Unraveling Juvenile Delinquency- A Reader's Guide
by Graeme Newman (Author), Sheldon Glueck (Author), Eleanor Glueck
What makes a boy a persistent delinquent? A reader's guide to one of criminology's great matched-comparison studies.
In 1939, Sheldon and Eleanor Glueck of Harvard stopped asking what happens to offenders after they are caught and asked a harder question: why do some boys from the same poor neighborhoods become persistent delinquents while others do not?
Their answer, Unraveling Juvenile Delinquency (1950), compared 500 delinquent boys with 500 non-delinquents, matched pair by pair on age, intelligence, ethnic origin and neighborhood. They examined family life, schooling, health, body build, intelligence, personality and temperament. Then they built "prediction tables" meant to spot at-risk children when they start school.
The book is long, technical and dated in its language. This Reader's Guide makes it accessible without replacing it. It explains how the study was designed, what it found, and how far its evidence can be trusted, and it connects the Gluecks to the research that followed.
INSIDE THIS GUIDE
A reading plan and a chapter-by-chapter map of the original
How the two groups were built, and what the design can and cannot show
The findings on family, school, the street, health, physique, intelligence and temperament, explained in plain language
The prediction tables, with a worked example that shows why "79 chances in a hundred" can mean something quite different in real life
Five common misreadings of the book
What has changed since 1950, including later reanalyses of the Gluecks' data, and what has not
A primer on statistics, a glossary, an annotated reading list, an FAQ, 26 discussion questions and classroom activities
WHO IT'S FOR: Students of criminology, sociology, psychology, social work and law; teachers and reading groups; and general readers who want to understand a landmark study and the debates it started, from risk assessment to the role of the family.
Part of the Read-Me.Org Reader's Guide series, bringing back landmark out-of-print works in criminology and social science..
NOTE: This is an independent guide, not an abridgment or edition of the Gluecks' book. It does not reproduce the original's text or tables and is not endorsed by the authors' heirs or the original publisher. It is meant to be read alongside the original. Written by Graeme R. Newman with the assistance of Claude, an AI model made by Anthropic. The AI-generated content is disclosed in accordance with Read-Me.Org policy.
Read-Me.Org Inc. New York-Philadelphia-Australia. 2026. p.67.