SURVEY RESEARCH CENTER An Inter-Center /}60 Program of RESEARCH Studies in . . . CENTER FOR Children, Youth and Family Life GROUP } DYNAMICS
A SELECTIVE REVIEW OF COMMUNITY-BASED PROGRAMS
FOR PREVENTING DELINQUENCY
Martin Gold J. Alan Winter
1 fa h 4% 1 - W i
V
INSTITUTE FOR SOCIAL RESEARCH THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN I ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN I A SELECTIVE REVIEW OF COMMUNITY-BASED PROGRAMS
FOR PREVENTING DELINQUENCY
presented by the Inter-Center Program of Research on Children, Youth and Family Life of the INSTITUTE FOR SOCIAL RESEARCH The University of Michigan Ann Arbor, Michigan
for
The Chicago Youth Development Project
A joint project of the
Chicago Boys Clubs and the Institute for Social Research
Martin Gold . J. Alan Winter
October 1961 Acknowledgements
We would like to express our gratitude to Ann Desautels,
Judith Gee and Alice Phelps for the typing of the Revlaw and to
Fauni Epstein for her critical proof-reading of the final draft.
Above all, we are grateful to Norma McCarus Harris without whose aid and advise on innumerable editorial matters this Review would not have been made generally available.
The Ford Foundation sponsors the Chicago Youth Development
Project for whose use the Review was initially compiled. The editors are both members of the research staff of the CYDP. Table of Contents
Page
Title page 1
Acknowledgements iil
Table of Contents v
Programs Summarized • ' ' v*"*
Bibliography * * x*
Introduction * g Summaries
Epilogue
c
«
V Programs Summarized
Dates of Page Program Location operation
45 All-Day Neighborhood New York City 1951- Schools
9; 99 Boston Special Youth Boston 1954-1957 Program (Roxbury)
29 Central Harlem Youth New York City 1947-1950 Project
123 Catobridge-Somerville Cambridge and 1937-1948 Youth. Project Somerville, Mass
77 Chicago Area Project Chicago 1935-
91 Dolphin Club Liverpool, Eng. 1953-
113 Englewood Project Chicago 1954- 57
143 ExperImenter-sub j ec t Boston ca. 1959 psychotherapy
53 Fuld Neighborhood Newark, N.J. 1957; 1958 Work Camp
149 Girls' Service League New York City 1951- Psychotherapy Project
71 Group Guidance Los Angeles ca, 1961 Project
59 Hyde Park Project Chicago 1955- 58
15 Los Angeles Youth Los Angeles 1945- Project
85 Passaic Children's Passaic, N.J. 1937- Bureau
155 Pre-delinquent Gang New York City ca. 1958 Project
37 Provo Experiment Provo, Utah 1956-
25 Red Shields Boys Club Louisville, Ky. 1946-1954
vii Dates of Page Program Location operation
21 Quincy Youth Quincy, 111. 1951- Development
81 South Central Youth Minneapolis 1955-57 Project
107 Street Club Project New York City 1950-
x Bibliography
Page
9. Ackley, E. Gruman, and Fliegel, B,R, A social work approach to street-corner girls. Social Work, I960, 5, 27-36.
45 The All-Day Neighborhood Schools. Interim Report #XIII. Juvenile Delinquency Evaluation Project of the City of New York (mimeo) .
15 Alston, Estelle. Group work with hard-to-reach teen-agers. The Social Welfare Forum Proceedings of the National Conference of Social Work. Atlantic City 1951, Columbia University Press, N.Y., 281-294.
21 Bowman, Paul H, Effects of a revised school program on potential delinquents. Annals Amer. Acad. Pol. Soc. Sci., 1959, 322, 53-62.
25 Brown, Roscoe and Dodson, Dan. The effectiveness of a Boys Club program in reducing delinquency. Annals Amer. Acad. Pol. Soc. Sci.. 1959, 322, 47-52.
29 Crawford, P.L., Malanrud, D.L., and Dumpson, J.R. Working with Teenage Gangs. Welfare Council of New York City, 1950.
37 Empey, L.T, and Rabow, J, The Provo experiment in delinquen• cy rehabilitation. Amer. Soc. Rev., 1961, 26, 679-695.
45 Franklin, Adele. The all-day neighborhood services. Annals Amer. Acad. Pol. Soc. Sci., 1959, 322, 62-68.
53 Fried, Antoinette. A Work Camp program for potential delinquents. Annals Amer. Acad. Pol. Soc. Sci., 1959, 322. 38-46.
59 Gandy, John M. Preventive work with street-corner groups: Hyde Park Youth Project, Chicago. Annals Amer. Acad. Pol. Soc. Set., 1959, 322, 107-116.
.71 Group Guidance Section, Los Angeles County Probation Depart• ment and the Youth Studies Center. The use of authority with delinquent groups: a proposal for an action research program, Univ. of Southern Cel., (ditto) no date-
77 Kobrin, S. The Chicago Area Project: a twenty-five per cent assessment. Annals Amer. Acad. Pol. Soc. Sci., 1959, 322, 19-37.
xi 31 Konopka, Glsele. Co-ordination of services as a means of delinquency prevention. Annals, Amer. Pol. Soc. Sci., 1959, 322, 30-37.
85 Kvaraceus, Wm. Juvenile Delinquency and the School. World Book, Yongers-on Hudson, N.Y., 1945.
123 McCord, Wm. and McCord J. Origin of Crime. Columbia Univer• sity Press, 1959.
123 McCord, J, and McCord Wm. A follow-up report on the Cambridge- Somerville study. Annals Amer. Acad. Pol. Soc. Sci,, 1959, 322, 89-96.
91 Mays, J.B. On the Threshold of delinquency. Liverpool University Press, Liverpool, August 1959.
99 Miller, W.B. Preventive work with street-corner groups: Boston Delinquency Project. Annals Amer. Acad. Pol. Soc. Sci., 1959, 322, 97-106.
99 Miller, W.B. The impact of a community group work program on delinquent corner groups. Soc. Serv. Rev., 1957, 31, 390-405.
107 NYC Youth Board, Reaching the Fighting Gang, New York, 1960.
113 Penner, G.L. An experiment in police and social agency co-.- operation. Annals. Amer. Acad. Pol. Soc. Sci., 1959, 322. 79-88.
113 Penner, G.L. Report on the Englewood Project. Chicago: Juvenile Protective Association of Chicago. 1958,
123 Powers, E, and Witmer, H. Prevention of Delinquency. The Cambridge-Somerville Study, Columbia University Press, 1951.
123 Powers, E. An experiment in prevention of delinquency. Annals of Amer. Acad. Pol. Soc. Sci., 1949, 261, 77-88.
15 Robinson, Duane. Chance to belong: Story of the Los Angeles Youth Project. Woman's Press, N.Y., 1949.
59 Shireman, CH. The Hyde Park Youth Project, Welfare Council of Metropolitan Chicago, no date, ca. 1959.
143 Slack, C.W. Experimenter-subject psychotherapy: A new method of introducing intensive office treatment for unreachable cases. Mental Hygiene, 1960, 44, 238-256.
xiii South Central Youth Project: a delinquency control program, 1955-57. Final report to the Community Welfare Council, Hennepin County.
Stranahan, M. and Schwartzman, C. An experiment in reaching asocial adolescents through group therapy. Annals Amer. Acad. Pol. Soc. Sci.. 1959, 322, 117-125.
Tefferteller, R. Delinquency prevention through revitalizing parent-child relationships. Annals Amer. Acad. Pol. Soc. Sci., 1959, 322, 69-78.
xiv Review of Some Community-based Juvenile Delinquency
Prevention Programs
Introduction
The reviews which follow were compiled to facilitate the initial stages of the planning of the Chicago Youth Development Project, a joint program of the Institute for Social Research of The University of Michigan and the Chicago Boys Clubs. The joint effort is supported by a grant from the Ford Foundation. The task of the Boys Clubs is to carry on a program of extension work with street-corner clubs in three areas of
Chicago thus extending their traditional building-centered program to meet the needs of the hard-to-reach youth of the neighborhood. The
task of the Institute is to evaluate the effectiveness of that program.
The project began its operations in September, 1960, and plans call for a six-year program.
It was known from the start that the Chicago Youth Development
Project (CYDP) was by no means unique. There had been other extension worker programs and other delinquency prevention efforts; there had been other attempts to evaluate such programs. Some of the evaluation
studies had, like our own, been part of a joint research-action program.
We had reason then to hope that much could be learned from reports of
the operations of delinquency prevention programs and of other attempts to evaluate such programs.
Three sets of decisions were made to facilitate the learning process. First, there Was a set of decisions dealing with the selec•
tion of material. The presentation of the reviews was a second area
- 1 - I
of concern. Third, we devised a scheme for comparing reports on
Important analytic dimensions.
Selection1
We thought a search of the-available literature on delinquency prevention^ programs could be most profitable if we excluded reports of programs which were quite unlike the proposed action program of the
Chicago Boys Clubs. The Boys Clubs program was to be community-based with all of the youths in the program residing in or spending their leisure time in the neighborhood or community serviced.
Thus, it was decided to review only those reports which pertained to community-based programs. In practice, this meant the exclusion of reports of work with institutionalized youth. The particular techniques
The selection of material was facilitated by referring to two publications of the Children's Bureau: •'' Blake, Mary E. Selected,' annotated reading on group services in the treatment and control of juvenile delinquency, #3 of the Children's Bureau series Juvenile Delinquency: Facts and Facets, U.S. Gov't. Printing Office, Wash. D.C., 1960. Witmer, H. & Tufts, E. The effectiveness of delinquency prevention programs. Children's Bur. Pub. No. 350, 1954. The editors would also like to thank the following individuals who kindly answered a request for suggested references: Francis Allen, David Austin, Daniel Glaser, Russell Hogrefe, Solomon Kobrin, Charles Shireman, James F. Short, Anthony Sorrentino, and S. Kireon Weinberg.
Generally, one distinguishes between "prevention programs" and "treatment or rehabilitative programs" on the grounds that in the latter case the youths serviced are known delinquents and often institutionalized. Prevention programs are seen as dealing with delinquency-prone youths who have committed no known delinquency. We did not make such a distinction in our selection of material, since: 1) even rehabilitation programs aim to prevent delinquency, albeit a repeat of some previous delinquency; and 2) our program alms to prevent both youths with and without known delinquencies from committing delinquent activities. • 3
or strategy employed by the program was not a criterion for selection. We
expect that in the course of a program dealing with life on a day to day
basis in a natural setting, all kinds of techniques will have to be used,
regardless of the overall emphasis, to meet exigencies as they arise.
We also decided to concentrate more on programs dealing with boys than
on those serving girls. The focus of attention was placed, although not
exclusively so, on programs specifically designed to prevent juvenile
delinquency rather than on programs designed to deal with other antisocial
behaviors or with general maladjustment.
Presentation of Reviews
A check-list of things to look for was drawn up. The major functions
of the list were to reduce the number of oversights in the abstracting of
material from reports, and to insure some common basis on which to compare
programs. The complete check-list follows:"*
1. Change agent: description of the individuals and organization conducting the prevention program
1.1 description 1.11 public or private agency 1.12 size of the organization 1.13 location 1.14 training had or required of personnel 1.15 organizational affiliations, e.g., part of Boy Scouts 1.16 description of person in direct contact with target population 1.17 dates of operation
' 3a source of items used to describe the target population and delinquency status was Moles, 0. Jr., Lippitt, R, 6i Withey, S. B. Selective review of research and theories concerning the dynamics • of delinquency, Inter-Center Program of Research on Children, Youth and Family Life, Ann Arbor, Mich. 1959; the analysis of change agent and program draws on Lippitt, R., Watson, J., 6c Westley, B. The dynamics of planned change, Harcourt, Brace & Co. N.Y, 1958. 4
2. Commentator: author of the report(s) reviewed
2.1 relationship to the organization conducting the prevention program
2.2 professional training of the commentator
3. Target population: who was being served
3.1 demographic description 3.11 age 3.12 sex 3.13 socio-economic status 3.14 location 3.15 ethnicity ; 3.16 religious affiliation 3.2 delinquency status 3.21 definition of "delinquent" 3.22 specific types of delinquents served 3.3 source of referral 4. Goals and program
4.1 statement of goals 4.2 program 4.21 deal with individuals as such, groups or both 4.22 who is approached: teachers, youths, parents 4.23 general orientation, e.g., therapy, recreation 4.3 etiological factors in delinquency seen as relevant to programming
5. Evaluation
5.1 criteria of success and of failure . 5.2 basis of judgment 5.3 who did the evaluating 5.4 design of evaluation study 5.5 estimate of success 5.6 unintended consequences
6. Editors' analysis of program
The major categories of the check-list are:
1. Change agent 2. Commentator 3. Target Population 4. Goals and Program 5. Evaluation 6. Editors' analysis of program
Footnote references are made to reports on projects essentially similar to
one selected for summary here 5
The use of a common outline for all of our reviews should greatly aid the reader who wishes to compare different projects on one or more aspects of their work.
