1,000,000 DELINQUENTS

The outcome of a yearlong study made by the Education Editor of the New York Times after he had attended a National Education Association convention at which Herbert Brownell stated that within the coming year, 1,000,000 boys and girls would be picked up by the police. This is a combination of fact with feeling that can provide fuel for public action. Mr. Fine gathered his material through questionnaires, from interviews with 1500 children, from visits to courts, training schools, and talks with people in the field. He seeks the causes of delinquency, the nature of this disease which has reached epidemic proportions, and looks ahead to the cure. He tells what is being done and what has to be tried in the effort to stem the course of delinquency. The children who do a good deal of the talking in this book reveal more than their deeds and attitudes. The influence of the home, slums and gangs; the place of community, police, courts are spotlighted. The recurring theme in the child's feeling of rejection in the home situation. Complimented with statistics, this is of special value in going directly to the boys themselves and linking the information they give with the external situation.