Survey of some delinquent boys in an irish-industrial-school and reformatory

Abstract

The research aimed at discovering specific social and psychological characteristics of institutionalized delinquent boys in the Irish Republic. Various researchers had considered separate aspects of juvenile delinquency in Ireland, but what was lacking was an attempt to examine both social and psychological influences as they affected the same group. It was also hoped that a scale for delinquency-prone boys might be constructed; this scale would show the extent to which a boy's response resembled those of delinquent boys and thus the significance to be attached to his delinquent acts.