Dinitz, Simon

Kay, Barbara

Reckless, Walter C.

English

Northwestern University Illinois, School of Law: Scholarly Commons

Journal of Criminal Law and CriminologyVolume 49 | Issue 3 Article 41958Self Gradient among Potential Delinquents, ASimon DinitzWalter C. RecklessBarbara KayFollow this and additional works at: https://scholarlycommons.law.northwestern.edu/jclcPart of the Criminal Law Commons, Criminology Commons, and the Criminology and CriminalJustice CommonsThis Article is brought to you for free and open access by Northwestern University School of Law Scholarly Commons. It has been accepted forinclusion in Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology by an authorized editor of Northwestern University School of Law Scholarly Commons.Recommended CitationSimon Dinitz, Walter C. Reckless, Barbara Kay, Self Gradient among Potential Delinquents, A, 49 J. Crim. L. Criminology & PoliceSci. 230 (1958-1959)A SELF GRADIENT AMONG POTENTIAL DELINQUENTS*SIMON DINITZ, WALTER C. RECKLESS Aim BARBARA KAYDr. Simon Dinitz is an Assistant Professor of Sociology and Research Associate at the ColumbusPsychiatric Institute and Hospital. He is the author of several articles and monographs and for thepast four years has been collaborating with Dr. Reckless on a series of studies on delinquency.Dr. Walter C. Reckless holds a joint appointment as Professor of Social Administration and Sociol-ogy at Ohio State University. He is the author of several books and monographs and numerous articleson crime and delinquency. He is currently serving as a member of the Advisory Council of the Divi-sion of Corrections, State of Ohio, and is also a member of the Scientific Advisory Committee of theInternational Criminological Society.Miss Barbara Kay, a graduate student in the Department of Sociology, has been collaborating withthe authors for the past three years on these studies. She is also on the staff at Wittenberg College-EDITOR.This paper presents an analysis of 101 twelveyear old white boys in the highest delinquencyareas in Columbus, Ohio, who were nominated bytheir sixth-grade room teachers as headed forpolice and juvenile court contact. In this sensethey were conceived of as being potentially de-linquent boys. In a previous paper this entiregroup of potentially delinquent boys was comparedwith 125 potentially insulated boys who werenominated by teachers in the same schools in thesame high delinquency areas as youngsters whowould not come into contact with the police orjuvenile court.6The major findings in this comparative studyindicated that the potentially insulated boys con-sistently defined themselves as accepting legaland social norms in their home and school life andin their friendship patterns and leisure activitiesand that they conceived of themselves as "good"boys. The potentially delinquent nominees, on theother hand, were more negative in their appraisalsof self and in the perceptions of their relationships.Many anticipated being involved in violationalbehavior and most of them associated with friendswho had a record of previous misconduct. Theyalso less favorably evaluated their relationships athome and in school. The authors therefore pro-posed that appropriate or inappropriate conceptsof self and others constituted the component whichsteered boys in adverse neighborhood environ-ments away from or towards delinquency.1' 5,* This study was supported by a grant of the OhioState University Development Fund.1 CROFT, IVOR J. AND TADEUSZ GRYGIER, "SocialRelationships of Truants and Juvenile Delinquents",HumAN RELATIoNs, 9 (December, 1956), pp. 439-463.The purpose of the present paper is, if possible,to further validate the above findings. If poten-tially good boys in high delinquency areas havesocially acceptable or appropriate concepts of selfand others and if these are concurred in by theirmothers and teachers, and if potentially delinquentboys had adverse concepts of self and others whichare equally concurred in by their mothers andteachers, then it would seem logical that the al-ready delinquent white boys among those nomi-nated as potentially delinquent should show evenmore delinquency vulnerability and an even greatertendency towards having an adverse concept ofself. Likewise, high scorers on a delinquencyproneness test should show a greater tendency tohave adverse concepts of self than low scorers.Furthermore, from the point of view of self-theorywe would expect that the mothers of he high2 ELY, JoaN S., An Ecological Study of JuvenileDelinquency in Franklin County, Master's Thesis,Ohio State University, 1952.3GoUGH, HARRISON G., "Systematic Validation of aTest for Delinquency", reprint of a paper delivered atthe annual meeting of the American Psychological As-sociation, September, 1954.4 GOUGH, HARRIsON G. AND DONALD R. PETERSON,"The Identification and Measurement of Predisposi-tional Factors in Crime and Delinquency", JouR OFCONSULT PSYcHoL, 16 (June, 1952), pp. 207-212.5 McCANN, RicHARD C., "The Self Image andDelinquency: Some Implications for Religion", FED-ERAL PROBATION, 20 (September, 1956), pp. 14-23.6 REcKLEss, WALTER C., SIMON DnTz AND BAR-BARA KAY, "The Self Component in Potential De-linquency and Non-Delinquency", AMER. SOCIOL REv.,22 (October, 1957), 566-570.7 REcKLEss, WALTER C., SIMON DnmTz AND BAR-BARA KAY, "Self Concept as an Insulator AgainstDelinquency", AMER. SOCIOL REv., 21 (December,1956), pp. 744-746.POTENTIAL DELINQUENTSscorers should agree with their sons' perceptionsof intra-family relationships no less often thanthe mothers of the low scorers should agree withtheir sons' perceptions of intra-family relation-ships. This paper will present data bearing onthese propositions. Before doing