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Indiana University Studies 



For all cases of all races or nationalities, the greatest number 

 are 9 to 14 years of age, with another smaller but distinctive 

 group 13 to 16 years of age. The general average age for the 

 whole group is 12.2 years. These figures show the juvenile 

 offenders in Gary younger than in many communities. 10 This 

 difference is partly due to the fact that this study is based on all 

 the cases coming to the attention of the court and its officers, 

 whereas figures for other communities are based on commitments 

 or else on cases actually brought into the court, in both of which 

 cases the age is naturally higher; partly due to the different 

 kinds of courts cealing with children (for example in Detroit, 

 where in 1903 children were brought into the municipal court); 

 and partly to the fact that in some communities (Chicago for 

 example) truants, for whom the age is always low, are not included 

 among juvenile delinquents. This Gary study includes a very 

 large number of the less serious offenses committed especially 

 by younger children who are not capable of committing the more 

 serious offenses. 11 



The relation between age and kind of offense is even more 

 striking. This study shows that the age of incorrigibility is 10 

 to 14 years, of confirmed truancy 9 to 13 years, of offenses against 

 morals 14 to 16 years, of offenses against the person the numbers 

 are too few to offer conclusions, of petit larceny the age is 9 to 

 16 years, and of all offenses against property the age is 9 to 16 

 years. The youngest cases are found in confirmed truancy 

 followed in order by incorrigibility, petit larceny, and offenses 

 against property, and offenses against morals, with almost no 

 cases at all of juvenile age of offenses against the person. That 

 is, the least serious cases are found among the youngest children. 12 

 The relation between age and kind of offense in juvenile 

 delinquency in Gary is in general the same as is found in other 

 communities. 13 It will be noted that the New Immigration 

 furnishes the } r oungest cases and the least serious cases tho the 

 greatest proportion of cases in this study of juvenile delinquency 



10 Travis, p. 151; Mrs. Joseph T. Bowen; Richard A. Bolt; Breckenridge an 

 Abbott : Koren, p. 242; Mabel Carter Rhoades. 



"W. Doiiglass Morrison (Juvenile Offenders), p. 57. 



"American Journal of Sociology, review of "Criminality juvenile", 9:283; Richard 

 A. Bolt : Mangold, p. 223; Julia Richman, Journal of the Proceedings of the National 

 Education Association, Denver, July, 1909. 



"Koren, p. 245; Julia E. Richman, Journal of the Proceedings of the National 

 Education Association, Denver, July, 1909; Mrs. Joseph T. Bowen; Richard A. Bolt; 

 Morrison (Juvenile Offenders), p. 57; Mangold, p. 224. 



