The purpose of the present study was to investigate the relationship between delinquents’ problems and their cognition of characters in “THE SPIDER WEB” , which is a story written by R. Akutagawa. The delinquent was asked to compare “Kandata” and “Buddha” , being the characters in the story, to himself and his environment. The aim was to elucidate how to recognize the two characters and also how to identify himself with the two characters. His own image was supposed to be projected on “Kandata” and the image of authorities was on “Buddha” . Consequently, according to the cognitive balance of the tripartite relation among “Kandata” , “Buddha” and himself as reader, the responses were marked expediently and the delinquents were classified into some groups. On the other hand, delinquents’ problems were the result of the classification, that of the trial, the prognosis, the personality trait and so on.

The results were obtained as follows: (1) The delinquent who was positive and ego-alien to “Kandata” tended to overestimate his ability and have higher risk of reentrance to the Classification Home. (2) That who was negative and ego-syntonic to “Kandata” objectified himself and had a great potential for re-adapting himself to the circumstance. (3)That who was negative and ego-alien to “Kandata” was trouble because he lacked ability for reflecting on himself and examining the matter closely. (4) Attributing to the external, that who was negative to “Buddha” couldn’t be reassured for his prognosis, (5) Especially for that who was negative to both “Kandata” and “Buddha” , it was difficult to internalize what educators taught.

本研究は，1980年に全国の少年院を出院した男子3,320人について，出院後2年間の再逮捕状況を調査し，少年の処遇類型別に再犯の有無と11要因（①出院時の年齢，②施設収容歴，③出院時の引受人，④在院日数，⑤在院1月当たりの面会回数，⑥少年院送致決定にある非行の種別，⑦非行時の学職状況，⑧非行時の所在，⑨知能指数，⑩非行時の実父母の有無，⑪非行時の家庭の生活程度）との関係を分析したものである。その結果，全体では施設収容歴の有無が最も再犯の有無と密接な関係にあったが，初等少年院一般短期処遇の出院者では非行時の居住状態が，特別少年院の出院者では在院期間が，それぞれ施設収容歴と同様に再犯の有無と密接な関係にあることがわかった。一方，中等少年院で交通短期処遇の出院者や人格の未熟な処遇類型に分類された少年では，施設収容歴がさほど再犯と密接に結び付いていなかった。比較的非行性の浅い者を処遇する中等少年院交通短期処遇や非行性の進んだ者を処遇する特別少年院では，全体で行なった分析結果よりも処遇類型別に行なった分析結果の方が予測の効率は高まった。今後の研究の課題としては，より優れた再犯原因の理論とそれに裏打ちされた因子の測定，及び最適な確率モデルの作成を行ない，合わせて実務に即した研究を行なっていくことが必要である。一方，再犯により刑務所に収容されていた144人の意識調査によれば，出院後における家庭環境の悪化とともに，離職一家出一暴力団への加入一覚せい剤濫用という，典型的な再犯に至る課程が明らかにされ，出院後の出来事に対する対処の仕方や更生への意欲が再犯に大きな影響力を持ちうることが再確認された。