578 TEE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



regular police and common pleas courts. It is, however, most im- 

 portant for these Juvenile Court officers to know whether or not the 

 so-called badness of the child is due to defect, and in what direction 

 and to what extent he may be educated for useful citizenship. 



The question of defect, therefore, is looming large in the whole 

 field of delinquency. . In order to economize effort at reform, and at the 

 same time make the greatest social salvage possible from these threaten- 

 ing wreeks of lives, we must know what is reformable. Clear de- 

 fectives can not be trained into responsible citizens. They must have 

 the education, which will bring them the greatest amount of happiness 

 and make them as nearly self-supporting as possible, but they are not to 

 be expected to become self- directive. They must be directed, and they 

 must be prevented from propagating their defects. 



There are cases of delinquency in which experts will agree that 

 there is deficiency of the moral or social organization, while no definite 

 defect in intelligence can be made out. There is defect in the organiza- 

 tion of the self, and in the power of self-control. This defect is in- 

 herent also, and can not be remedied by education. This class of cases, 

 some are classifying with defective delinquents. They are close to what 

 have been called psychopathic personalities and cases of moral insanity. 

 The defect is, of course, more difficult to define than a definite in- 

 telligence defect. It is also less certain that it is congenital and non- 

 recoverable. For these reasons, attempts to reform, through most 

 skillfully guided education, should be made. Tliis is the class for our 

 reform schools. No clear defectives should be sent thither. 



There are other delinquents coming to probation officers, and some 

 to reform schools, who are in no sense defective. They are purely the 

 product of mismanagement or lack of management. They are de- 

 linquent because society has not socialized them, and not through any 

 lack of capacity to become socialized. These should never be sent to 

 institutions. They need good home environments. 



The large economic problem of delinquency has thus defined itself. 

 No one can doubt the economic importance of making investigations 

 into the causes of delinquency in each case, and the application of 

 Ijsychology and sociology to whatever extent possible in every case. 

 Many cases are clear-cut. The relatively untrained person knows this 

 one to be feeble-minded, and that one to be purely the product of a bad 

 environment. But the doubtful group, a large one, demands expert 

 talent for investigation. 



Another field of research, and closely akin, is immediately sug- 

 gested to the alert student of these problems. It is not only the 

 scientific handling of the individual delinquent, so as to make the most 

 social salvage of him, and save society the expense of supporting him, 

 if possible. It is much more important to stop this social waste — ^this 