Analytic Categories for Comparison
It was our aim not only.to describe the various community-based efforts to reduce delinquency which we reviewed, but also to speculate about their theoretical roots'as they .are revealed in the forms of their action programs and strategies. Thus, we asked of each action program: '*Why should it reduce juvenile delinquency?" If we can answer this question for each program, we will then be able to relate one to another according to their common assumptions about the causes and cures for delinquency. Each effort then becomes a test of a set of hypotheses about delinquency. Furthermore, it would be possible to say which efforts are fundamentally replications of which other efforts.
Two descriptive dimensions of action programs seemed to be especially important as clues to their underlying hypotheses. One is whether the strategy involves individuals one at a time, groups of youngsters, or community organizations* For example, a theory which supposes that delinquency is a manifestation of personality disturbance would probably lead to work with individuals (although group therapy might sometimes be indicated).
On the other hand, a theory of delinquency which supposes that delinquency is generated by the antisocial norms of the gang leads to work with-the gang unit. A theory of delinquency as a manifestation of social disorgan• ization or inter-group conflict suggests a strategy of community organi• zation.
However, all efforts to reduce delinquency intend to have some ultimate effect on the individual youngster; the question of the . 6
unit which the strategy involves can be seen as a question of how best to effect change In the behavior of individuals.
The second descriptive dimension sorts out the action programs reviewed by whether they emphasize restraining the youngster from delin• quency by strengthening or creating behavior controls; or whether they mainly aim to reduce the motivations which provoke a boy to delinquent activities. Examples of efforts to institute controls are the projects which encourage the development of close relationships between a youth and a law-abiding adult in.which the latter can influence the former to behave better. The adult's influence hopefully will become a part of a watching constant conscience. Efforts to reduce provocations to delin• quency are found for example in those projects which focus mainly on finding the youngsters jobs so they need not steal to get money. In short, we try to distinguish efforts to set up barriers, external or internal, to a youngster's delinquent activities from efforts to alleviate the needs which drive him to delinquency.^
Classifying programs by unit of work—Individual, group or community— has been easier than classifying in terms of provocations and controls.
Most reports are quite clear about who was worked with. However, it is often unclear whether the effort was primarily intended to reduce provoca•
tions or strengthen controls. Sometimes it is certain that a program has both provocation-reduction and control-strengthening elements. We have tried to determine a program's major emphasis, frequently on the
^The concepts "provocation" and "control" are discussed in greater detail in Gold, M. A social psychology of delinquent boys, Unpub. Ph.D. thesis, U. of M., 1961. 7
basis of the barest clues and sometimes we fear by reading into a report
more than was intended by the author. Nevertheless, we felt it was
important to attend to the provocation-control dimension. The dimension
seems to be one which makes sharp distinctions among theories of
delinquency causation. For example, the Ohlln-Cloward provocation
theory of opportunity structure (Opportunity Structure and Delinquency,
Free Press, Glencoe, 1960) can be distinguished from Sutherland's control
theory of differential association (Principles of Criminology, 1939). 9
Ackley, E. Grumman and Fliegel, B.R. A social work approach to street- corner girls, Social Work, 1960, 5, 27-36.
1. Change agent
The change agent was the Special Youth Program of the Greater Boston
Council for Youth, also known as the Boston Delinquency Project. The program was established in 1954 on a three-year demonstration basis.
A three-pronged approach--casework, group work and community organization— was used. The social work staff included three male and two female street workers, a community organization worker, and the executive director.
A research program was carried on during and after the program by a director of research and his staff.
The street workers were assigned to a specific group or a specific hangout. The community organization worker mobilized social work agencies and resident groups. The caseworker made diagnoses and referrals to established casework agencies. The Roxbury Family Project currently is continuing some of the work with multi-problem families in the area which was initiated by the Project.
2. Commentator
Both authors were group workers with the Roxbury Special Youth
Program.
3. Target population
This report is concerned with that part of the Special Youth Program
in which two groups of girls were served. One group consisted of only eight girls, all between the ages of 12 and 14 with "a history of considerable pathology expressed by serious behavior problems.". These girls were not accepted by the street corner crowd. The larger group
consisted of 75 older girls, 14 to 17. A group of 20 girls which was 10
Ackley and Fliegel self-organized was included within the larger group of 75. The worker met with various cliques and subgroups within the larger group of 75. Neither the smaller group of eight nor the larger group of 75 was very close-knit. Both were held together "precariously, the first by their pathology and rejection, the second largely by common interest in the boys1 club."
The neighborhood in which the girls lived was a depressed area of
Boston largely inhabited by families with low incomes. Some of the girls had continued their education after high school while others had left
school early. Several of the girls had become unwed mothers, others had
engaged in delinquent activities such as shoplifting. The authors write
that the street corner crowd is more critical of girls' behavior than that
of boys. Girls must live up to the "code". They are discouraged from
"hanging" with the others. The code limits promiscuity, shoplifting,
fighting and flirting. In comparison, boys are rarely made to feel uncom•
fortable on the comer, regardless of reputation. A very delinquent boy or
subgroup of boys may be accepted on the corner. A group of girls of the
same degree of delinquency are unacceptable. The girls would have to find
another "hanging spot."
Girls "hang" on the corner In the evening. Afternoons are spent at
home. Often, however, a group of girls will gather in the home of one of
them. Chores and the evening meals are completed before going to the
corner.
4. Goals and programs
The worker must be accepted by both boys and parents as well as by
the girls. Workers with groups of girls are Invited to homes to meet
the mothers of the girls sooner than are workers with groups of boys. 11
Ackley and Fliegel
Mothers are, the authors contend, more concerned for their daughters than for their sons.
The early stage of the worker's relationship with the girls is marked by testing behavior. The girls have several questions in mind concerning the worker: 1) Is she an adult law-enforcement official who will turn them in if they engage in illegal activities? 2) Is the worker a hoodlum who will use them for her own benefit? 3) Is the worker a typical middle class adult who will tell them what to do and
.what not to do? The worker is also scrutinized closely by the boys.
Adult men will often flirt with the worker.
Once the worker had won acceptance, others not in the group she Is working with will often come for aid. A self-organized group of 30 girls asked one of the workers for aid and was referred to an agency.
Younger boys often turn to the female worker: a small group of 12- and
13-year old boys who were immature and disturbed turned to the worker,
apparently feeling more comfortable with a woman. A gang fight was
averted by the action of one of the female workers. Contacts with
groups other than those assigned were referred where possible to other
agencies.
The work with older and younger girls was by no means identical.
The younger girls were tomboys and tried to compete with the boys in many
ways. The older girls had passed through the tomboy stage and emphasized
feminine appearance and interest. A group program could be provided
for the younger girls. Other programs and forms of recreation were used
with the older girls. The older girls did not form tight-knit groups
as a rule. When they did, severe pathology was present. The older 12
Ackley and Fliegel girls were primarily interested in boys and marriage. From the account
it would appear^that r,the. competitive nature of the relationships among girls insofar as they pertain to males and marriage was a factor working against the formation of large, tight-knit groups.
The girls on the corner are aware of middle class values;but do not view them as their own. The accounts indicate that the girls regard the middle class an an "out-group."
The girls are culturally limited in the type of aggressive behavior
they can engage in. Much of their aggression is expressed vicariously
through motivating boys to act out for them. Boys are encouraged to steal
cars, for example,, to take girls for fast drives. While girls are expert
in manipulating boys as well as adults, they rarely have enough status
and influence in the crowd to be a controlling or ruling force.
5. Evaluation
No explicit evaluation of any kind is reported. However, in the
closing paragraphs of the papert the authors give a brief account of what
it is they think they have accomplished. They say, "...as the reputation
of the worker becomes established in the neighborhood, other girls seek
her out and will be able to enter into a helping relationship much more
quickly. We found that movement with these girls was demonstrated by
improvement in thejr feelings of self-worth. This was evident first in
their increased concern about their dress, later in their concern about the
physical appearance of their homes, and finally in concern about their
neighborhood. Involving these girls in the community organization process
of neighborhood improvement enabled them to see themselves as people who
could effect change and therefore people of some worth. Ackley and Fllegel
"Within each of the girls is a strong desire to live a happier life. As the relationship with the worker developed, the girls began to feel that they had some control over their destiny." 6. Editors1 analysis of program
The article does not provide any great detail on the nature of the
forces with which the project worked. It is obvious, however, that by and large the work was with small, natural groups. However, because of the lack of cohesion in girls' groups, they are often smaller and more fragmented than groups of boys. The major project effort with girls was to provide a program of constructive activities. Presumably,
these activities were thought more attractive than antisocial behaviors
and would appear so to the girls. Hence, the tendency to delinquency
would be reduced. The activities would also provide the girls with an
opportunity to learn to control their desires (provocations) in light
of specific plans, that is, they learn some self-discipline. 15
Alston, Estelle. Group work with hard-to-reach teen-agers. The Social Welfare Forum Proceedings of the National Conference of Social Work, Atlantic City 1951, N.Y. Columbia U Press., 281-294.
Robinson, Duane. Chance to Belong: Story of the Los Angeles Youth Project, Woman's Press, N.Y. 1949.
1. Change agent
The Los Angeles Youth Project was "conceived opportunistically, using the so-called 'zootsuit' trial as a peg upon which to hang and sell it." Ten social agencies presented a joint request to the Community
Chest. The participating agencies included the Boy and Girl Scouts,
YM and YlEA, CYO, All Nations Foundation, and Church Welfare Bureau.
The Jewish Community Centers, L.A. Board of Education and L.A. City
Recreation Commission later became part of the Project, which was called
the Los Angeles Youth Project.
Policy-making was the function of the Youth Project Board. However,
the board was formally a committee of the Youth Services Division of the
Welfare Council of Metropolitan Los Angeles. These arrangements "did not
take away from the autonomy of the Project Board but permitted a
necessary and highly productive relationship of cooperative work."
The Youth Project Board is composed of one member from each agency
in the Project; one person from each of the Project areas, generally
residents closely identified with the program; representatives of
settlement houses or community centers in the Project areas not otherwise
represented; and five representatives of the public at large.
The Project worked in eight different areas, each of which was
composed of from 6 to 20 neighborhoods. All work except with gangs 16
Alston
was done by the staffs of participating agencies. However, area coordinators had the role of increasing inter-agency cooperation. The area coordinators had no administrative authority; "their major tools were their sound judg• ment and professional understanding of community problems and agency func• tions." Coordinators also served as "neighborhood trouble-shooter" and community organization worker. The work with street-corner groups was carried on by the Special Service Vntt of the Los Angeles Youth Project.
(Our summary deals with the work of the Special Service Unit. The community organization work and agency-centered programs will not be reviewed.1)
The street work program began in 1945. Its job was to work intensively with groups which were "hard to get at." The eventual goal of unit work was
to turn the groups over to agencies. Workers also helped agencies adapt
their programs as necessary.
2. Commentator
Robinson was one of the first directors of the Los Angeles Youth
Project. Alston is a supervisor with the Special Service Unit of the Los
Angeles Youth Project.
3. Target population
The Special Service Unit worked with teenagers "who cannot participate
in regular agency programs." The teenagers were members of street corner
'-The Alston article is the major source for this review, especially for sections 4 and 5. The Robinson book gives some case material on street groups but Is primarily concerned with other aspects of the Project. Alston
groups located In areas serviced by the Los Angeles Youth Project.
The areas serviced were those in the downtown and south end of
Los Angeles which were characterized by high delinquency rates, high health problem rates, low income, and poor housing.
4. Goals and program
The function of the Unit was to be a service unit to youth-serving agencies in the project area. The goal of the program was to help natural groups not reachable by other agencies or traditional youth programs to:
1) achieve a degree of organization; 2) achieve an acceptable way of handling behavior so that they could be helped to be integrated into normal agency programs; and 3) to assist the agencies in adopting policies and programs to serve hard-to-reach groups more effectively.
The method used by the worker was: 1) contact the group or its natural leader; 2) establish a relationship to the group such that members vould be willing to accept help from the worker in organizing activities they wanted; 3) learn to know the group and its members; 4) let them have a chance to know him (steps 3 and 4 done through activities); 5) develop constructive cohesion through programming; 6) create a common desire to raise the group standards as a means of attaining their goals; and %) transfer the relationship to a leader In an agency.
