THE YOUNG OFFENDER

Paperback. The author examines (at the time) the extent, nature, causes and prevention of offences committed by those under 21 in England. Most convicted persons, he admitted, were young males: but that was nothing new. It remained true that the incidence of conviction declined dramatically after the age of 14 (which was the peak) and began to peter out among those in their 20's. Delinquency, in short - and that meant to a large extent, theft in one form or another or very petty crime - was a passing phase of youth. The author devotes his central chapters to the social, hereditary, and psychological factors in delinquency and his final chapters to the penal and remedial measures being applied at the time. A special chapter covers the more sensational topics of girls, sex, drugs, and violence, which rated the bold type in the press but featured quite small in the statistics of crime. With list of References, General Index and Index of Persons. 333pp. p/back. Small tear and crease to head of sp. and top edge of back cover o/w Vg.