II. ANALYSIS AND PREVENTION OF FAMILY LIFE CONDITIONS RELATED TO
DELINQUENCY

Research is finally beginning to identify the aspects of family life experience which make the big difference in how children "turn out" when they reach young manhood and womanhood. More research of the following two types is needed: (a) Controlled comparative studies of selected samples of different types of families

This would permit getting a better understanding of the differentiating factors that produce the average boy and girl, the deviant boy and girl who become delinquent, and the deviant boy and girl who become outstanding achievers and leaders. The following are examples of some of the factors which have been studied and which hold promise for further future research.

(1) The implications of discipline upon family life.-Some previous studies have shown that delinquents are more likely to report that their fathers were disciplinarians rather than their mothers. A study of the research center for group dynamics at the University of Michigan attempted to push this finding further by showing that it was not father discipline itself that was important but the separation of nurturance from punishment functions which enables the child to turn hostility outward against others, rather than inward against the self. However, there are many unsolved questions in this area such as whether the child's perception of disciplinarian conforms to the reality of the situation, what differences are introduced when account is taken of the quantity and quality of the discipline, and how does the situation operate with girls.

(2) Power relationships in the family.-A recent study at the research center for group dynamics has shown that parental coerciveness engenders hostility, but whether this hostility is directed in social constructive or nonconstructive ways depends on other variables such as the amount of autonomy the child is granted. In addition, the mother-father power relationship and the identification choice made by the child seem to influence the child's peer group behavior along the dimensions of assertiveness, hostility, and peer group acceptance.

(3) The effects of working mothers on the family.-The question of employment by the mother and juvenile delinquency is still unanswered. Just as early studies were too quick to accept a relationship, recent studies appear to be too quick to reject the relationship. There is some evidence, for example, that within the middle class there is an association between juvenile delinquency and employment of the mother. There is also evidence in a study of elementary schoolchildren in Detroit that when the working mother does not try to actively compensate for the fact of her employment by her behavior with the child when she is home, the child exhibits social maladjustments that might at adolescence tie in with antisocial behavior. These are only preliminary findings. A real exploration of this area is needed.

(4) Social class and delinquency.—As of today, a fair amount has been written about the relationship between delinquent behavior and the social class position of the delinquent and his family. It would be desirable to test out extensively the accuracy of the hypotheses which have been developed. This might involve examination of the extent to which they hold true; whether there were real differences between children from different backgrounds as to types of delinquent behaviors; whether there were differences between families which are changing occupationally, educationally, and those not changing materially in regard to these factors.

(b) Demonstration projects offering experimental parent education experiences and youth services to special samples of families

This would enable us to see how much prevention of development of delinquency can be introduced by special education programs. While some agencies are already working with the parents of disturbed youngsters in groups, more agencies need to do so and need the help of professional group workers in order to do it. However, in addition, there is greater need by our social welfare agencies to work with parents who have or expect children in order to help them better manage their children. This type of program would be aimed at preventing delinquency before it occurs among the children in these families rather than waiting until after the fact. Recent findings of comparative research studies could be utilized in education programs.

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III. PREVENTION AND TREATMENT THROUGH SCHOOL AND COMMUNITY ORGANIZATION (a) Development of group services for the treatment of predelinquents through the high schools

There is some evidence that potential delinquents can be identified at the junior high, or entering high school, levels from information routinely available in many school systems. There is further evidence that at such points young adolescents will accept social agency services if offered to them in school related, but not school controlled, groups that encourage activities, and discussions of practical and personal problems, under trained leaders from social agencies. It is possible in such groups to separate serious from superficial problems and, hence, using these groups as the means of getting adolescents involved with trained professional workers, to continue more intensive work with the serious cases. Hence, this approach attacks the problem of delinquency prevention in two ways: (a) by handling problems that point toward deviant behavior directly in the groups before the problems become acute, and (b) by using the groups as bridges for referral of more severe cases to social agencies for intensive treatment before their situations become complicated by overt delinquencies involving police and the courts.