The essential ingredient of the program is seen by Alston as the relationship of the worker with the group: "The importance of the relationship cannot be overstressed. The Special Service Unit worker must work toward building the kind of relationship which will permit him to influence the attitudes and values of the youngsters, or at least to help them find more acceptable ways of handling conflict L8
Alston
situations...He is not attached to a building. He represents no authority. He makes it possible for them to use facilities but if they are rejected or refused, he goes with them. He is free to move at their pace."
The chief hindrance to the worker's achieving his goals is the pressure from others to move too fast. No specific groups are mentioned as the source of this hindrance. The job of the worker is also made harder because: 1) people tend to forget that respect must be earned and not demanded from youngsters; and 2) they refuse to aid youngsters because of "poor attitudes" attributed to them.
The casual nexus which Alston seems to employ to explain the existance of Juvenile antisocial behavior is as follows: Most adults in the life of the teenager have failed to establish a relationship which makes it possible to influence his behavior. Such factors as broken homes, overstrict or inconsistent discipline, and quarrelling parents are seen as contributing to the lack of proper relationship. Thus delinquency begins with an absence of proper adult control. As a consequence, the adolescent is basically insecure. There is also some hostility on the part of the teenager, who then seeks security and status in natural groups as an outlet for the hostility. Socially unacceptable ways of handling his problems are learned in these groups. If the group is labelled "delinquent" or a "gang" by adults, t avenues to help are closed; because of associations adults have with these terms, they will not aid members. This proves to members of such groups that everyone is against them and there is no use trying.
It should be noted that many of the causes of the youth's frustrations are located in objective, social conditions. Poverty, poor employment Alston possibilities, second class citizenship, minority status, and discrim• ination, are some of those cited.
The causal chain is then: 1) Absence of control (caused by the failure of the proper relationship to be set up) and frustration by objective social factors. 2) The result is an insecure, frustrated, hostile, resentful, and hopeless boy who joins a natural group of his peers,. 3) In this group he learns unacceptable behavior. It persists because adults attach pejorative labels to him and his group and refuse to help them achieve an alternative behavior pattern.
5. Evaluation
Several signs of progress are mentioned. One is the development of standards by the groups and changes in the attitudes of the members.
It is important that they themselves recognize that changes are occurring and that the club has helped. The group begins to control its own members and functions with a fair degree of organization, planning, and follow through. At this stage, the worker begins the process of weaning himself from the group and turning them over to another agency.
Turning the group over to an agency is seen as the mark of a successful relationship.
One of the unintended consequences of a worker's dealings with a group is that the group may disband. The Special Service Unit eva• luates each group and helps it to disband if that is what seems best.
The Project has helped communities to a "growing understanding of the help that can be given to hard-to-reach teenagers through club programs." Teenagers, on the other hand, have had a "growing recog• nition that a club group can help them meet their needs." 20
Alston
No formal evaluation is glven;: However, Alston mentions that records have been kept. These records have been the basis of four (4) theses in the University of Southern California School of Social Work. 6. Editors1 analysis of program
The strategy of this program seems pretty clearly to use group leader
ship as a vehicle for establishing beneficial controls over individual boys.
There is some attempt to establish Individual counseling relationships, but
this appears to follow upon work with the group. 21
Bowman, Paul H. Effects of a revised school program on potential delinquents. Annals Amer. Acad. Pol. Soc Sci., 1959, 322, 53-62.
1. Change agent
The Quincy Community Youth Development Project was supported by the C.A. Moorman Foundation and conducted by the staff cf the University of Chicago's Human Development Program. Dr. R.J. Havighurst designed and initiated the study.
2. Commentator
Bowman is the Chief Consultant to the Quincy Project.
3. Target population
"The project was not designed specifically as a study of delinquency, but rather as a study of the range of maladjustment and talent in children." Ninety-four subjects in a control group of 508 had had a police contact within the seven month period of the study. Seventy-seven of the 94 are called semi-delinquent, i.e., their offenses are of a minor nature, e.g., breaking windows, traffic violations. The remaining 17 are defined as delinquent. The group includes no murderers, none involved in knifings, shootings or gang warfare. About one-fourth are girls. The girls' offenses are drinking and sex offenses.
"Delinquency in the smaller city," Bowman contends, "seems similar to that In large cities except that it is not as extreme and Is not charac• terized by gangs. The delinquent usually comes from the lower socio• economic groups and Is likely to be below average ln intelligence."
4. Goals and program
"The efforts of the project were aimed not directly at the children but rather st the adults who are responsible for the children In the community. The goal is to upgrade the community's service to youth." 22
Bowman
The first efforts of the project were directed toward placement of youth in foster homes, aggressive casework, and establishing recreational clubs.
These efforts were later replaced by an "approach that would bring a more intensive contact with the child over a longer period of time, as well as one that could conceivably be used by the average community." This approach was directed at the school.
Two experimental classrooms were set up in the ninth grade. A third group, randomly selected, had no special treatment. Teachers were selected to work with the project because of their interest and sympathy rather than their training.
All of the children in the experimental groups were below average ability and had done poorly in the eighth grade-* School for these pupils in their experimental ninth grade class differed from the regular .classroom procedure in a number of ways. The students spent from 1/4 to 3/4 of the day with one teacher who knew them well and was sympathetic. Learning experiences were considerably varied. Films, trips, and work experience were, included. The program was flexible and practical materials like newspapers and magazines were used as texts. The pace was slow. Students did not compete with others on a higher level. The efforts of the teacher were designed to make school a pleasant-experience:
No detailed theoretical analysis Is given in the article. However, a list of factors related to maladjustment is given.' The lack of employment for
Negroes, lack of recreational programs for youth, and inadequate school . curricula are included. It is argued that students who leave school have had nothing but defeat throughout their school career. These defeats*,come .in the classroom, with other students, and in extra-curricular activities. Such 23
Bowman students are "ashamed of not being able to read or write or 'figure', they desperately want these skills but are not likely to make the effort in the usual school setting." They hate school and their hatred begins in the early grades.
Teachers of junior high school students say that with few exceptions these "defeated" children are their greatest problem. School personnel are discouraged about dealing with this group, but they are charged with the responsibility for them by law.
5. Evaluation
The initial efforts of the project—the placement of youths in foster homes, aggressive casework, and establishing recreational clubs—were, as noted, abandoned. It was difficult to find foster homes, and the natural parents were reluctant to give up their child. Aggressive casework was time consuming. An attempt was made to work with the family as well as with the youth. However, only a few parents were interested enough for such an approach to succeed. An individual casework approach was also tried, but community forces such as segregation are hard to handle on this level. Another reason for abandoning the casework approach was the failure to find an agency in the community which was willing to take on the job. The recreational clubs were abandonded for the same reason: no community agency was ready to take on the program. Moreover, recrea• tional programs were, in the project's opinion, "not to be relied on to change people, but can be used as effective points of contact between children and various resources of a community."
The criteria for evaluating the school program was the prevention of maladjustment and the development of talents In a cross section of the children compared with a control group. 24
Bowman
The analysis of the formal evidence was not complete at the time of this report. However, it appears that there is but slight improvement in the academic skills of the experimental group. Personal adjustment and dropout rates are the same for control and experimental groups. However, students in the experimental group have better job success as rated by the employer and measured by length of stay in a job. Attendance records suggest that the experimental group had greater interest in school. The rate of juvenile delinquency has dropped in the experimental group, but increased in the control group. 6. Editors1 analysis of program
Strategy here centered about the teacher-pupil relationship in a benign atmosphere. Treatment was on an individual basis. The project
seemed aimed at reducing provocations to delinquency in that attempts were made to ameliorate the frustration, defeat, and shame attendant on school
failure. Whether the reported success of the project resulted from reduced
provocations or under the controlling influence of sympathetic teachers ifl
an open question. 25
Brown, Roscoe and Dodson, Dan. The effectiveness of a Boys Club program in reducing delinquency. Annals Amer. Acad. Pol. Soc. Sci., 1959, 322, 47-52J
1. Change agent
The Red Shields Boys Club in Louisville, Kentucky, an affiliate of
the Boys Clubs of America, conducted the program.
2. Commentator
The authors participated in the study as members of the staff of
the New York University Center for Community and Field Services, which
was engaged to do the evaluation at the request of the Boys Clubs of
America. Both authors are professors of education at NYU; both have
Ph.D.'s.
3. Target population
The Club's activities were restricted to the white population of a
lower class area of Louisville, Kentucky. Seventy-one per cent of the
10-14 age group were members of the Club. The Club philosophy places
a great deal of emphasis on the 10-14 age group.
LFor other studies evaluating the effectiveness of recreational programs see:
Shanas, E. and Dunning, C. E. Recreation and delinquency, Chicago Recreation Commission, 1942.
Reed, E. How effective are group work agencies in preventing delinquency? Social Service Review, 1948, 22, 340-348.
Thrasher, F. M. The Boys Club and juvenile delinquency, American Journal i of Sociology, 1936, 42, 66-80.
Thrasher, F. M. The Boys Club Study, The Journal of Educational Sociology, 1932, 6, 4-16.
These four articles are reviewed in Witmer, H. L. & Tufts, E. The effectiveness of delinquency prevention programs. Children's Bureau Publication, #350 Washington, D.C., 1954. 26
Brown and Dodson
A delinquent was defined as a boy apprehended for "those offenses defined by the Crime Prevention Bureau of the Lousiville Division of Police as being delinquent." Sixteen types of acts were considered including auto theft, destruction of property, unlawful entry, offenses against person, larceny, and truancy. Rates of juvenile delinquency were examined for a period from 1944 to 1954. Children from the ages of 5 to 16 were included for the years 1944 to 1952. The relevant laws were changed in 1953 and the age limits became 5 to 17.
4. Goals and program
The Club's program was not studied extensively. However, it is noted
that the "program philosophy of the Boys Club emphasizes an all-around
program for boys working in small groups." Training in citizenship
and the promotion of the boy's development are key aims of the program.
Athletics, crafts, dramatics, and a summer camp program are some of the
activities offered to the boys. Program activities most acceptable
to the boys are developed as part of the program by working in small
groups.
5. Evaluation
The criterion of success or failure was a change in the juvenile
delinquency rate in the area. The rates were computed on the basis of
the comparison of the number of boys committing delinquent acts in a
given year to the total number of boys residing in the area during
the year. It was necessary to use the 1950 US Census as a base
and to extrapolate back to 1944 and forward to 1954. The rates were
based on the number of individuals, not the number of acts. 27
Brown and Dodson
The rates in the target area were compered with those in two other areas. The median income, median rental, median education, type of housing, percentage of non-white, and absence of a youth servicing
agency were the criteria used in selecting areas. A summary of the basic comparative data follows:
Median Median Median Per Cent Area income rental educ. (yrs) Population non-white
Club area $2703 $23.82 8.5 28,044 1.7- Area B $2423 $24.83 8.6 10,088 11.05 Area C $2742 $33.44 8.7 31,703 9.27 City $2723 $33.22 8.9 319,077 15.70
A base line of the juvenile delinquency rate from 1944-46 was taken.
The club entered the area in 1946.
The delinquency rate in the Club area dropped from 1946 to 1954
but increased In the city as a whole and in the other two areas.
The actual role of the Boys Club was, in the authors' opinion,
difficult to assess. "A closer look at the actual delinquency pattern
seems to indicate that while the Boys Club probsbly had some influence
on the delinquency problem, several other factors were also operating
to produce social stability in the Club area and instability in the
other areas." The rates for areas B and C fluctuated greatly from
1946 to 1952. After 1952, with the inclusion of 17-year-olds, the
rates in these two areas increased sharply. In contrast to the pattern
in the control areas, the rates in the Club area dropped sharply from
1946 to 1948 and remained stable from 1948 to 1954. The addition of
17-year-olds in the statistics did not increase the rate in the club
area.
Brown and Dodson concede that the "rather stable pattern of
decline" in the Club area despite the unstable pattern of increase in 28
Brown and Dodson
the other areas might have been caused by the presence of the Boys Club. However, they suggest that an alternative explanation might be made, "...the forces in the community that led to the establishment of the-Boys Club were lacking in the other areas. The absence of such community- oriented social forces might then be associated with a general pattern of social disorganization conducive to delinquency." 6. Editors1 analysis of program
It is difficult to determine categories for the strategy of this
effort since there is such sparse description of it and there is such
wide variation in the typical Boys Club program. Boys are worked with
in groups, certainly, but on the one hand these groups are quite fluid,
sometimes changing membership as boys move from the gym to the craft shop,
so it would be more appropriate to call them aggregates of individuals.
