Social Competence of Juvenile Delinquents

The scientific study of the individual delinquent and of juvenile delinquents as a class has revealed a number of conclusions, some of which may be noted as follows: the delinquent typically comes from an underprivileged environment; he is of dull-normal intelligence, bordering on high-grade mental deficiency; his intelligence and his educational attainments show relatively greater retardation in verbal facility than in non-verbal aptitudes; he is typically untrustworthy; and he is in need of sympathetic social control, especially during his adolescent years. These observations may be summed up in the general conclusion that the typical delinquent is a socially inadequate as well as irresponsible person. But heretofore it has not been possible to express this inadequacy in standard measures of social competence. A direct measurement of the social maturity of the individual delinquent and of delinquents as a group should shed important light on the understanding of delinquency and on the treatment of juvenile offenders

Biology · Criminology · Developmental psychology · Juvenile · Juvenile delinquency · Political science · Social change · Social competence · Bullying, Victimization, and Aggression · Law · Psychology · Social Psychology · Ecology

• Preliminary standardization of the Vineland Social Maturity Scale

  Edgar A Doll•American Journal of Orthopsychiatry•1936

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