so, however,certain general findings on our potentially delin-quent nominees will be discussed.Thirty-seven sixth-grade teachers in twentyschools located in the highest areas of white de-linquency in Columbus, Ohio, selected 108 boys asbeing potentially delinquent.2 These boys consti-tuted one-fourth of the eligible students. Theaverage class contained 11.7 white boys and 2.9boys per class were nominated. While nine teachersfailed to nominate a single student, the nomina-tions in a few classrooms ran as high as 60 percentof the eligible boys.A check of police and juvenile court files re-vealed that twenty-five of these twelve year oldboys, 23 percent, were already on record forprevious offenses which ranged from charges ofincorrigibility to theft. (An awareness of some oftheir students' previous police and court contactsundoubtedly influenced the teachers in theirnominations.)Of 108 boys nominated as being potentiallydelinquent the 101 who were eventually contactedscored high on the delinquency vulnerability andcorrespondingly low on the social responsibilityscales of the California Psychological Inventory.2 4Their mean delinquency vulnerability (DE) scalescore was 22.60 and their mean social responsibility(RE) score was 24.26. These mean scores weresignificantly higher on the DE and lower on theRE scales than those made by the "good" boysof the first study. Indeed, this mean delinquencyvulnerability score was higher than that achievedby any of the non-delinquent and non-disciplinarysample subjects tested in other studies. Similarly,the mean social responsibility score was lowerthan those recorded in other studies for all butprisoners, delinquents and school disciplinarycases. These scores appeared to validate the judge-ments of the teachers in selecting these boys asones who would get into future difficulties withthe law.Not only did these scales appear to differentiatebetween the potentially delinquent and non-de-linquent but even more importantly they werefound to discriminate with the sample of nomi-nated delinquents between those boys who hadand those who had not experienced previous courtcontact. The 24 boys who were on file for offenseshad a mean score of 25.58 on the DE iind 21.50on the RE scales. The 77 who were free of contactscored 21.68 on the DE and 25.12 on the REscales. These differences between the contact andno contact groups on both scales were statisticallysignificant. (These data are presented in Table I.)ComhARisox OF THE DELiNQUENT wiTTHE NON-DELINQUENT BUT PRONENOmINEEsEvidence 'obtained in this investigation con-cerns the results of a comparison of 24 boys whohad previously experienced police or court contactand the 77 who had not yet been involved in re-ported violations of law. The former, it will berecalled, had been found to score significantlyhigher on the delinquency vulnerability scale andsignificantly lower on the social responsibilityinstruments than the non-contact cases. Two-thirds of those with previous court contact hadTABLE IMEAN DELINQUENCY VULNERABILITY AND SocIAL RESPONSIBILITY ScoRES OF "INSULATED", POTENTIALLYDELINQUENT AND COURT CONTACT SAmPLE RESPONDENTSScales and Samples N Mean Score S.D. C.R. PDelinquency Vulnerability Scale 125"Insulated" cases 125 14.57 6.42 8.19 .001Potential Delinquents 101 22.60 7.99No Court Contact 77 21.68 7.24 2.14 .03Court Contact 24 25.58 9.40Social Responsibility Scale"Insulated" cases 125 28.86' 3.60 7.86 .001Potential Delinquents 101 24.26 4.91No Court Contact 77 25.12 4.07 3.32 .001Court Contact 24 21.50 4.8219581DINITZ, RECKLESS AND KAYEbeen among the high delinquency vulnerabilitysubjects, using the mean score as the breakingpoint.Although all of the twelve year old subjects hadbeen nominated as almost certain prospects forfuture legal action, the findings indicated thatthose who had already been in trouble with thelaw defined themselves significantly more oftenthan the others as likely candidates for gettinginto future difficulties with the police and courts.For example, two-thirds of the contact cases statedthat they expected to be taken to juvenile courtat some time in the future as against only 10percent of the non-contact boys. This differencewas also reflected by the mothers of both sets ofrespondents. Nearly 30 percent of the mothers ofthe contact cases did not expect their sons to stayout of trouble. This compares with eight percentof the mothers of the non-contact subjects whofelt that their sons would not avoid future difficul-ties. Similarly, significantly more of the contactcases expected to be taken to jail.In addition, a significantly greater proportionof the contact cases frequently neglected to informtheir parents of their whereabouts and activities,more frequently relied on their friends, rather thanon their parents for advice, had older friends andthought that they would neither stay out oftrouble nor complete high school.While neither group of respondents defined theirfamily affectional relationships as being highlysatisfactory, and undoubtedly because of this, nosignificant differences were found between themon these items. The contact and non-contact sub-jects did not differ in their evaluations of familyaffectional patterns, discipline, attachment, at-tention or interest.From these results it is apparent that the con-tact cases in many respects seem to be confirmedin their delinquent self concepts to a greater ex-tent than are the others. Whether this is a causeor effect of their previous experience with thepersons and machinery surrounding the legalprocesses cannot be determined. Neither can theevaluations of their mothers and teachers be saidto be the cause or result of the boys' greater ex-pectations for delinquency in the future.HIGH