On the other hand, club groups which meet regularly and plan activities
are sometimes natural friendship groups and sometimes groups which do
not exist outside the Club program.
We tend to classify recreational programs as having control emphasis.
Their effectiveness is often attributed to the fact that they "rob time"
which otherwise would be devoted to delinquent activity and to the process
of learning good habits and moral standards from contact with the agency
and its workers. Crawford, P. L., Malamud, D. I., and Dumpeon, J. R. Working with.teenage gangs, Welfare Council of New York City, 1950.
1 • - " r: j-..: •
1. Change agent . & ,.- .
The' Central Harlem Street Club Project was conducted under the auspices of the Committee on Street Clubs of the Welfare Council of
New York City. The Council is a volunteer organization created in 1925 as a coordinating and planning center for welfare and health services in all the boroughs of New York City.
Financial support was obtained from many individuals and foundations
The Project was administered by the Area Director who worked under the supervision of the Consultant on Correction and Delinquency of the
Welfare Council . in addition to the Area Director the staff included a
Research Director responsible for evaluating and directing the Project's work. Five area workers performed the field operations which began in
July, 1947 and ended in March 1950.
Four of the workers were male, one female. The woman and three of
the men were Negro. The workers are Identified by pseudonyms. Bernie
had experience and training in recreation, physical education and
teaching. Howard also had experience in recreational work. In addition,
he had graduate training in anthropology and administered psycho•
logical tests in an army classification center. Mike, the Caucasian,
had taught both secondary and higher education classes. The fourth man,
Larry, had graduate training in social psychology and had been a member
of a public welfare agency staff. Doris had training and experience in
group work and community organization, and had also been a college
Instructor and administrator. 30
Crawford, et al.
2. Commentator
P. L. Crawford wee the Director of the Central Harlem Street Club project
D. I. Malamud was the Research Director. J. R. Dump*on was the Consultant in
Correction and Delinquency for the Welfare Council of New York City.
3. Target population
The Project worked with four gangs ranging in number from 35 to over 100 members. The Project workers came in contact with about 350 club members.
Frequent contacts were made with about half that number.
The gangs to be worked with were selected after consultation with repre•
sentatives of police, schools, and social agencies familiar with the area.
The gangs selected were among the most antisocial in the area. Rape, gang warfare, theft, truancy, and the use of narcotics were part of the history of
each. Many of the members of each gang had been arrested or committed to
institutions. Moreover, "each gang's relations with the other three were marked by fear, hate or conflict."
Each club was divided into several divisions, usually on the basis of age
Each division had its own officers; however, there was a president for the
whole gang. "Each street club was miniature autocracy marked by occasional
hostilities and rivalries among the members." The gang leader was dictatorial
Parliamentary procedures were unknown.
The general activities of the boys were monotonous. Participation in
organized recreational projects which required group planning,delegation and
assumption of responsibility and coordination were not a part of gang life.
Bull sessions, movies, horseplay, teasing, and visiting girl friends were the
most frequent activities. 31
Crawford, et al.
The "gang boy saw the;world aa a Jungle full of hostility and aggression—a dangerous place to live where one had to be hard and tough to survive." Gang fights were part of the process of maintaining a '\rep." Stealing was an accepted practice. Much but not all of the theft involved petty items.
Adults were classed as: 1) authorities who "pushed them around,
...moralized, made demands, threatened, condemned..." (police and • often parents and teachers fell Into this category); 2). hoodlums;
3) suckers who "were softies ... who worked for a living, never stepped out of line, and would fall for any 'line.1" The boys disliked the authorities and lacked respect for suckers. Hoodlums were not trusted as they might exploit the boys. "Nice" adults were suspect. Any adult might be a hoodlum. •
"Many boys had grandiose ambitions for themselves without a realis• tic appreciation for the obstacles they faced." Few wanted to work;
"only suckers worked." ; Money and big cars were Bigns of success, nevertheless.
4. Goals and program
The impetus which culminated In the formation of the Project was a
series of gang wars. "... press, schools and courts began to view the
situation with alarm. Something had to be done, but what?" The Council did not believe punitive measures ware the answer. The usual recreation
programs were inadequate. Instead, trained area workers "were to in•
fluence the clubs along socially constructive lines." It was assumed
that a close relationship with an accepting, understanding adult would be a "powerful force for personal and social growth," The original plans 32
Crawford, et al. also called for attempts to organize adults in the community. However, a sus• tained effort in this direction proved unfeasible. A Neighborhood Council was formed and had some limited success and cooperation.
The Project developed a "conceptual outline" of the process of working with a street corner group. The process involves three stages and three broad areas of choice.
The stages in the workers' relationship with the boys were: 1) gaining acceptance, 2) stimulating change, and 3) closing the relationship. "Guiding principles" for each stage are noted.
The Project advises a worker who wants to gain the acceptance of a club
to: 1) know the neighborhood, che socio-cultural factors which characterize
it, and representatives of school, police and other social agencies; 2) get a third party to introduce him to the gang; 3) gain the leader's acceptance;
4) define his function as clearly and concretely.as possible when an appro•
priate occasion arises; 5) in early stages, stress his similarities with .the boys and play down their differences; 6) be alert to the various ways the boys will test him, showing he is not authority, hoodlum, or sucker; 7) be alert to how boys interpret what he says and does; and 8) learn what the club's
structure, ideology, activities, and needs are as well as the personality of
the members.
The introduction of constructive recreational programs can encourage a
reduction in antisocial behavior. Program activities which place boys in
strange situations in which their usual habit patterns do not apply, like hikes, often render boys amenable to new ideas, values, and modes of solutions sug• gested by the worker. Patience and the ability to avoid forcing convictions
on the boys are necessary ingredients for success.
The fact that the relationship will not be permanent should be made known Crawford, et al.
as soon as possible. The boys should be helped to strengthen their own capacity for self-direction. The reduction of the worker's con• tacts and prominence should be gradual. If necessary, the club should be encouraged to establish a relationship with other community adults or agencies.
The three major areas of choice are: "1) What boys or sub•
groups should be worked with most intensively?... On what basis should he choose these boys? 2) What goals should he emphasize...? 3) Wfeat
role and techniques should he employ to achieve his goals for specific boys or subgroups?11 These decisions are made in each stage of the
relationship.
5. Evaluation
The Research Program was limited, by lack of funds, to a "sys•
tematic analysis of certain selected aspects of the workers' process
records." This present report, however, is primarily for laymen.
"... to give a simple overall picture, we placed more emphasis on a
description of our experience than on analysis of the dynamics under•
lying the worker-boy relationship and changes that occurred in the
boys." The instruments used to gather the process records are repro•
duced in appendices. A report of day-to-day contacts, the workers'
accounts of the expected effect of this contact on his relationship
with the group and profiles of individual members were used to gather
the data.
The Project viewed its accomplishments as: 1) establishing a
working relationship with gangs; 2) aggressive, antisocial behavior
like gang fighting and stealing declined, while escapist behavior 34
Crawford, et al.
such as reefer smoking,' drinking and gambling did not'change; 3) "Success• ful participation in planning* decision making, and carrying out responsi• bilities gave many boys a new sense of confidence—then ability to cope with problems on their own; 4) democratic, harmonious, and cooperative re• lationships increased; 5) negative attitudes toward adults declined and the boys began to take an active, constructive interest in their neighborhoods; and 6) boys were provided with services in court and with help securing jobs which they might not have gotten otherwise." No claim is made to having made any change In the basic ideology of the boys. They still viewed the world as a jungle.
"Yes, they may grant the presence of sympathetic allies in this
jungle, but a jungle it is nonetheless. It is still important to be tough.
Fearfulness and weakness are still despised traits. The exaggerated need
for status, the contempt for law, exploitative attitudes towards girls--
these and other trends still operate virtually unmodified in most of the
boys."
The project also questioned the wisdom of its original decision to
place major emphasis on the worker's personality as a qualification for
selection. "We question the advisability of employing lay persons as area
workers, solely on the grounds that they are warm, accepting persons."
They go on to say, "Street gang work will not progress as a human relations
discipline in the hands of laymen. The problems call for skilled
specialists." Psychiatric caseworkers with some orientation in group work
are recommended.
6. Editors' analysis of program
The Project operated directly on the normative and value systems of Crawford, et al. the group from a point within these structures. The worker becomes a part of the group and attempts to influence the group's values and norms. A major aim of the project is to establish a procedure which will constrain the group from participating in antisocial behaviors when the provocations stem from an "exaggerated need for status," the importance of being "tough," and the feeling of being in a"jungle." The worker offers new "modes of solution" to the problems presented. Presumably, this mode, the use of "democratic, harmonious and co-operative relationships," acts as a deterrent to participation in antisocial behaviors.
Thus, the control is not a specific value which defines an act as bad arid.reduces the tendency to perform it; nor is it an affiliation or attraction to some group or individual who would be
"offended" by the performance of the act. However, these do play a role. They do so within the framework of the new procedures which allow barriers to be erected to the immediate gratification of impulses in antisocial ways. Presumably, in the long run, methods will be found to satisfy these provocations in an approved manner.
The participation of the group in constructive programs, under the guidance of the worker, Indicates that such is possible. 37
Empey, L. T. & Rabow, J. The Provo experiment in delinquency rehabilitation. American Sociological Review, 1961, 26. 67-9-695.
1. Change agent
The Provo experiment in Delinquency Rehabilitation was begun in
1956 by the Citizens' Advisory Council to the Juvenile Court. The
Council is composed of volunteer professional and lay people with no
formal ties to government except through the Juvenile Court. Legal•
ly, program officials are deputy probation officers appointed by the
Juvenile Court Judge. The treatment program is financed by County
funds budgeted through the Juvenile Court. The research is financed by the Ford Foundation.
2. Commentator
The commentators are part of the research team-
3. Target population
Male habitual offenders between the ages of 15 and 17 are as•
signed to the Project's Program by the Juvenile Court of Utah County,
Utah. Uighly disturbed and psychotic boys are not assigned to the
Project. The County is in a period of transition characterized by
industrialization and the in-migratlon of non-Mormons. The total pop•
ulation from which the Project draws is 110,000.
The offenses for which the boys are arrested are the usual juvenile
offenses—vandalism,, shoplifting, car theft, burglary, forgery, and so
forth. About half the boys are permanently out of school, do not par•
ticipate in any regular institutionalized activity, and are dependent
almost .entirely on the delinquent system for social participation 38
Empey and Rabow
and acceptance. There are, however, no clear-cut'gangs, but delinquent:Boys from the entire county who have never met do know each other by reputation. The delinquent boys date the Bame girls and use the same jargon.
4. Goals and program
The goal of the Project is the rehabilitation of delinquent boys and
systematic evaluation and reformulation of the treatment consistent with
research findings.
There are no more than 20 boys In the Program at any one time. When
one boy leaves another is added. The boys are divided into two separate
discussion groups. No specified limit is set on the length of treatment;
however it is usually from 4 to 7 months. Every day except Sunday boya are
transported to the treatment center after school if they are attending
school. They live at home and return there each evening.
The program consists of two phases. Only the first is reported in
any detail ln the paper. In Phase I, an attempt is made to create a social
system ln which social structure, boys, and authorities are oriented to one
task, via., that of instituting change. The main instrument for institu•
ting change Is guided peer group discussions. Phase II involves an effort
to maintain reference group support and to obtain employment after release.
The boy still participates in the group discussions which are part of.
Phase I. The discussions in Phase II: 1) help in checking on the current
activities of the boy; 2) serve as means of contact with a law-abiding
reference group; and 3) aid in solving new problems. Employment oppor•
tunities are made known to the boy, but no efforts are made by "some well-
meaning, pretentious adult to manipulate the boy's life."
In Phase I, there Is little formal structure. The only formal Empey and Rabow demands are that the: boy appear every day and'work hard at the job given him. The other daily activity Is the group discussion session, but attendance is not compulsory. The;absence of formal structure Is intended to avoid establishment Of artificial criteria for release since these boys learn quickly how to manipulate and "beat" such a system. The lack of clear definitions of the formal structure is said to accomplish three things: 1) it produces anxiety and turns boys toward the group as a means of resolving their anxiety; 2) it leaves boys free to define situations themselves; and 3) it binds neither the authority nor peer group to prescribed courses of action. The absence of a formal structure is thought to favor a boy's becoming ready for change. The guided group discussions help him to make changes.
