﻿Edmondson : Juvenile Delinquency and Adult Crime 51 



offense charged in the affidavit is perhaps the one of which the 

 child is found guilty, the one chosen as being the most fundamen- 

 tal, the most obvious, etc. For example, a child brought into court 

 on a charge of confirmed truancy might just as well have bee a 

 brought in for theft or incorrigibility, of both of which offenses he 

 is guilty, truancy having been selected as being sufficient to bring 

 the child into court where a course of treatment may be worked 

 out. 



In this study the classification of kinds of offense is that used 

 by John Koren in the special report of the United States Census 

 of Prisoners and Juvenile Delinquents in the United States in 

 1904. This classification divides kinds of offenses into three 

 principal groups: offenses against society, offenses against the 

 person, and offenses against property. In this study offenses 

 against society include incorrigibility, confirmed truancy, and a 

 group of offenses against morals including vicious gangs, immoral 

 girls, obscene language, aid indecent conduct; offenses against 

 the person include rape and assault; offenses against property 

 include railway trespass, petit larceny, breaking in and destroying- 

 school property; other offenses include the breaking of city 

 ordinances. 



Of the groups represented the Americans furnish more than 

 their proportional share of offenses against morals and incor- 

 rigibility, less than their share of truancy, and no petit larcency; 

 the Colored show no incorrigibility or truancy cases, but furnish 

 more than their share of offenses against morals and petit larcency 

 cases; the Old Immigration furnishes more than its share of 

 incorrigibility and truancy cases, but no offenses against morals 

 or petit larcency cases; and the New Immigration furnishes less 

 than its share of incorrigibility and offenses against morals, but 

 more than its share of truancy cases, and much more than its 

 share of petit larceny cases. 



This study of juvenile delinquency in Gary shows no specific 

 kind 4 of offense unusual in juvenile delinquency. In juvenile 

 delinquency, offenses against society and against property form 

 the greatest proportion, while offenses against the person play a 

 very small part. In Gary incorrigibility, truancy, offenses against 

 morals, and petit larceny rank highest in proportional numbers. 5 

 That is, the kinds of offenses committed by juvenile delinquents 

 in Gary are those most typically juvenile. 



^Richard A. Bolt, p. 46; George Asbury Stephens, p. 33; Mabel Carter Rhoades; 

 Breckenridge and Abbott, pp. 28-30; Mangold, p. 233; Barnett (Appendix) ; Koren, 

 p. 233. 



6 George B. Mangold, p. 232 