A combined research and demonstration project along these lines is now being carried on in New York between the High School for Fashion Industries and the Youth Consultation Service with high school girls. This project includes evaluation of the effectiveness of this approach for interrupting potentially deviant careers. This kind of project might be extended and expanded to other communities, schools, and agencies, and to include boys as well as girls. (b) An experimental work-study program for high school dropouts

It is notable that almost all juvenile correctional institutional inmates either dropped out of school, were retarded, or had other serious academic problems. For the high school dropout, the original maladjustment is further complicated. Having taken this step, he has isolated himself from the members of his peer group who are following socially accepted patterns, and has placed himself in a position where there is little opportunity for obtaining satisfying employment, or for adult guidance in planning a personally satisfactory and socially acceptable life for himself.

It is possible that a program of vocational testing, counseling, and work placement with inservice training and supervision for high school dropouts would improve social adjustment and cut down the number of high school dropouts who wind up in correctional institutions. Such a program could utilize existing governmental agencies, primarily at the county level.

An experimental project which would test this hypothesis might involve a large sample of high school dropouts who would be exposed to such a program and a comparable sample who would not, and would evaluate the social adjustment of both groups at the end of 2 or 3 years.

(c) Extension and evaluation of work with delinquent gangs

Many group work agencies have begun to send professional workers into the community to work with delinquent gangs. The purpose of such work is to help members of these gangs to channel the energy used in delinquent activities into more constructive areas for healthier social adjustment. A number of our large cities, such as New York and Detroit, have limited programs of this type in operation. Where such programs already exist, financial aid is sorely needed to extend these services in order to make a real impact on the community. Some larger communities have no such program and need help in starting them. A recent report indicates that delinquency is rising in middle-sized and smallersized cities, and this type of program is needed there also. Finally, financial aid is of great importance in the evaluation of the usefulness of such services in order to improve them.

It is suggested that group observation laboratory methods could be taken into the field and applied to more or less organized groups of nondelinquent and delinquent youths in an effort to compare their activities, group structures, and norms. At the same time the observation phase can be seen as the initial acquaintance phase of detached worker intervention into delinquent life patterns. Data collected on delinquent gangs during the first phase could be compared both to data collected on nondelinquent control groups to discover differences in life patterns, and to data on the same groups after the worker has engaged in intervention and redirection of efforts. This would enable an

objective determination of differences which may underly delinquent and nondelinquent group behavior as well as an evaluation of the effectiveness of the detached worker in changing gang behavior.

(d) Establishment of a laboratory summer camp

Camps are becoming more and more a tool in social agency practice. Research is badly needed on specific camping problems such as counselor selection, program, and camp organization. In addition, a campsite could become a place for controlled field experiments of group work practice and on group processes in general.

IV. TREATMENT THROUGH COURTS AND CORRECTIONAL INSTITUTIONS

(a) Construction of a treatment-oriented typology of delinquency

At present, information for treatment planning available to most courts is Inadequate. There is no sound basis for decisions regarding treatment alternatives and, as a result, decisions are made primarily in relation to the availability of treatment resources, without differentiating which boy or girl needs which type of care. A substantial step forward would be made in the treatment of delinquency through the establishment of a categorization of cases which could be used for a diagnostic-treatment determination. Such a classification system would have to include information on both the individual's psychological makeup and the behavior exhibited. It would provide a sounder basis for treatment planning than currently exists in many courts.

Research on this problem would include development of a typology from theoretical and practice knowledge, review of selected records to determine how much of the needed information is now available, and extensive testing of the scheme with a number of cases over a period of several years.

