Investigation of Juvenile Delinquents

Abstract

I have principally studied juvenile delinquents who were taken into reformatories; and the causes of their errors which were fund chiefly in their heredity and environment. The various results of my investigatim lespecting their heredity revealed that there were many insane or feeble-minded persons, Erni confirmed criminals among their cloae relatives. They seem to have inherited many defects from their parents, such as congenital weak character and mental degeneration. Especially, syphilis hereditaria was proved in 19.9% by means of Wasserman's reaction. The result of mental test proved none of very supe for and supeiior: only 3.1% were high average, 16.9 % were average, 42.1% low average, 27.8 % were inferior, and 9.8 % were very inferior. These figures show us that there are very few of the high intellcctual among them, but they are generally inferior in that respect.
The study of their environment shows that many of them came from poor families. The most remarkable fact 13 that many of them are orphans. Those who are not in orphanage hold totally only 30.5%. Only a few were brought up by their parents, and the rest were separate from thcm by death or other circumstances. Those who were separated from their parents at an early age were generally found to talce a poorer course in inverse proportion to their ages. Only 8.6% had good friends, the rest had none or only vicious ones. Thus we can easily judge that they are greatly tempted by vicious companions. Their school recorie were generally poorerthan the; r Inte ligence quotient. This is perhaps due to their family conditions and individualities. Among the delinquents there were also many who were suffering from urinal incoltinance in sleep; those who were not suffering from it over five years of age, were only 32.6%. As for their blood groups, they agreed w th those of the Japanese in general, and no Sfseciality was found about them. If there were any relation between the blood groups and their dispositions, as is insisted upon by some scholars, there must be to some extent any Peculiarity in blood groups of juvenile delinquents but thies was not to find.
With regard to the immediate causes of their crimes, the needs of money to spend on sweets and to visit cinemas, were the most general; the temptation of vicious friends, idleness, and degeneration came next in number; and some of them were also found to be delinquent after having been brought up in an indulgent way, or with excessive reproaches. As for the order of their birth, it seems that first born children were in the majority, but comparatively few were found among the eldests and the youngests when there were more than two in a family; and many were found in children who were in the middle among childerns of the same paren