Tappan, Paul W. Delinquent Girls in Court: A Study of the Wayward Minor Court of New York. [ Columbia University Press, New York. 1947. Pp.  xvi + 265. $3.00.]

The author of this book, both a lawyer and a trained sociologist, reports on his study of the Wayward Minor Court in New York City. The research was done when he held a fellowship from the Social Science Research Council in 1943-44 and studied the judicial and social process in the court. The material gathered through observation of courtroom procedures, analysis of court records and interviews is objectively presented without beating an emotional drum for reform or indulging in attack or controversy. He traces the development of the court and its procedures in the light of the sequence of legislative acts which define its legal functions and limitations in a more or less haphazard fashion and in the light of the manner in which various magistrates have interpreted its powers. The inherent strengths and weaknesses of this particular court which, without authorization in the text of the law or any conscious policy decision of the court itself, limits its operations to girls and to matters of sex delinquency, are thoroughly reviewed. The divergence between the legal point of view of “correction” and the social one of “treatment” and “salvage,” the latter essentially humanistic in nature, is brought out. Certain recommendations are made for changes in the workings