The boys learn that the authorities will uphold the norm which says that the Program is not a place for boys to "do time." If a boy does hot become involved in the program and the group Is unwilling or unable-to act, the authorities will act. The boy might be sent to- jail for a short time, work without pay, or just be allowed to wander about the Center with no defined role. The boy is never told what
the trouble is, nor are possible solutions suggested. There is no individual counselling; The Program believes such counselling might reflect on the integrity of the group: "As a result of such exper• iences, boys are often confused and hostile. But...such feelings are welcome...taken as a sign that the boy is not in control of the
situation and is therefore amenable to change."
The discussion sessions are patterned after the Guided Group 40
Empey and Rabow
Interaction techniques used at Highfields.*" No details of the technique are cited by Empey and Rabow. '^Frorn a peer point of view it (the discus• sion technique) has three main goals: 1) to question the utility of a life devoted to delinquency; 2) to suggest alternative ways for behavior; and 3) to provide recognition for a boy's personal reformation and the willingness to reform."
The group is given wide areas of power, including that of helping to decide when each boy is released. The norms dictate that no one in the group can be released until everyone is honest and is involved in the
problem solving process. Thus, recalcitrants are faced with the dilemma
of choosing involvement or attack by his peers. Secondly, the peer group passes on the tradition that most boys ln the program are candidates for
reform school and that those who fail will go there. "This is shocking be•
cause even habitual delinquents do not ordinarily see themselves as ser•
ious offenders." Therefore, each boy must decide if he will attempt to
change or go to reform school. The group has the power to impose sanc•
tions on boys, such as extra work or incarceration. The "ultimate
sanction..,1s refusal to release a boy from the program."
"The major assumptions of the treatment program are held to be:
"1) Delinquent behavior Is primarily a group product and demands an
approach to treatment far different from that which sees it as character•
istic of 'sick* or 'well-meaning* but 'misguided' persons.
^The program at Illghfields, N. J. Is very similar to that at Provo, especially in regard to the Guided Group Interaction treatment. At nigh- fields, boys are resident and there is no Phase II program after release. Illghfields is not reviewed here because It is a resident program. For details see: Weeks, H. A. Youthful offenders at Illghfields, Ann Arbor, U. of M. Press, 1958. McCorKle, L. W., Elias, A., and Blxby, F. L. The Illghfields story, Uolt, New York, 1958. Empey and Rabow
"2) An effective program must recognize the, intrinsic nature of a delinquent's membership in a delinquent system and, therefore, must direct treatment to him as part of that system.
"3) Most habitual delinquents are effectively and ideologically dedicated to the delinquent system. Before they can change, they must
,be made anxious about the ultimate value of that system for them.
' "4) Delinquents must be forced to deal with conflicts which the demands of conventional and delinquent systems place on them...a treatment program, in order to force realistic decision-making can be most effective if it permits continued participation in the community as well as in the treatment process.
"5) Delinquent ambivalence for the purpose.of rehabilitation can only be utilized .in a setting conducive to the free expression of feelings--both delinquent and conventional.
"b\) An effective program must develop a unified and. cohesive social system In which delinquent and authority alike are devoted to one task—overcoming lawbreaking. In order to accomplish this the program must avoid two pitfalls: a) it must avoid establishing authorities as "'rejectors' and making inevitable the creation of two social systems within the program; and b) it must avoid the institu• tionalization of means by which the skilled offender can evade norms and escape sanctions.
"7) A treatment system will be most effective if the delinquent peer group is used as the means of perpetuating the norms and imposing the causation of the system....
"Finally, in summary a successful program must be viewed by the delinquents as possessing four characteristics: 1) a social climate 42
Empey and Rabow in which delinquents are given the opportunity to examine and experience al ternatives related to a realistic choice between delinquent and non- delinquent behavior; 2) the opportunity to declare publicly to peers and authorities a belief or disbelief that they can benefit from a change in values; 3) a type of social structure which will permit them to examine the role and legitimacy (for their purposes) of authorities in the treat• ment system; 4) a type of treatment interaction which, because it places major responsibilities upon the peer group decision-making, grants status and recognition to individuals, not only for their own successful partic• ipation in the treatment interaction, but for their willingness to involve others."
The Program itself is based on a view that "delinquents are aware of conventional structure and its expectations. In many conventional settings they can, and usually do, behave conventionally, but...like other people they are motivated by the normative expectations of their own subsystem.
Consequently, when in the company of other delinquent boys, they may not only feel that they have to live up to minimal delinquent standards but appear more delinquent than they actually are, just as people in church often feel that they have to appear more holy than they actually are."
The feeling of ambivalence is made part of the rehabilitation process.
5. Evaluation
The evaluation has not yet been made. However, the design for the research upon which evaluation will be based is discussed.
Offenders in the treatment program will be compared to two random•
ly selected groups. One control group will consist of offenders who at the time of sentence are placed on probation and left in the community. 43
Empey and Rabow
•The other control group will consist of offenders who at the time of sentence are incarcerated. There will be no boy-to-boy comparisons.
Random.selection procedures are used to minimize sample bias.
The procedure for selecting the groups into which the boys are assigned is now part of the usual judicial proceedings in the Utah
County Probate Court. The Judge ,is instructed to decide the dispo• sition of the case as he would were there no treatment program; that is, he decides whether the boy goes on probation or to jail. If the offender has been selected as appropriate for the study by the program staff, the Judge then opens an envelope provided him. lie is thus in• structed as to whether the boy Is to be sentenced as he had decided or sent to the treatment center. The distribution of decisions as to whether or not the boy should be sent to the Center are randomly dis• tributed throughout the pack of envelopes.
The eventual evaluation will be made in terms of statistical com• parisons among control groups using such data as recidivism rates and an examination of how the boys handle critical incidents after release from treatment compared with the way such incidents were handled prior to treatment. No testing, case histories, or clinical diagnosis are to be made, "...peer group interaction is believed to provide a con• siderably richer source of information about boys and delinquency than do clinical methods." The details of the method of using and collecting data from group interaction Is not discussed, however, every session is recorded on tape.
The evaluation program will have two goals: 1) to assess the overall effectiveness of the project by measures such as rates of re•
ins titutionallzation; and 2) to investigate the program's effect on 44
Empey AnQ Rabow factors deemed related to rehabilitating delinquents by studying the actual process of rehabilitation.
The problem of the contamination of the results and effects of the treatment program because of contacts between treatment and control group members is mentioned. No program to.eliminate this contamination is planned. The researchers feel that such contamination will serve to mask the program's effect and-make the-observed differences less than the actual ones.
6. Editors' analysis of programs
The Provo Experiment in Delinquency Rehabilitation aims to establish forces within the individual which will tend to restrain him from perform• ing delinquent acts by manipulating the social environment, especially the norms of the group in which the individual operates. Thus, the forces actually worked with are those of a small, face-to-face group. In this case, the group is not formed by "natural" processes, but rather comes in• to being after the potential members are brought together by the staff at
Provo. The projects aims to establish controls by a two step process:
First, creating the necessary group structure conditions for arousing anxiety about previous values; then through group discussions to indi• cate that the delinquent behaviors dictated by those values will lead to undeslred consequences such as incarceration. Franklin, Adele. The all-day neighborhood services. Annals Amer. Acad. Pol. Soc. Sci., 1959, 322, 62-68.
The All-Day-Neighborhhod Schools, Interim Report XIII. Juvenile.. -.Lie Delinquency Evaluation Project of the City of New York, (tntnieo)
1. Change agent
The All-Day Neighborhood School is a program of the New York City
Board of Education. Additional funds are provided the school through the auspices of the City'-Wide Citizen's Committee for the All-Day
Neighborhood Schools, a private organization.
The All-Day Neighborhood School Program began in 1942 under the auspices of the Public Education Association, a private organization, with the cooperation of the Board of Education. The first program,
the Chelsea School Project, was undertaken as a field demonstration and
investigation of the effects on children of an extended school day and help to teachers. The project now operates In nine elementary
schools.
In each of the nine schools the regular staff is augmented by
seven "group teachers." One of the seven serves as an administrator
for the others. One group teacher is assigned to each of the six
grades. In addition, the All-Day Neighborhood Schools (ADNS)
supplies a clerk to 8 of the 9 schools to handle the additional
clerical work required by the project. Six of the schools are
supplied a part-time social worker by ADNS; eight have a part-time
psychologist; four schools have a community coordinator of the project's
efforts.
The group teacher is preferably a regularly licensed teacher with
at least three years of experience. The emphasis Is on all-around
good teachers rather than on specialists. However, recruitment is
a problem. About 20 per cent of the teachers have substitute licenses. 46
Franklin
An in-service training program Is'-provided. -Weekly conferences with supervisors are also held.
There is a single director of the total ADNS operations who acts as a liaison to the Board of Education and parent and citizen groups, and as a "unifying force" for the project's total operations. The two assistant directors are responsible for the "integrity and development" of the ADNS with each of the schools under their supervision. A Community Relations
Consultant works with the schools for which no community coordinating has been provided.
2. Commentator
Dr. Franklin is the Director and founder of the All-Day Neighborhood
Schools. She has a.doctorate in Education. The Juvenile Delinquency
Evaluation Project, under the direction of Dr. R. M. Maclver of the
City College of New York, was set up by the Mayor to investigate "the
whole system of agencies, institutions, and services directed to combat
delinquency among juveniles and adolescents" in New York City.
3. Target population
All the ADNS are in ".special service schools," schools in the lowest
25 per cent of schools in New York City ranked on such factors as.mean
reading age, IQ's, percentage of children with language handicaps, and
percentage of teachers on permanent tenure. The neighborhoods are usually
deteriorated. One school population, however, is mostly from a housing
project. The turnover of pupils averaged 31 per cent annually for
all ADNS schools. Most of these schools have 30 per cent or more non- mf English speaking classes. Franklin
The selection of a school for service of ADNS is from the list of
"special service schools." However, the selection of a particular school "seems more based on chance than overall considerations," according to the JDEP report.
4. Goals and program
The goals of ADNS are: 1) "cultural enrichment of the children;
2) help to children with problems; and 3) work with parents, citizens, and neighborhoods," according to the JDEP report. Franklin notes that ADNS operates in the belief that "children in low socio-economic areas who often have limited cultural backgrounds and frequently come from broken homes have emotional problems which make learning difficult."
Franklin claims, "We are combining the techniques of education, recreation, group work, social work, and sociology within the framework of the school." In addition co the work with children during the school year, the Project sponsors a summer program and forms local committees of. representatives from the Parents Association of the school and other individuals who are interested in school-community relations. These local committees serve a number of functions, like fund-raising, recruitment of volunteer personnel, publicity, and in supporting needed community reforms such as extending the public library and clean-up campaigns.
The essential ingredient of the Project, however, is thought to be
"the continuity of guidance that is given to children through a -
program..." Franklin comments that the presence of a social worker
in the school "giving guidance to the teacher when needed, helps
lighten the teacher's burden and makes her better able to handle
disturbed children." 46
Franklin
The major work of the ADNS program is performed by group teachers in the school and the community coordinator (or the Community Relations Con• sultant) working in the neighborhood.
Each group teacher works with a regular teacher in what is called a
"cooperating class." Each group teacher also leads an after-school club.
In some schools individualized reading programs are led by ADNS personnel.
Cooperating classes are generally established upon the request of the regular teacher. A class is usually divided in half between the group and regular teacher according to relative reading achievement. The groups are
then rotated regularly so that both groups are served by group teachers.
A group teacher will usually work with one "bright" and one "slow" class.
The group teacher introduces a wide variety of arts and crafts, trips,
and other activities to supplement the usual program of classroom activities.
The club which the group teacher directs meets after school from
3:00 to 5:00 IM. The club program consists of "planned and supervised
recreation for selected groups." The club program begins two weeks after
school starts with 15 children. Enrollment then increases gradually to 25.
Club membership is given first to children of working mothers. Some
children who exhibit "emotional or behavior problems" are also selected.
The members are selected by school personnel, including representatives
of the Bureau of Child Guidance if present on the school staff. (ADNS has
often helped set up programs to supplement the work of the Bureau of Child
Guidance within ADNS schools.)
