Juvenile delinquency

de Paul W. Tappan

The author's purpose here is to make available to students of sociology and social work, to lawyers and laymen, an up-to-date and comprehensive analysis of the major developments and problems in dealing with the juvenile delinquent and the adolescent offender. The point should be made, perhaps, that the legal aspects of the field are of major importance, considering that delinquency is a matter of statutory definition and court determination, yet these aspects have received far less attention in the literature than they merit. The author has endeavored to relieve this inadequacy in part by a thorough but nontechnical analysis of those legal phases of delinquency and its treatment with which the student of society and of social work should be familiar. Throughout this volume the approach is one of sociological and legal realism. Aside from a statement of those ideals which offer some challenge as goals of action, the effort here is to picture practices as they are, not as someone may believe they should be. The author believes that, however strong may be one's sentiment toward children, the analysis of juvenile delinquency by sociologists, social workers, or lawyers should be clear sighted and unsentimental.