ANTISOCIAL behavior: DELINQUENCY AND CRIME 399 



Our findings on this seem conclusive, and indeed, it has 

 been noted as a common sense observation by various 

 judges in juvenile courts. The implications of such over- 

 development are obvious. The girl's over-size or over-develop- 

 ment of secondary sex characteristics plays its part in her 

 own mental and emotional hfe, as w^ell as in her social 

 situation. Precocious puberty, taken alone, is much less a 

 factor than this one of structural development, the posses- 

 sion of an unusually good physique. 



Any student of young offenders comes to know the incen- 

 tives to social misconduct that there are in the possession 

 of a strong body without sufficient chances for satisfactory 

 outlets in exercise, adventure and excitement. With the 

 increasing development of our close urban Hfe, the correlation 

 between delinquent activity and the need for physical 

 adventure and excitement becomes very apparent. It is 

 safe to say that many of the criminal offenses of later 

 adolescence, even some of the more desperate ones, are 

 due to need for activity and adventure on the part of young 

 men. The biological background of this situation is plain 

 to us in many cases, particularly where the individual has 

 a physical structure displaying more than ordinary energy 

 and development. 



EMOTIONAL LIFE AS RELATED TO CRIME 



The part which the emotional hfe plays in the production 

 of antisocial behavior of many sorts is entirely under- 

 standable. It has become a matter of deep interest, not 

 only for the psychologist and psychiatrist, but also for the 

 physiologist. Something of the biological, structural as well 

 functional, foundations of emotional life are becoming known 

 through researches of great import. The work of Head, 

 Cannon and others, for example, in demonstrating the optic 

 thalamus as, at least, one center of emotional activity, is 

 immensely important for understanding, not only the human 

 body, but also the human personality. 



Endocrinology, to the front so much just now, has made 

 great claims in explanation of personality characteristics 

 and conduct trends. There seems to be a modicum of truth 

 in the enthusiasm. Conservative scientific endocrinologists 



