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Claiming that psycho-analysis is a fruitful approach to criminology and drawing on their experience in this field the authors divide their study into three parts, considering in turn childhood, adolescence, and adult delinquency.
In the conflicting organization of the child it is possible to discern states of pre-delinquency which can effectively be treated by child-analysis, thus obviating anti-social difficulties at later ages.
In adolescence, maturation reawakens conflicts which are complicated by social changes, and at this period the incidence of delinquency rises. The authors have tried to appreciate the prognosis of juvenile delinquency apart from the question of responsibility.
In the case of adults, the authors do not look for therapeutic results with habitual criminals, but consider certain difficult cases and attempt to define therein the mechanisms leading to criminal acts, in which mechanisms of conflict play a determining role.
The child. The essential fact is the interrupted relationship between the child would-be murderer and the grown-up assassin, which raises the hope that we may come to understand the actual mechanism of criminal acts, for this can be observed in the child's disturbed behaviour and in the treatment situation. Commenting on the use of projective and other diagnostic tests, the authors state that they can contribute little to a vital understanding of the child, and they often place him in emotionally charged situations from which any conclusion with regard to his conflicts is doubtful.
It is very different with a psycho-analytic approach to the child which can reach feelings that underlie neurotic delinquency and are often of a self-punitive kind, as shown by clumsy and exhibitionistic anti-social acts; for example, the child who steals from the larder at home even though offered dainties by his mother. To punish such a child will only lead to further aggression and consequent guilt; thus a vicious circle will be caused, and further