The work of the group teacher represents the major portion of the
work done by ADNS within a school. The community relations work is a
major activity outside the school. 49
Franklin
In the school where there is a community co-ordinator, ADNS has helped in the formation of Neighborhood Citizens Councils. These Councils, whose members need not have children in school, are concerned with a wide range of neighborhood problems, not just with the schools. The ADNS also works to strengthen the Parent-Teacher Association of each school. However, many mothers are reluctant to participate in school-wide groups. The formation of smaller groups on a grade level basis is being attempted. 5. Evaluation
During the three year demonstration period (1942-45) the Chelsea
All-Day Neighborhood School Program was evaluated by the Division of
Reference and Research of the New York City Board of Education under the direction of Dr. J. Wayne Wrightstone. The evaluation program
Included interviews with representatives of various social agencies and questionnaires given to the parents and teachers. Observations were made of classrooms in two ADNS schools and in two matched control schools. The ADNS clubs were also observed. Insofar as regular class procedures and accomplishments were concerned the control and ADNS schools were similar. However, the introduction of the ADNS program did result in gains in interpersonal relationships among pupils and between pupils and teachers. The majority of teachers, parents and community agency representatives favored extending the ADNS program.1
LThe details of the Wrightstone report were kindly provided us by him in an abstract of the original report. The supply of the original report is now depleted. 50
Franklin
Franklin illustrates the success of the Program with a case history. She comments, "If this were a single incident it would be interesting but not too significant. But (it) is one of hundreds of (cases) of elementary school children who, reached by the All-Day neighborhood Schools, have shown changes in behavior pattern." Franklin adds, "Principals, teachers, parents, and social workers point to overly aggressive or painfully with• drawn children who were helped by this program. These children have been able to make an adjustment and to maintain themselves in junior and senior high school."
The abstract of the .Franklin article notes that "Statistics show that there is a conspicuous lack of truancy and a minimum of vandalism in these schools and that the delinquency rate declines." The article itself, however, provides no statistics.
The JDEP report offers no formal evaluation of ADNS programs. The report rather describes the current program and.makes recommendations for strengthening these programs.
6. Editors1 analysis of program
The ADNS attempts to eliminate sources of disturbance in the environ• ment and the effects they have on the youths in the neighborhood. Thus, the focus of the work is on provocations--on driving forces.
The work itself is done at two levels. The work of the community co-ordinator in such activities as Neighborhood Citizens Councils and
Parent-Teacher Associations is in the area of community organization.
The group teacher, working within the school, is concerned with Individuals
While the group teacher works with many students in a club, there is no
reported use of the mechanisms of group dynamics or manipulation of group Franklin
standards and norms. The club is merely a device to facilitate
the work with individual pupils. It is more of an aggregate of dyadic
relationships between teacher and pupil than a single, coherent group unit. 53
Fried, Antoinette. A work camp program for potential delinquents. Annals ^mer.'Acad. Pol. Soc. Sci., 1959, 322, 38-46.
1. Change agent
. The Fuld Neighborhood House of Newark, New Jersey, a privately supported settlement house, conducted the program with the, cooperation of the Essex County Park Commission. A trained group worker had direct contact with the boys.
2. Commentator
Dr. Fried was the executive director of the Fuld Neighborhood House until the Fall of 1958.
3. Target population
In 1957, a group of 15 Negro boys from 14-17 years in age were accepted for the program. "The boys had been recruited from a club which had been known to the agency for a year. (They had been) unstable, emotionally highly volatile, and had records for minor offenses."
During the year prior to the summer In the work camp, the boys had responded to the leadership of a staff member, who had identified himself patiently and sincerely with their individual and group problems. "Under his leadership they had developed from a rowdy delinquent group into a club, which, within the confines of the agency was able to function In a socially acceptable, satisfactory manner."
In 1958, a group of 20 boys was accepted from some 50 applications.
4. Goals and program
The goal of the work camp experience was to provide the boys with an experience of a non-hostile world. This goal was to be accomplished by providing the boys with leadership which would 54
Fried combine fairness, with'interest in each individual. The boys were to-be given a chance to meet their external needs by earning income through constructive socially approved work.
Delinquent'activity is often, in Fried's opinion, a reaction to a deep-seated fear of being condemned to the role of underdog and of a desire for status. The facts of "dishonesfy and struggle for power on every level of national and international life" are "absorbed" by the boys. They are also sensitive to the discrepancies between the ideals which school's and churches propose and their own actual experience of social and racial inequality. Fried states, "As a result, they suffer from a distorted view of society. In their opinion, the man of status is the man who acquires maximum power and possession with a minimal output of energy." Lack of respect for the ethics of society as they are preached contributes to delinquency.
The six week summer program in 1957 consisted of a full day's work
for pay six days a week in Essex County parks under the supervision of a Park Commission foreman and a group worker. In 1958, the work load was reduced to half-day in consideration of the physical capacity demonstrated by the boys the'summer before, with a concomitant reduction in pay; a
recreation program was off erred in the afternoons.
5. Evaluation
The summer program of the first year proceeded smoothly. However,
certain unintended consequences became evident in the Fall. The boys had
become neighborhood models, but also the neighborhood bullies. When Fuld
House opened for the Fall, the boys appeared in a body and expected to Fried
"take over" the agency. They were convinced of their right to this
status and paid their membership dues without the customary bickering and struggle.
Eventually the agency began to lay down rules, the boys went wild, and they were expelled. They were permitted to return as individuals after parents had been visited and informed of the dissolution of the club.
A. follow-up study showed that eight of the boys had been in no
trouble with the law, one was on probation and employed, six were on probation but not employed, and three were in jail.
The summer experience of 1958 was not as smooth as that of the
first year. The boys did not participate in a recreation program which was offered in the afternoon, after the morning's work. The failure of the boys to partake in the recreation program was viewed as evidence
"that recreation for recreation's sake does not appeal to teenagers."
Recreation is enjoyed only if it is a "self-chosen expression of an
independent group's interest or temperamental need; it is better liked during the evening hours than in the day, when grown men of stature— whatever this stature may be—are at work."
The work performance of the group was also poor. Part of the
slackness was attributed to resentment over the curtailment of wages
due to only working a half day. An attempt was made to have the individ•
ual report the exact amount of time worked on a time sheet. "A small revolt broke loose." The boys' complained that they knew of men who were doing construction work who, according to the boys, spent much
time "just standing around, smoking and talking." There was also a 56
Fried deep-seated fear of being taken advantage of in a society in which one is a "second-class" member.
Despite "experimental shortcomings and errors, the basic validity of the work camp idea is unquestioned and is in keeping with the needs and requests brought to us by young people from all levels of society."
Several suggestions are made for future programs. These are:
1) A successful youth project of this type "must afford an environ• ment in which agreements are carried out and limits set and respected."
2) Dual leadership seems to be necessary. A social worker is needed to help with personal difficulties and to guide individual and group development. A foreman should be in charge of vocational instruction and any evaluation of the work.
3) "The work experience should reflect actual employment conditions and the relations between work performed and remuneration received should be on a realistic level."
4) Recreation may be provided, but it should be recalled that the work project's "basic value of giving status and independence suffers when linked to the outgrown practice of 'organized fun'."
6. Editors* analysis of program
In both years of the program, work was done on the level of the small group. In the first year, the group was formed naturally; in the second, the agency brought the boys together. However, in both there was a conscious attempt on the part of the workers to work with and within the normative and role structure of the groups. The leaders related to the group as a whole in a role defined in great measure by group standards. Fried
The program centered attention on provocation forces, specifically those arising from a desire for status and the fear of becoming an underdog. Apparently experience in a "non-hostile world" is offered in the hope that the boys will see that there are other ways of satisfying their desires besides engaging in delinquent activities. 59
Gandy,; John M. Preventive work/with street-corner groups:• Hyde Park Youth Project, Chicago, Annals Amer. Acad. Pol. Soc. Sci., 1959 322, 107-116. vr
Shireman, C. H. The Hyde Park Youth Project, Welfare Council of Metropolitan Chicago, ca. 1959.
1. Change agent1
The Project's core professional staff consisted of a Project Director, a casework supervisor, two caseworkers, a Director of Community Organi• zation, and a Director of Research. Two advisory committees were formed. The Project Advisory Committee, composed of outstanding Chicago citizens, aided in the development of board policy and fulfilled trusteeship functions. The Technical Advisory Committee dealt with the problems of implementation.
A number of already existing agencies became "partners" in the Hyde
Park Youth Project. However, two agencies were the "major partners."
The Family Service Bureau of United Charities of Chicago was the major partner In the casework and counselling program. The major group work partner was the Hyde Park Neighborhood Club. The Club employed two
street workers under a special grant.
The Hyde Park Youth Project itself was financed by the Wieboldt
Foundation through the Welfare Council of Metropolitan Chicago. The
Project worked In four problem areas: 1) "Services to individual,
'•The presentation of the reports of the Hyde Park Project deviates somewhat from the standard format used for the other summaries. The Project had two distinct programs, a casework program and a group work program. The target population, goals and program and evaluation of the former to be presented in section I; of the latter in section II. Remarks on the change agent and commentators precede the separate sections on the case work and group work, the editors' analysis follows. 60
Gandy; Shireman behavior problem children and their families." 2) "Work with street clubs, corner groups, street gangs ..." 3) "Help to community citizens, citizen groups, and institutions in their effort to understand and alleviate commu- unity conditions productive of delinquency." 4) "To weave from this network of services to individuals, groups, and the community-at-large...a pattern which might be transferable to other neighborhoods." This summary will deal only with the first two areas, work with individual problem children and street corner groups. The material for the latter is drawn from the report by Gandy. However, further details can be found in section II of the Shireman report. The Shireman report is the source for comments on the casework.
2. Commentator
Gandy was the Director of Rete^rch for the Hyde Park Youth Project.
Shireman was the Project Director. Both served for the full three years
that the Project was in existence.
Section I: Group Work
3. Target population
The Hyde Park Project was located In an old "socially descending
neighborhood of diverse classes and values struck with a recent acceleration
of in-migration by people whose values are In contrast with the tradition
of the area." The in-migrants are generally Negroes with low incomes. The
Juvenile delinquency rate is 6 per cent, near the city's median. Nevertheless,
an important part of Hyde Park is the large number of community groups who
are concerned about and working for the community's Improvement. The
community is dominated by the University of Chicago.
1tHyde Park was selected...because (it) seemed to have many of the
characteristics of other urban areas in transition, but (also) sufficient Gandy; Shireman
stability and resources to offer promise of development of a delinquency prevention program limited to three years", the proposed length for the s tudy.
Three workers served 11 groups ranging in size from nine to thirty-
six. The total number served was over 300. Six of the groups were all white, two mixed and three were all Negro. One of the all white groups was coed.
Generally, members were from families that were among the least
secure economically and had had little formal education. Their antisocial
behaviors included only isolated instances of inter-group conflict.
Thefts, intra-club fights, and isolated assults on individuals were
among the most common offenses. "The behavior that was creating the
most concern was loitering on corners, blocking of sidewalks, vandalism,
profanity, and boisterousness. Such behavior on the part of youths was
creating fear and hostility among adults, and this in turn tended to
exacerbate the fears, and anxieties of the teen-agers."
The groups were selected on the basis of the following criteria:
1) The group shared a meeting place in Hyde Park as well as recreational
or other interests; 2) members had demonstrated antisocial tendencies
or strong potential for such tendencies; 3) there was community anxiety
about the group; and 4) the group was not presently adequately served
by another community agency or institution. The probable impact on the
total community which would result from working with the particular group
was also considered as was the effectiveness of a street club worker
with such a group.
4. Goals and program
The Project hoped to cultivate positive relationships between street
clubs and community Institutions. They also sought to cultivate 62
Gandy; Shireman a positive relationship between street clubs and other youths and youth groups in the community. Other sub-goals were: reduction of antisocial behavior; acceptance by the street clubs and their members of the value system of the larger community; and assisting individual group members in understanding and coping with personal problems affecting their adjustment to group and community life. The club was also to be assisted in meeting the needs of the members in constructive ways.
All workers were affiliated with the Hyde Park Neighborhood Club and worked out of the Club. The initial stage of the worker's job involved just "hanging around." After initial contact, the worker attempted to establish himself as "an understanding and interested adult and one who
is symbolic of the larger community." The groups were not given support or excuses for antisocial behavior.
The worker tried to play the role of "significant male" in the life of the youngsters. He also worked with the parents of the youths, helping
them with their own personal problems and to understand their teenager better.
Similarly, the wofksr Is a line of communication between the local adult groups and teenagers. He is seen by all as representative of adults but trusted by youths.
5. Evaluation
The criterion of success was the juvenile delinquency rate among the
teenagers involved in the Project. Three sources of information were used
to determine the rate, police and court statistics being supplemented by
reports from community institutions and agencies and the individual worker's
impressions. The statistics, reports, and Impressions were combined to Gandy; Shireman place each boy on a seven-point scale. The scale points ran from "no known or suspected participation" in antisocial behavior to "instu- tionalized at time of rating." Only those behaviors which were actionable under law .affecting juveniles were Included.
