Stanton Wheeler - Controlling Delinquents.

Stanton Wheeler, edito

With a new introduction by
Norman K. Denzin

Originally published in 1968 by John Wiley & Sons

Published 2011 by Transaction Publishers

Published 2017 by Routledge
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New material this edition copyright 2011 by Taylor & Francis.

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Library of Congress Catalog Number: 2011007975

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Controlling delinquents / Stanton Wheeler, editor ; with a new introduction by
Norman Denzin.

p. cm.

Originally published: New York : Wiley, [1967].

ISBN 978-1-4128-1864-3

1. Juvenile delinquency. I. Wheeler, Stanton, 1930-

HV9069.C59 2011
364.36--dc22

2011007975

ISBN 13: 978-1-4128-1864-3 (pbk)

MARTHA BAUM

RAINER C. BAUM

WILLIAM IRA BENNETT

EDNA BONACICH

HUGH F. CLINE

M. RICHARD CRAMER

FRANKLIN B. FOGELSON

HOWARD E. FREEMAN

DAVID KANTOR

SOL LEVINE

BRENDAN MAHER

ROSETTA McNEIL

WALTER B. MILLER

ROBERT E. STANFIELD

ELLEN STEIN

JAMES E. TEELE

STANTON WHEELER

JAMES Q. WILSON

IRVING K. ZOLA

STANTON WHEELER

JAMES Q. WILSON

STANTON WHEELER, EDNA BONACICH, M. RICHARD CRAMER, AND IRVING K. ZOLA

WALTER B. MILLER, RAINER C. BAUM AND ROSETTA MCNEIL

JAMES E. TEELE AND SOL LEVINE

JAMES E. TEELE AND SOL LEVINE

MARTHA BAUM AND STANTON WHEELER

BRENDAN MAHER WITH ELLEN STEIN

FRANKLIN B. FOGELSON AND HOWARD E. FREEMAN

ROBERT E. STANFIELD AND BRENDAN MAHER

DAVID KANTOR AND WILLIAM IRA BENNETT

HUGH F. CLINE, HOWARD E. FREEMAN AND STANTON WHEELER

STANTON WHEELER

The studies of the work of delinquency prevention and control agencies reported in this book represent some of the fruits of the first federal act passed by Congress in 1961 to deal with delinquency problems. Although several federal agencies such as the Childrens Bureau and the National Institute of Mental Health had previously stimulated and supported work on delinquency problems as part of their general mandate, the Act of 1961 openly declared the intention of the federal government to assist local communities in developing more effective delinquency prevention and control programs. The passage of this Act was greatly abetted by the Presidents Committee on Juvenile Delinquency and Youth Crime, composed of the then Attorney General, Robert Kennedy, as Chairman, the Secretary of the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare and the Secretary of the Department of Labor as members. The Act lodged responsibility for the administration of the new program in the newly formed Office of Juvenile Delinquency and Youth Crime in the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare with the general guidance, assistance, and advice of the Presidents Committee and its staff.

In addition to providing support for demonstration programs in delinquency prevention and control, authority and funds were granted for the support of short-term training programs and curriculum development projects. It quickly became apparent to the staff that the development of effective training programs would be greatly handicapped unless prompt measures were taken to provide new and better training material. The existing training materials relied heavily on the sociological and psychological theoretical and research literature concerning the nature of delinquency and the characteristics of delinquents. Very little material existed on what agencies and practitioners were doing to control or prevent delinquency or what the impact and effectiveness of these measures might be. Formal programmatic statements by agencies were available and, in some instances, accounts of the experiences of practitioners along with their opinions of the usefulness of different prevention and control measures. However, to develop effective and practical programs of training, objective and reliable answers to many questions about agency operations and procedures are essential. Clearly, what was needed was a series of projects that would begin by inquiring into the organization and impact of various agency practices designed to guide and control youth conduct. The end product should serve to raise questions and issues for group discussion in training sessions at the same time that it informed trainees about the problems and organized practices of the world they were about to enter. This is what this book does.

To stimulate curriculum development projects of this type, one of the members of the panel for reviewing training grants, Professor Robert Vinter of the University of Michigan School of Social Work, was asked to visit several of the major university campuses throughout the country to explore the interest of social scientists in submitting proposals for the consideration of the panel. He sought to discover projects already underway which might produce the needed curriculum materials or to locate social scientists willing to explore their established theoretical and research interests within the field of delinquency and youth crime problems. At a number of universities, he found small groups of skilled researchers or individual scholars willing to undertake a collective effort that joined their individual contributions. This volume provides eloquent testimony to the soundness and usefulness of this type of curriculum development program.

In the Boston Metropolitan Area, Vinter located a number of persons whose interests lent themselves to the critical appraisal and description of a wide range of agency practices aimed at the prevention and control of delinquency. Some of the studies were already underway ; some of the contributors were stimulated by the prospect of a ready market for the application of their principal theoretical concerns in a new field of inquiry; others put aside earlier research undertakings in order to contribute their special competence to the clarification of a most pressing social problem. This volume reports their findings.

The great need for studies of the type presented here was clearly recognized by the staff and members of the recent Presidents Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice. In fact, the findings of this Commission relating to juvenile delinquency, which were published in the spring of 1967, could not have been achieved without the help of many of the social scientists who began their work on delinquency with the support provided under the 1961 Act. While acknowledging the important contribution of these pioneering studies, the Commission noted the wide range of problems relating to agency organization and operation about which little is yet known. Many of these problems are described by the contributors to this volume in the course of presenting the results and scope of their inquiries. Thus, the studies reported here have implications that transcend their specific findings, although these contain many fresh and often surprising discoveries. Perhaps more important is the fact that a whole new range of significant research problems and opportunities have been identified. Investigation of these problems could have far greater consequences for the rationalization and validation of delinquency prevention and control measures than previous studies have been able to contribute. The studies described in this volume give many indications of how much useful knowledge can be gained simply by studying objectively what the agencies for the prevention and control of delinquency are doing, what they think they are doing and what youthful offenders perceive them as doing.