aged 13
years
2months - 17 years) in 1958, of
whom 318
were
fully studied. Use
was
made
of
the
normal
examination
pro-
cedures
(medical, psychological, psychiat-
ric, etc.), and a follow-up
study
is
reported
up to 1962. No
psychiatric
social
worker was
available to
take
family
psychiatrie histories. Otherwise, rich
material
was
amassed.
Attempts
were
made
to
keep
interviews
constant
for
·a11
cases, 241 of whom
were
committed
for
sex (or related) delinquencies
and
81 for
indictable offences, especially larceny.
Three chapters
are
devoted
to
the
factors of age, intelligence and
attainment;
parent-child relations and sibling relations.
The now
characteristic
disparity
between
intelligence and educational (reading and
arithmetic) ages
was
reported,
with
some
reserve
about
their
assessment
by means
of
the
Schonell reading and
Burt
arithmetic
tests
because
the
norms
might
have
been
out
of date. One would
have
expected
that
recourse would have
been
had
to
a
control
group
to lift
the
confidence level
or to
the
use of
more
recent
tests.
It is
said
that
"Terman
Merrill, Stanford-Binet,
WISC and
other
intelligence
tests"
were
used
and
that
Raven's Matrices
Test
was
given
to
71 girls,
but
IQs
are
tabulated
and
discussed
without
speciflcation of
the
basis of the measure, or indeed
whether
a11
scores listed originated
from
one or
from different tests, although it is
stated
that
"the
final lQ
used
for statistical
purposes
was
that
taken
to
be
the
best
estimate", A
standard
score
might
with
more validity have been
used
as a means
of
equating
scores from different tests.
However, it is unlikely
that
the
deductions
are
seriouslyat
variance
with
those
which
might
have
been theoretically more
acceptable. It is also
stated
that
a
rise
of
seven
lQ
points
was
found in
the
mean
scores of Magdalen
entrants
between
1953
and 1958. A shift in delinquents' intelli-
gence is assumed,
but
in view of
the
above
comment
the
actual figure should be
treated
with
reserve.
The
study
has
interrelated
a
number
of
factors which
appear
to be causative,
not
a11
equally submissive to quantification,
such as "abnormal personality", kind of
natural
horne or
foster
horne
and
adequacy
of educational experience.
It
is
reported
that
only
44
per
cent. of
the
sample
bad
lived
with
their
own
parents.
Matemal
deprivation is Investigated,
but
with
equivocal conclusions because of
the
complex of influencing
factors-especially
the
eonflictual or broken horne.
Size
of
family is found to be signiflcant, in
circumstances
where
older
and
younger
children
are
elose in age
and
the
older
ones
have
reduced
matern
al supervision.
The
psychiatrie
classification
of
per-
sonality
into
"abnormal"
(101),
"symptoms
of
abnormality"
(64)
and
"no
important
symptoms"
(153)
was
admittedly arbitrary,
There
are
in existence a
number
of useful
tests
of
personality
traits
which could
have
made
statistical
contributlsn,
but
none
of
these
is
reported
as having
been
used.
The
mean
IQ of
the
"normal"
girls
was
lowest
(93.3);
that
of
the
"abnormal"
group
was
100.7,while
the
middle
group
came
in the
intermediate
position (96.1). It
was
concluded
that
"abnormality of
personality
and dullness of intelligence
are
largely
independent of
one
another,
and
both
increase
the
risk
of delinquency".This
conclusion - and
the
data
involved-
would
bear
verification as suggested above·
as would
the
classification of hornes as
"good",
which
rendered an excess of
"abnormal"
girls.
Conclusions
are
set
out
at
the
end
of
each chapter,
and
in a final chapter.
There
is a useful
summary
of
arguments
regard-
ing abnormalities of
the
sex
chromosomes,
and a final diseussion of socially
debatable
problems of discipline, age
at
diagnosis
and
rights
and
obligations of
parents
towards
their
children.
This ambitious
study
is a useful con-
tribution. The additional
study
of a
control
group
and more sophlsticated
treat-
ment
of psychological
data
would
have
been welcome,
but
the
mass
of
data
is
impressive.
There
are
27 tables of
resuIts
in an appendix, and a comment
on
Lady
Wootton's
critical survey, to
which
inter-
mittent
reference
was
made
in
the
text,
E. HARWOOD.
Department
of Psychology,
University of Queensland
DeUnquency Research: An Appraisal of
Analytic Methods, Travis Hirschi
and
Hannan
Selvin, The Free Press, New York,
1967, 280
pp,
Including
extensive
chapter
notes and a limited index, $A7.90.
IN
what
sense
can
we say
that
one
or
more of
the
historical events
which
inter-
vened
between
the
publication of a book
and
its review in this
Journal
caused
the
delay?
How
do
we
account
for
effects
from its colour, size, one-sitting read-
ability
and
so on? Answers
to
these
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