(b) The use of outside agencies versus the courts in providing services to probationary delinquents

There has been considerable commentary to the effect that it would be preferable if services to children and their families were given by an administrative agency rather than by the juvenile court. Some writers see this as applying in cases of dependency and neglect only; others would extend it to delinquents receiving probationary supervision as well. The argument is, in part, that for the court to investigate a complaint, make a recommendation, make an adjudication on the basis of information furnished by its own staff, and then provide continuing service, is not in the best interests of child or community.

Both research and demonstration projects would be possible here. Services could be established outside the court in a community, and the results studied. Another approach would be to study comparable communities in which the services are handled through the courts and through other agencies.

(c) The use of group methods in a court setting

Delinquent youngsters on probation under court jurisdiction can often use a therapeutic group experience. This could be carried out in various agencies, and sometimes in the courthouse building itself.

(d) Evaluation of the court and agency system for placing delinquent youth 'in

institutions

The project proposed would evaluate the present processes for institutional assignment and movement of youth on a statewide basis. It would exploit much data currently available but used for other purposes. The research would seek knowledge of the channels through which delinquent youth enter the institutional system, the decision patterns and issues in assigning youth among institutions (including psychiatric and correctional), and the subsequent routes of movement between and out of institutions. Such an analysis at the State level has not been accomplished, yet is essential to provide an adequate basis for policy formation. (e) Implementation of recent research findings regarding rehabilitation and treatment in a new juvenile correctional institution

An extensive compartive study of correctional institutions is currently under way at the University of Michigan with the purpose of analyzing organizational structure and treatment goals and their relation to the rehabilitation of inmates. In order to maximize the findings of this research, they should be implemented in a new program with particular reference to staff selection, training, institutional organization, and services. The aim would be to maximize institutional effective

ness through use of available research findings, while maintaining a realistic level of resources.

(f) Increased use of skilled group workers in institutional settings

Group living situations necessitate the use of a professional person who has knowledge of group processes and structures. Group workers have been found to be useful in such settings for leading small groups of disturbed youngsters, acting as consultants to housemothers and housefathers and, in general, helping to make use of the total living situation to aid in therapeutic goals. Extended use of such persons in a variety of institutional settings with accompanying evaluation of their effectiveness is greatly needed.

NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION PROJECT ON JUVENILE DELINQUENCY

The NEA project on juvenile delinquency represents another major service undertaking as a part of the association's expanding program. The study runs from September 15, 1958, to June 15, 1959. This project underscores the concern of the teaching profession with the spiralling problem of juvenile delinquency.

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES

The general aim of the project is to help the school administrator and the classroom teacher in the education and rehabilitation of the predelinquent and delinquent student. This objective reflects a reciprocal pupil-teacher welfare concern.

More specifically the purposes of the project are listed as follows:

(1) To define the school's role and function in dealing more effectively with the nonconfirming, overt-aggressive youngster with particular concern for the extremely difficult cases who jeopardize the education of the class as a whole as well as the welfare and morale of the teacher.

(2) To suggest specific and desirable school practices and adaptations that will help prevent and control delinquent tendencies and which are based on firm theoretical concepts determined from a distillation of research-anchored theory as found in the various disciplines.

(3) To enable the school to do a better job of early identification of the potential delinquent so that preventive measures can be taken in school and community.

(4) To indicate how the school may cooperate in an all-out community effort designed to reduce inimical delinquency-producing factors and to replace them with positive forces.

(5) To indicate how the school can be more articulate in its effort to inform the public and to enjoy popular support of its program of prevention and correction.

Precaution.-In view of the complextiy of the delinquency phenomenon, the limitations of time and funds available to the project, and the all-community involvement in the prevention and control of juvenile delinquency, the NEA project will be delimited to the above goals as practical and reasonable objectives. At the same time, care should be taken lest the project infer, for the school agency, responsibilities beyond its original and unique functions, or imply that delinquency is mainly the problem of this one community resource.

