﻿Edmondson: Juvenile Delinquency and Adult Crime 63 



work away from home, lack of sympathy between parents and 

 children or open ill-feeling', the number of children in the family 

 among whom the care and attention of the mother must be dis- 

 tributed, special indulgence of children, and hostility between 

 parents and such institutions as the schools and courts. 



An examination of the civil condition in these families shows 

 that in 68.1 per cent the parents are living together, in 14.1 

 per cent one parent is dead, in 3.3 per cent both parents are 

 dead, in 3.5 per cent the parents are separated, in 1 . 1 per cent 

 the parents are divorced, in 2.3 per cent one parent has deserted, 

 in 3.5 per cent there is a stepmother, in 2.3 per cent there is a 

 stepfather, in 1 . 1 per cent the parents are foster parents, and in 

 1 . 1 per cent there is no information. In these families the Colored 

 show the greatest relative proportion of broken homes, followed in 

 order by the Old Immigration with equal numbers of broken 

 and normal homes, by the Americans with a little more than 

 half as many broken homes as normal homes, and by the New 

 Immigration with less than one-third as many broken as normal 

 homes. 



Of the total number, 30.7 per cent are broken homes. That 

 this proportion of broken homes is somewhat lower than in 

 juvenile delinquency studies made elsewhere is due largely to the 

 fact that the figures in this study are based on family and not 

 on case, the broken homes in every instance showing more than 

 one delinquent case. 33 



In 50 per cent of the total number of families there is a lack 

 of sympathy between the parents because of some physical, 

 mental, or moral incompetency of one or both parents or an 

 unwillingness to get along together. For example, in 5 families 

 the mother's reputation for morality is bad, in 11 one or both 

 parents are drunken, in 2 the mother is permanently ill, in 2 

 the mother is insane, and in 10 there is open dissension between 

 the parents. Such facts as are here given are necessarily only 

 the most obvious ones since oftentimes such facts, as dissension 

 between the parents for example, can be learned only after a 

 long acquaintance with the family. 



Any great disparity in the ages of parents may account for a 

 lack of sympathy between them. An examination of the ages 

 of the parents in the families in this study where the parents are 

 living together shows that in 26.3 per cent there are from 6 to 



^Breckenridge and Abbott, pp. 91, 92; Morrison (Juvenile Offenders), p. 134; 

 Barnett; Mangold; Everson; Rhoades. 



