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Although this book purports to deal with the subject of criminology in general its main concern is with juvenile delinquency. This is probably due to two considerations: a personal one, that the author has had his attention specially directed to this aspect of criminology through having spent the last five years as Director of the Psychopathic Institute at the Juvenile Court, Chicago; the other a wider one, namely, that anyone who, like the author, makes a scientific study of criminology must soon see that the main problems, particularly the all-important ones of genesis, relate to childhood and its development.
The volume is divided into two books. In the first, entitled "General Data", there are four preliminary chapters, then four on "working methods" and statistics, with two on general conclusions as to treatment. The methods of investigation described are especially fully dealt with, and this section is exceedingly valuable. The second book, entitled "Cases, Types, Causative Factors", comprises the larger part of the whole volume. The questions of heredity, antenatal and natal factors, and physical abnormalities in development are first discussed. Then follow a number of chapters on psychological factors, environmental and intrinsic; the subjects of mental conflicts and "repressions" are considered at length, special stress being laid on the all-important matter of sexual development and experiences. There are several chapters on the various kinds of mental deficiency and inferiority, ranging from dulness to actual idiocy. The influence of epilepsy and alcoholism is discussed, and an interesting account given of special mental peculiarities,