AND Low ScoRERs AMONG THEDELINQUENCY PRONE BoysAdditional data obtained in this research alsotends to support the thesis that delinquencyproneness is associated with self concept and withdifferential evaluations of interpersonal relations.The 48 high and 53 low scorers on the delinquencyvulnerability scale appeared to differ significantlyin some of their self-concepts, friendship patterns,relations with parents and self-appraisals withregard to the probability of becoming involved infuture legal and social forms of delinquency. Forexample, significantly fewer of the low scorersthought they would ever incur juvenile courtaction or detention or ever be taken to jail.In general, significantly more of the low scorersindicated that they were stricter about right andwrong than most people and predicted that theywould stay out of trouble. It is equally significantto indicate that more of the low scorers sought tokeep out of trouble at all costs and fewer hadfriends who were older or who had been in troublewith the law. Significantly more of the low scorersabided by their parents wishes, preferred the ad-vice of their parents to that of their friends, andkept their parents informed about their activitiesand friends. More of the low scorers held positiveattitudes towards school. They indicated thatthere was very little parental and sibling conflictat home, that the family members were close toone another, and that they were receiving moreattention from their mothers than most boys.These findings are especially significant for tworeasons. First, all of the boys, both low and highscorers, were nominated as being potentially de-linquent. Despite this built-in homogeneity, dif-ferences in self concept and interpersonal evalua-tions were found. Second, the low and high scorersas a group were found to differ significantly onmost of these same and other variables from thegroup of "insulated" good boys who had beennominated and studied in the same way. Theseresults would consequently seem to give furtherconfirmation to the thesis that an appropriate orinappropriate self concept is an important com-ponent of non-delinquency and delinquency.AGREEMENT WITH MoT Rs' EvALuATIoxsThe mothers of the high and low scorers alsodiffered in many of their concepts of their sonsand of intra-family relationships. Thus, themothers of the low scorers more frequently indi-cated that they knew their sons' friends and wereinterested in their activities. They also indicatedthat therewas very little conflict in the home andthat they were very attentive to their sons. In[Vol. 49POTENTIAL DELINQUENTSother respects, such as discipline, affection, par-ental strictness or laxity and the like there wereno differences between the two groups of parents.If, as has been held by the interactional theorists,self concept is a reflection of the definitions of one'sself held by others, then the high scorers and theirparents would be expected to agree as frequentlyin their evaluations of each other and their rela-tionships as would the low scorers and their par-ents. Analysis of the data revealed that such wasindeed the case. The parents of the high scorersagreed with the more negative definitions of theirsons as consistently as did the parents of the lowscorers with their sons' more positive images. Theareas of agreement for both groups included the'boy's ability to avoid future difficulties with thelaw, his friends and activities and whether thesewere desirable, his relationships with his parents,his general activity, level and even whether hewill finish high school.SUMMARYAs an extension of a previous investigation of"insulated" boys in high delinquency areas, thesame sixth-grade treachers in the same schools inthe same high delinquency areas in Columbus,Ohio nominated one-fourth of their eligible white'students as being almost certain to experiencefuture police and juvenile court contact. Investi-gation revealed that some 23 percent of thesetwelve year old boys had already experienced suchcontact.These 101 nominated subjects were found toscore significantly higher on the delinquencyvulnerability scale and significantly lower on thesocial responsibility scale of the Gough CaliforniaPsychological Inventory than 125 "insulated" boystested previously. The 24 previous contact casesas compared with the 77 non-contact cases werealso found to score significantly higher on thedelinquency vulnerability scale and lower on thesocial responsibility scale. The previous contactcases indicated that they expected to get intofuture difficulties with the law much more fre-quently than the non-contact but delinquencyprone nominees and these differential expectationsalso were reflected by the mothers of both sets ofrespondents.Within the sample of nominated delinquentsthose boys who had high scores on the delinquencyvulnerability scale were found to differ significantlyin the direction of delinquency from the low scorersin some of their concepts of self and others, friend-ship patterns and relations with parents and in theevaluations of their chances of becoming involvedin future difficulties with the law. The mothers ofthe high scorers were found to agree no less oftenwith their sons' more negative self and socialdefinitions than the mothers of the low scorers didin their sons' somewhat more positive orientationsand evaluations.These results seemed to lend further support tothe thesis that an appropriate or inappropriateconcept of self is an important component in non-delinquency and delinquency.19581

Self Gradient among Potential Delinquents, A

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Self Gradient among Potential Delinquents, A

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