DIRECTIONS AND CENTERS OF INTEREST

Phase 1: Establishment of a sound theoretical concept or rationale concerning the meaning of delinquency as an aspect of adjustive behavior in school and society on which to structure preventive and corrective school action.— This will involve a distillation of the best thought as to the definition of delinquency including causative aspects as seen in the interaction of personality and environmental forces using an interdisciplinary approach.

Methods and machinery.-Using a carefully selected three or four-man team of experts who embody broad inter disciplinary experiences with the delinquent, a brief but comprehensive theoretical statement will be prepared. This document will then be circulated for comment and agreement through a wider circle of 10 or 12 delinquency experts representing different fields in the be havioral sciences.

Product.-Working Document I presenting a theoretical statement on the meaning and causes of delinquent behavior.

Phase 2: Determination by professional educators of desirable school practices and adaptations that stem as implications from the theoretical orientation in working Dacument I.-To suggest action programs or practical approaches without any frame of reference to research and theory, can easily result in impractical-practical programs which may actually be irrelevant to the delinquency phenomenon. Action implications would be sought under such headings as space, personnel, curriculum, special services, liaison responsibilities,

etc.

Methods and machinery.-Three or four regional conferences to be held with selected school personnel who have been active in research or in servicing the predelinquent and the delinquent. Basic Document I will be made available to the conferees prior to the meeting which will be run on a workshop basis aimed to identify desirable school adaptations and practices.

Workshop sessions would also be conducted at annual meetings of such groups as Council for Exceptional Children, Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, National Association of School Administrators, ParentTeacher Association, Department of Secondary School Principals, etc. The opportunity for working through some nonschool groups such as National Probation and Parole Association, National Conference of Juvenile Court Judges, Association of Training School Superintendents, and National Conference of Social Workers, will be explored. It may be particularly helpful to see what nonschool personnel who come in close contact with delinquency consider the role of the school to be in prevention and control.

Product.-Working Document II will incorporate the professional educators' statements of desirable school practices and adaptations aimed to prevent and control juvenile delinquency through the school agency. This document would be organized around such areas as: Early identification of the predelinquent and delinquent; study and diagnostic services; teacher as a person; teacher as a teamworker; teacher as a counselor; treatment and rehabilitation; curriculum implications; research and trends at the local level.

Through this participatory approach, centered around a prepared theoretical statement, it is expected that the project might lead closer to implementation at the local level through heightening of interest and through knowledge gained in the institutes and in meetings of departments of the NEA.

Phase 3. Description of school-community programs exemplifying many of the promising adaptations for prevention and control of juvenile delinquency.— This phase of the project will aim to locate, to describe, and to illustrate a number of specific school programs which have in the past years succeeded in denting the delinquency problem. An attempt will be made, at the same time, to gain insight as to how they got that way. This would involve questions pertaining to community understanding and support of such programs.

Methods and machinery.—A systematic search for school-community programs for delinquency prevention and control will be made by writing to all State school offices and executive secretaries of State education associations. At the same time, a careful check of the delinquency literature will be made to locate school programs that have attempted to help the teacher and delinquent. The officials in these centers will be invited to submit descriptions of their programs with any other pertinent material.

The working documents I and II, involving theory and suggested practices, will be checked against the experiences of these school systems as a part of a validation process. The same documents may be used ultimately as a guide for evaluation of local school effort.

Product.-Document III: Description of varied school programs in action reflecting the implications that have come out of documents I and II.

Phase 4. National Invitational Conference on Implementation.—A final invitational conference presenting a summary of the first three phases will be aimed at implementation of desirable practices for delinquency prevention and control at the local level.

Methods and machinery.—The core group will include school personnel drawn from representatives of NEA departments, practitioners in the field, and representatives from State departments of education and State education associations. Using the theme that delinquency prevention and control is everyone's business and that the most promising approach is to work through existing programs, the invitation conference would involve classroom teachers; school administrators and supervisors; special educators; teacher training personnel; physical education, health and recreation personnel; counselors; visiting teachers, etc.