The amount of antisocial behavior of the group per se was not measured since very little of the antisocial behavior Involved all or a majority of the group.
Ratings were made on behavior three months before to one month after the initial contact with a group. .These ratings were compared to ratings made during the period of three months before to one month after the termination of. the contact.
"The total picture was one of little increase and some decrease
In the frequency of antisocial behavior by the youths when the two points in time were contrasted. The Project, however, enjoyed its greatest success with youths who had little or no recent history of antisocial behavior at .the time of first contact. There were some reductions in antisocial behavior at the beginning of contact, but few of them achieved a rating of no known participation at time of termination." There was no provision in the evaluation design to enable the assessment of the contribution of the staff person to the reduction in frequency of antisocial behavior by members of the street-comer clubs. "The Project staff, the police, and the community generally are in agreement, however, that the frequency of antisocial behavior was probably considerably less than the potential seemed at the outset of the Project." 64
Gandy; Shireman
Section II: Casework
3. Target population
A total of 266 children were referred for individual treatment and study. All the children were said by the referral source to be "demon• strating agressive behavior problems." On the average each child was cited f*r "two to three specific behavior problems." In 40 per cent of the cases the referring agency stated that the child "could not accept or respond to necessary social controls." Fighting, stealing and truancy were the next most frequent problems.
The referral agencies were the school (50 per cent of the cases),
Hyde Park Neighborhood Club (12 per cent), Police (20 per cent), Family court, family and others (18 per cent).
Eighteen per cent of the children were under 10 year's of age, 74 per cent were between 10 and 17, 8 per cent were over 17. Somewhat less than half were white; somewhat more than half were Negro; the remainder belonged
to various ethnic groups, e.g., Puerto Rican. Four out of every five were boys. The sex ratios were about the same for Negroes and whites.
Fifty-three per cent of the children were in their proper grade in
school, 34 per cent behind one year and, 16 per cent two years or more.
However, 63 per cent had academic deficiencies, most commonly in reading.
In 45 per cent of the cases, the"child had not lost either parent
through death, divorce, separation, or desertion. The occupations of
the parents ranged from professionals to unskilled laborers. The "over•
whelming proportion of families (were) at least self-supporting and... would not be thought of as showing gross pathology in their economic
adjustment." Gandy; Shireman
4. Goals and program
The project's work with individuals was "essentially a social work program and the core of our service to individual children and families consisted of social casework...." The major goals were: 1) "curbing of antisocial behavior on the part of the children"; and 2) helping the family to be better able to meet the "social adjustment problems of the children referred."
The project's work with individual children was characterized by three features: 1) the "out-reaching approach", 2) the "family- centered approach", and 3) collaboration with all social agencies with whom the family members had contact.
The identification of a case was not dependent upon the initiative of the persons served. Neither the child, nor the family initiated the relationship with the Project. The cases were "community referred" by agencies contacted by the Project as part of its "out-reaching approach.
The initial mention of the existence of community concern to the child and the family was made by the referring agency. The family was asked little more than to agree to share information with the
Project. The Project would then offer its services and was seldom refused. Most difficulties, it is said, came later "when parents perceived that we could work no miracles and that they would inevitably become involved in a difficult and sometimes painful problem-solving process."
The family-centered approach utilized many of the skills of good casework. However, adaptations were made to the continued process of reaching out. These adaptations involved 1) an "early, honest statement to the family of the reasons for community concern"; 2) using as a 66
Gandy; Shireman starting point in work aspects of the problem about which the family was concerned and on which they were.able to use help; 3) expressing a recog• nition of the family's strength and extending the hope that they could solve their'problems; 4) flexibility as to time, place and condition of interview with "persistent demonstration of our. concern in spite of broken appointments or interruption in progress"; and 5) responsible use of authority, both as vested in the Project by virtue of association with authoritative agencies, including school, police, and the "authority of knowledge."
The collaborative approach involved an "effort to develop techniques and procedures for developing service plans based on analysis of the total problem of a child, and family and drawing in a coordinated way upon all available community ressouces...." . The major aspects of the col• laboration were: 1) pooling of Information and the formulation of a total diagnostic picture; 2) joint planning of treatment; 3) assignment of respon•
sibility to one agency or worker; and 4) an ongoing process of casework with the relevant agencies. •
5. Evaluation
Fifty-four percent of the cases contacted "were successfully Involved
and can be said to have been 'reached'." Some 17 per cent of the cases
proved "unreachable" with the resources and methods of the Project. For
some 18 percent of the cases, the family could not be treated, had moved,
or the referrals were incomplete or withdrawn. In 6 per cent of the cases
the Project could not provide or locate appropriate service such as
intensive psychotherapy and in 5 per -cent of the cases, there was no
need for further service. Some 70 per cent of the behavior problem Gandy; Shireman children and families referred to the Project who needed continued aid and whom the Project could contact and treat "were able to develop a shared picture of the existence of a problem, did develop concern about it, and were helped to move into active participation with community agencies in efforts to do something about it."
A study was made of factors related to the families participating or not in a treatment program. An attempt was made to assess the attainment of the Project's two goals; reduction of antisocial behavior of the child ahd helping the family to deal with the child.
The family's race and the child's age and sex were all unrelated
to participation in a treatment program. The source of referral was
thought to be a factor. A relationship was established with 70 per
cent of police referrals, 52 per cent from the schools, and 42 per
cent from the Neighborhood Club.
Family disorganization as measured by the "degree .ind number of
problems of social maladjustment" such as incarceration, alcholism,
and illegitimacy appeared to exert some influence but was "by no means the sole determinant" of reachability. Fortj'-three per cent of
the families for which the worker had diagnosed problems in individual
personality adjustment, parent-child relationships, and marital
difficulties discontinued the relationship. Only 25 per cent of
the cases for which service was'secured had difficulty in all three
areas.
A more extended study of factors affecting success or failure
in establishing a relationship was made with the aid of second-year
graduate students in social work enrolled in a class in applied
research at the School of Social Service Administration of the 68
Gandy; Shireman
University of Chicago. The students studied all of the cases known to the Project which met the following criteria: 1) "sufficient contact for tenta• tive diagnosis"; 2) "problem was considered potentially amenable to case• work treatment"; 3) resource for treatment available; and 4) referral to resource planned. A total of 111 families met the criteria; 80 accepted referral and had at least one in-person interview with the agency they were referred to; 31 were not successfully referred.
The students rated each case on a number of items. Each item was rated on a scale of from five to eight points. In final analysea, ratings were reduced to two or three points. Cases were assigned randomly. Three, or if considerable disagreement occurred, four students rated each case independently. The readers had no knowledge of case outcome. The agreed ratings of at least two or three raters were used.
Several factors were found not to be statistically associated with success or failure to secure acceptance of referral. These were: 1) presence of parent or parent substitutes in the home; 2) parent's percep• tion of child's behavior as a problem at the Project's beginning; 3) parental attitudes towards referral source as positive or negative authority; 4) adequacy of parent(s) to meet child's emotional needs; and 5) emotional and social functioning of parents.
Some factors were statistically related to success or failure. These were: 1) evidence of movement by the family at the end of referral process toward acceptance of the child's behavior as a problem; 2) positive reaction to the worker as an authority figure, a source of help, advice or gratifi• cation; 3) family income which was realistically restrictive or impeding; and 4) existence of family concern about child behavior as a problem at the end of the referral process. Gandy; Shireman
In addition to a study of the success or failure of the referral process, a study was made of the success or failure of the treatment. The caseworker to whom the family was assigned and who was familiar with many records and reports rated family functioning as: 1) substan• tially improved; 2) somewhat improved; 3) no change; or 4) worse. The behavior of 17 per cent of the children substantially improved; 36 per cent, improved; 16 per cent, no change; 10 per cent, worse; and 21 per cent, still in progress, were unclassified. Family functioning was substantially improved in 13 per cent of the cases; improved in 31 per cent; no change, 27 per cent; worse, 12 per cent; and unclassified, 16 per cent. The Project felt, however, that: 1) "a rewarding large proportion of the families referred to (the Project) could be reached"; 2) "Rather encouraging progress was shown by the children provided with help...;" and 3) "a fairly large proportion of families made progress in their level of family functioning...."
The Project, the Welfare Council, and the six major casework agencies participating in the Project have jointly received funds from the Wieboldt Foundation to do extended research on the treatment process itself and factors related to its success or failure. The resources of the Research Center of the School of Social Service Administration of the University of Chicago will be used.
"It became desirable then," the report reads, "to next examine more precisely the techniques and methods used, the services given, and the problems encountered." 70
Gandy; Shireman
6. Editors1 analysis of program
The Hyde Park Youth Project made a two-pronged attack on the delin• quency 'problem, one involving group work with street corner gangs, the other, case work with families; The social units mainly involved in both treatments seemed to be groups--family and gang--rather than individuals, although individuals were worked with-frequently. The emphasis of the group work effort was oh establishing relationships and changing values; that is the emphasis was on controls. The family- centered case work strategy is more difficult to categorize, but again there is an implied emphasis on control forces inasmuch as.the program aimed to raise the level of family functioning and to improve parent- child raltionships. Group Guidance Section, Los Angeles County Probation Department and the Youth Studies Center. The use of authority with delinquent groups: a proposal for an action research program. University of Southern California, 1. Change agent The Group Guidance Program of the Los Angeles County Probation Department works directly with gang members in resolving neighborhood gang problems. The workers are Deputy Probation Officers, but they function as extension workers and not probation officers. The Group Guidance Section presently employs eleven deputies and one supervisor. The proposal asks for five additional workers responsible to a senior deputy supervisor. The ratio of deputies to active gangs in the experimental area will be one to approximately two and one-half gangs. A special research position will be created within the Group Guidance Section. The occupant of this position will collect and organize the' data required from the Probation Department by the research program. The additional workers will be recruited from the staff of the Probation Department. 2. Commentator The author of the paper is not identified. 3. Target population An area of the City of Los Angeles was selected where: The proposal reviewed here is not the final proposal, but an early, tentative and incomplete form. Unfortunately, our publication date was too early to allow time for us to review the final, complete proposal of the Los Angeles County Probation Department and the Youth Studies Center. The editors wish to express their appreciation for the granting of permission to include a review of their tentative proposal. 72 Los Angeles County Probation Department 1) the gang problem is serious; 2) the area includes Negro, Mexican- American, and mixed groups; and 3) a program working in the center and the fringes of the area is not likely to be disturbed by invasions of ri• val gangs from outside the area. The area has 1.6 per cent of the total juvenile, population, but represents 2.3 per cent of the total juvenile arrests. The gangs in the area can be divided into three groups. The first group consists of two male and two female gangs which present the most ser• ious trouble. The Gladiators are a group of some 50 Negro males from 15 1/2-to 18-years*-old. MDst are unsuccessful in school, unemployed and have a history of individual and group delinquency. The Baby Gladiators have 40 to 50 members aged 12 to 15. The two male groups are to some ex• tent detached from each other. However, the younger group seems to be "constantly involved in proving their abilities to the Gladiators." Some 25 members of both groups are presently in custody. The two female groups are smaller than the male groups. One has a membership of 25 girls from ages 15 to 18. The other is a group of 20 younger girls, aged 13 to 15. All four groups described are in the center of the area. The second group of gangs consists of three male groups which cause serious problems in the fringe areas of the experimental area, groups of 17-20-year-olds and one of younger boys. The third group is four other male groups on the fringes of the area that may be regarded as one loose• ly affiliated group of 100 Mexican-Americans, Anglos, and Negro youths. The group consists of four sub-groups with ages ranging from 14-16, 16-23, 16-21, and 16-19. A large coed group is also Included in the area, but its present structure is uncertain and there have been no Incidents connected with them for some time. Los Angeles County Probation Department The experimental area has been defined to correspond to police reporting districts. The social status of the area is lover than Los Angeles as a whole. The white population is being dispLaced by non- whites, 90 per cent of whom are now Negro. 