window may vary considerably from what is seen by others. The policeman, viewing the young offender largely in terms of the legal aspects of misbehavior, is concerned mainly with what he did and the evidence to substantiate it.

The social worker is not concerned so much with what he did, recognizing behavior to be symptomatic, but rather raises the question of the meaning of the malbehavior or the why of the behavioral mechanism. At the other extreme, the complainant or the offended party may view the behavior only in terms of the harm and hurt that he has suffered. His point of view may be charged with revenge or retaliation, and he may see the delinquent as a junior criminal who must be punished or put away. Much misunderstanding can and does arise from these varying viewpoints within a community. Teachers need to recheck their own attitudes and note if they fall on the side of the complainant, the policeman, or the social worker.

The Legal Look

Legally a youngster under a certain age, which varies from state to state (18 in most states), is a delinquent only when a juvenile court adjudicates to this effect. This means that he has committed a specific act or acts in violation of some law of the state or an ordinance or regulation of a subdivision of the state. The term delinquent may also include those children who are wayward or habitually disobedient, the habitually truant from home or school, and the children who habitually behave so as to impair or endanger the morals or health of self or others.

There are many children who engage in delinquent-like behavior but who never arrive at official status since they are not brought to the court's attention. Studies of "hidden delinquency” indicate that less than 2 percent of the youngsters, who commit offenses for which they could be charged officially as delinquent, actually show up in official statistics. These same studies also suggest that many nondelinquents have been as delinquent, if not more so, than their officially dubbed counterparts, judging from the number and types of offenses reported by the nondelinquents themselves. Several implications are evident: (a) Many children work out their behavior problems without the help of

a vast network of social and clinical agencies. (b) The general prevalence of delinquent behavior among children and youth suggests a strong cultural determinant. (c) There is an unknown number of factors operating to screen and "protect" some youngsters from court treatment. (d) Studies based upon court cases, a hardy breed of delinquents, may be somewhat misleading if they are treated like a true or unselected sample of the universe of delinquent-like behavioral deviates.

One of the difficult problems to be faced by all community workers centers on the question: Shall we take this malbehaving child to the court agency? Following the lead of the research findings that relate to the number of offenses committed by delinquents prior to their first court referral, the implication is that this is done only as a last resort and only for certain carefully selected cases. School personnel and other referring agents make the serious error of delaying or postponing their use of courts. To some extent this reluctance to refer malbehaving juveniles to the proper legal resources stems from a combination of a misunderstanding of the nature, purpose, functioning, and climate of the juvenile court and from a false sentimentality involving "protection from the stigma of the court." Some of this hesitancy stems from the hard fact that many juvenile courts are juvenile courts in name only.

When an apparent delinquent act occurs and when school personnel are in doubt as to the best disposition of the case, it is good policy and practice to confer with the local police, preferably a member of the juvenile aid division, or with the local pro

bation officer concerning the advisability of a court hearing. If these community resource persons are not available or if the school staff is still in doubt as to the best action, it is always on the side of wisdom to refer to the court since it alone serves as a legal child-welfare agency.

The Psycho-Social Look

The delinquent child is a specialist who knows only one way or only limited ways of expressing his feelings or conflicts outwardly and in a manner that hurts himself or others. Usually the delinquency represents an attempt on the part of the child to solve a serious or prolonged problem. From the point of view of the youngster the delinquency may represent adjustive and purposive behavior; from the point of view of adult authority the misconduct represents irritating behavior that society finds unacceptable and contrary to its value system.

There is something positive in much of delinquent behavior. Frequently the maladaptation indicates that the youngster is doing something about his problem or that he is putting up a fight. In this manner delinquent behavior can serve a useful purpose in that it indicates to the school worker that the young offender needs careful observation from a diagnostic vantage point and that he may need first-aid treatment and in some cases more extended treatment or therapy.

Contrary to the emphasis in the legal picture, the clinical approach places little stress on the exact nature of the malbehavior itself, recognizing the behavioral mechanism as a symptom of underlying conditions. Classifying young offenders under such headings as stealing, breaking and entering, and vandalism is not very basic or informing. Most of these deviations represent behavioral compromises and signify varying degrees of frustration, conflict, or tensions which may be caused by an infinite variety of situations in the child's personal-social background. In fact, the malbehavior may even mask or cover up the true nature of the child's problem as in the case of the youngster who attacks school authority because it is an easier and safer target than the betraying and rejecting parent figure in a distorted home relationship.

Finally, there is no clear line between delinquents and nondelinquents. Behavior distortions are a matter of degree. They exist on a continuous scale. It is difficult, if not impossible, to draw a line dividing this behavior continuum. Whether a child will be treated as a delinquent depends as much upon the irritability level of the adult community as it does upon the malbehavior itself. Because some misdeeds, such as sexual misconduct, vandalism, and attack upon persons, tend to irritate adults, youngsters showing these symptoms are most likely to be identified by teachers and others.

Summing up, the delinquent is a child who expresses his feelings in a manner to hurt himself or others. By his behavior he tells us that he needs help badly. The classroom teacher can ignore him, he can punish him, or he can help him.

MODALITIES OF DELINQUENTS

The term juvenile delinquent defies neat and precise definition. Both legally and clinically it remains a rather vague and amorphous concept. In recent years a number of investigators have attempted to define the true delinquent further by distinguishing the varieties of delinquents that fall under this omnibus heading. These classifications are drawn according to the disturbed areas within a delinquent which, in turn, result in defense mechanisms, behavior compromises, or adjustments which are considered maladaptations according to value systems of adults in dominant society. These modalities are conceived around special patterns or clusters of traits, and integrated behavior forms or syndromes. No system of classification satisfies a majority of workers in the field.

Some of these types are overlapping and may blend into one another within the wide spectrum of delinquent behavior. Knowledge of the existence of a variety of delinquents, however, can help in distinguishing between quasi-delinquents and true delinquents as well as between the pattern of causes and the kinds of treatment that are implicit within each of the most frequent types of misbehavior.

Quasi-Delinquents

Many youngsters who are given the delinquency label are not true delinquents. In American culture a certain amount of “wildness" is expected of a young person during his high-school and college years. In fact, mature adults frequently boast of their youthful escapades (delinquencies) which they somehow survived without apparent harm to self or society. There are many mistakes that youth can make in mastering the developmental tasks as they grow toward adulthood. Some of these mistakes could be filed under a delinquency label.

The pseudo- or quasi-delinquent is a rather well-integrated youngster who makes a mistake or who misses his target only to do injury to others. Left to himself, he will generally work out his own problems or will become typical by the natural process of maturation. The Halloween prankster, who in the evening's enthusiasm breaks a plate glass window or defaces a new car but is otherwise well-behaved, can fall in this category. The swift-moving crowd of boys riding the crest of a football victory on a Saturday afternoon that invades the corner drug store and damages chairs, tables, and glassware in its natural exhilaration may represent a group that would be damaged personally and socially if handled as truly delinquent.

We do not know how many quasi-delinquents are mistaken for the real thing. Unfortunately there are no simple markers that will enable the classroom teacher to distinguish between behavior, truly or seemingly delinquent. Some help in making this distinction can be forthcoming from a study of the kinds of malbehaving youngsters who may be considered to be prototypes of true delinquents.

True Delinquents

Although no systematic and precise classification is yet available on the varieties of true delinquents, there is agreement on the existence of certain modalities centered mainly on the pattern of disturbances within the syndrome of malbehavior. At least three prominent subcategories are discernible and have special implications for prevention, prognosis, and treatment.