4. Goals and program The approach of the Group Guidance Section has three basic goals: 1) "establishing an individual counseling relationship with gang members"; 2) "using this relationship in motivating and influencing the power structure of the gang group" and 3) introducing tbe immediate family and neighborhood influences directly into the established program. The activity program is designed to "attract and hold the interest of gang members." The worker is available at all times and tailors the program to meet the "expressed and implied" needs of the members. Because of his official position as Deputy Probation Officer, the worker can serve as liaison among the gang, parents, and personnel of other agencies. The worker is a "relatively unambiguous authority figure." It Is hoped that the gang members, however, will accept him as a "helpful, interested authority figure." An employment program designed to facilitate the acceptance of conditions of employment by the gang members and of the gang members by employers is planned. It is also proposed that parent groups be formed in the hope that the formation and utilization of such groups will act to overcome some of the inter-generational cultural differ• ences. However, no details of the proposed program of work with parents is given. One of the worker's primary functions is to help break the "vicious circle" of bad relations of boys with the police. It is held 74 Los Angeles County Probation Department that once a gang is labelled delinquent, the police assume the responsibil• ity of preventing further delinquent activities by the gang. Individual members of the gang are often contacted, whether or not they have engaged in Illegal activity. The gang members view such police action as harass• ment and resent it. Disrespectful behavior and poor attitudes are demon• strated by the teenagers involved. The hostility of the police is thus reinforced. The worker assumes the role of Interpreter, presenting the police viewpoint to the teenagers and vice versa. Group guidance supervisors and directors meet with divisional ser• geants and captains, respectively, to request cooperation. The aim of this phase of the Group Guidance Section* s program is to improve the re• lationship between individual policemen and gangs and to influence policy at the divisional and headquarters levels. 5. Evaluation To date there has been no formal evaluation of the program. However, the proposal contains the outline of a proposed program of evaluation research. The program's effectiveness will be judged on the basis of comparison between changes in the experimental area and a comparable control area. Changes in: 1) the behavior and character of gangs and of their members; 2) procedures and practices of workers assigned to the area; 3) behavior and attitudes of the police officers; 4) degree of community participa• tion of parents and of gang members; 5) school policy and practices in relation to gang members; and 6) changes in activities of other commun• ity agencies will be studied. Los Angeles County Probation Department The primary critefion of success or failure will be the number of police contacts with adolescents in the experimental area. Other criteria will include the number of juveniles on probation, number of school truancies, number employed,and attitudinal and personality variables descriptive of healthy or socially acceptable relationships. Data will be collected at three levels: 1) all the gangs, agencies, and groups in the area will be tapped through agency records examined continuously during the project's operations; 2) selected gangs, agencies, and groups will be studied monthly by means of structured instruments and direct observations; 3) a bi-annual study of selected individuals from the selected groups who will also be interviewed, observed, and tested by structured instruments. 6. Editors' analysis of program The program of the Group Guidance Section operates mainly on the group level, although there is more concern with "individual counseling relationships" than is usual in street work programs. The focus is on provocations, on the needs and interests of the members and on the irri• tations resulting from contact with the police. However, since probation officers are "authority figures," controls are also a relevant aspect of their work. 77 Kobrin, S. The Chicago Area Project:, a twenty-five year assessment. Annals Amer. Acad. Pol. Soc. Sci., 1959, 322, 19-37. 1. Change agent The Chicago Area Project is part of the Institute for juvenile Research which is financed mainly by the Illinois Youth Commission. The Project staff frequently have appointments at the University of Chicago. The training of the personnel varies. Supervisors are( however, generally sociologists. "Qualified local residents form part of the field staff." 2. Commentator Dr. Kobrin is the supervising sociologist of IJR. 3. Target population The target population is selected on the basis of demographic indices and the juvenile delinquency rate of the neighborhood. The entire neighborhood becomes the focus of attention. The project is located in Chicago's "poor" neighborhoods.. The term delinquent i6 not explicitly defined; however, it is implied that official records are used. 4. Goals and program "... In view of the primacy of local social life in the socializa• tion and control of the young person, all effort, it was felt, should be devoted to helping residents of high delinquency areas to take con• structive action toward the problem." The general procedure followed by the Project is: 1) to elicit the aid of "those who form a significant part of the social world of the 78 Kobrin recipients of help'.'; 2) to form a neighborhood organization after knowl• edge of the local community and the assistance of "qualified" local people is gained. The local group which is' formed remains autonomous. Local groups have veto power over or the right to select staff appointments. The staff rep• resents the local area rather than the Project. Decisions made by a local group are accepted even if they seem unsound. A program of activities is set tip by the Project and the local group: recreation for children is sponsored; campaigns for community improvement are initiated; there is work with gangs; the police and court are aided in the supervision of returning offenders; boys in institutions are visited. Local religious, political, economic, and fraternal organizations are used as sources of aid. The slogans of youth welfare and the needs of the people of the neighborhood are alluded to In seeking the aid of local people. The general theoretical position of the Area Project is summarized in the following statement by Kobrin: "Growing boys are alienated from the in• stitutions of their parents and are presented with a vital tradition of delinquency among their peers...delinquency as a problem in the modern metropolis is principally a product of the breakdown of the machinery of spontaneous social control." Other factors such as rapid change, and the rural or foreign background of parents with consequent problems of assimi• lation into a new culture are also regarded as etiological factors. 5. Evaluation No definite claim is made that the Project has reduced delinquency in project areas. However, it is claimed that such a reduction has "In all Kobrin probability" occurred. The extent of the reduction is not, in Kobrin's opinion, subject to precise measurement. "In the final analysis, therefore, the Area Project must rest its case on logical and analytical grounds." Certain "achievements of the project" are listed. They are: 1) demonstration of the feasibility of creating youth welfare organi• zations in delinquency areas; 2) helping to get the idea accepted that a worker trying to reach the "unreached" is a good means of prevention of Juvenile delinquency; and 3) exploring the possibility of overcoming the impersonality of the machinery of the urban community. Kobrin concludes, "The Area Project's distinctive contribution to delinquency prevention (is) its development of a method designed to keep preventional work focused on its proper object, the delinquent person in his milieu." 6. Editors' analysis of program The strategy of the Chicago Area Project is to overcome "the breakdown of the machinery of spontaneous social control" (italics added). The hope is to integrate boys into the institutions of the adult community; thus, the traditions of the adult communicy would replace those of the delinquent peer group as the source of guide lines. The work itself is mainly at the level of community organization, with police, economic, fraternal, religious, and political groups. Some efforts are also made to work with small, natural groups of teenagers. 8L Konopka, Gisele. Coordination of services as a means of delinquency prevention. Annals, Amer. Pol. Soc. Sci., 1959, 322, 30-37. South Central youth Project: a delinquency control program, 1955-57. Final report to the Community Welfare Council, Hennepin County. 1. Change agent The two year project was set up by the Communicy Welfare Council of Minneapolis, Hennepin County. The title was the South Central Youth Project. The financing of the project was a joint effort on the part of the Community Chest, Women's Clubs, Junior Chamber of Commerce, and a group of female employees in one- of the city's large industries. The Project was directed by a planning committee which in• cluded executives of public and private agencies, the chief of the Crime Prevention Bureau of the Police Department, a representative from the public school.system, a state legislator, and several laymen; A steering committee met to evaluate the work being done and to solve the many inter-agency problems. A director was the only full-time staff person- He served as "'coordinator,' 'enabler,' and 'catalyst.'" The day-to-day work was performed, by the staffs of the agencies working with the Project. The agencies which were directly involved were: Big Brothers, Big Sisters, Family and Children's Service, Welfare Board, Visiting bursas' Service, and a city relief agency. 2. Commentator Dr. Konopka is a professor of social work at the University of Minnesota. She was chairman of the Project's Planning Committee. 3. Target population The kinds of cases handled by the Project "were those known to 82 Konopka everyone who works with juvenile delinquents." In all* some 205 families i were served. All were In an area that was mixed racially, with low incomes, broken homes, and health problems. In the latter stages of the Project, settle• ment house workers held informal discussions with parents selected by the Juvenile Court. The discussions took place in the House and not at the Court. 4. Goals and program The Consultant for School Social Workers called a conference of health and welfare agency executives in the Spring of 1953, with the aid of the Community Welfare Council, to discuss the backlog of cases which needed extensive services and which overburdened the Visiting Teacher. The South Central Youth Project grew from the joint considerations of this committee and one formed in 1954 to focus attention on pupils* delinquent behaviors. The goal of the Project was to detect "the beginning signs of delinquency and to find concrete means to improve agency communication and coopera• tive efforts." The analysis of cumulative records of junior high school students had revealed that "many children with problems identified early in their Bchool careers slipped by without effective treatment; (and) ...that the services provided to many individuals and families by numerous health and welfare agencies fell short of rescuing the families and their members from social breakdown." A committee of top-level personnel from the agencies concerned met bimonthly to set policy. Specific cases were brought before the group. The number of agencies examining the given cases was thus increased over the usual number. The conferences allowed for more than the usual inter• agency contacts. By common decision, the major responsibility was placed 83 Konopka on one person for,each case.. The project "faced the fact that many of the disorganized fami• lies needing service for one reason or another will reject it or make no effort to seek it." Accordingly,-, there was more "going out" to reach families and an increased emphasis of working with the whole familiy than is usual in conventional social work. Otherwise, the "techniques used were those of gcod case.work and group work." 5. Evaluation "The deepest insight gained from the Project was the fact that our helping institutions — school, law enforcement and social agencies— have at times become so separated and specialized as to stand in the way of concerted effort to help the child...efforts are separated, at times duplicated, at times contradictory, and at least for the individ• ual caught in the web, exceedingly confusing and frustrating." Distrust of one worker by another was not uncommon. Lack of communication be• tween agencies was common. The accomplishments of the Project "were not striking. Yet, in retrospect, the Project seems one of the soundest approaches to the community problem of juvenile delinquency." The impact of the Project was threefold: 1) there was an increase in the flexibility of social agency practices in each of the agencies involved and more cooperation among them; 2) the view of the kind of staff which is needed to "work with our most neglected, hurt, least verbal citizens who are prone to delinquency" was clarified; 3) there was "a deepening of the under• standing that juvenile delinquency is a total community problem of child-rearing and therefore calls for an attack on the whole 84 Konopka community culture and cannot be solved by segmented institutions or indi• viduals." On the basis of the Project"s experience several recommendations were made: 1) a committee of practitioners should be established in small geo• graphic areas throughout the city; 2) flexibility must be the rule of agency practice; 3) neighborhood churches and other local community forces must be mobilized as well as city-wide agencies; and 4) the "reaching out" must be handled with caution. "This service (reaching out) is surgery on human relations. No one should be allowed to wield the knife who too much enjoys the use of it, nor one who with good will but little knowledge, might cut into the wrong place." 6. Editors' analysis of program This project worked at the level of the community, making a special effort to coordinate the social and law enforcement agencies in the community. Whether emphasis was given to provocative or control forces probably depended on the policies and practices of participating agencies. The project reviewed here did not have direct contact with delinquents, so no determination of its theoretical orientation is possible. 85 Kvaraceus, William C. Juvenile Delinquency and the School World Book, Yonkers-on-Hudson, N. Y., 1945. 1. Change agent The Passaic Children's Bureau "represents a consolidation of the facilities of the school system and of the city police department." However, the Bureau is an "integral unit of the Passaic school system." It was organized in 1937. The Bureau staff is headed by a director, who has the title of Assistant Superintendent of Schools, in charge of guidance, research, and curriculum. The staff consists of a psychologist, a psychiatric Bocial worker, two attendance officers, and four police officers including one policewoman. The police are assigned by the Chief of Police to serve in the Bureau. The Bureau has "cooperative relationships with state mental hygiene clinics, local hospital clinics, private welfare agencies, and individual practitioners for purposes of providing diagnostic study or treatment of a 'high professional quality' for the Bureau." The clergy of all denominations have been consulted and aid in the treatment of children served by the Bureau. The Bureau also works with the city recreation department and with voluntary group-work organizations. The Bureau selects "appointees after proof of both educational preparation and personnel fitness for work with behavior-problem children." Nevertheless, a program of in-seryice training, directed reading conferences, and research is required of staff members to assure professional growth. 2. Commentator The study upon which the book is based was presented by 86 Kvaraceus Dr. Kvaraceus as a doctoral dissertation at Harvard .University. Kvaraceus served as Director of the Children's Bureau. 3, Target population The study deals only with"the 761 cases handled by the Bureau during the first three years of its operation. Dr. Kvaraceus assumed the posi• tion of director at the beginning of the Bureau's fifth year. There were 563 boys and 198 girls in'the first 761 cases. 'Some 10 per cent of the cases were Negro. The police Department was the source of 40 per cent of the total referrals (43 per cent of the boys, 31 per cent of the girls) to the Bureau. Most of the children referred by the police "would have been released with a 'warning' if the Bureau did not exist," The school system itself was a source of 13 per cent of the referrals (12 per cent of the boys; 15 per cent of the girls). Some 18 per cent of the cases came to the Bureau's attention as being children associated with those referred by the police (18 per cent of the boys, 19 per cent of the girls). The remaining referrals came from individual complaints (15 per cent of total: 17 per cent boys, 10 per cent girls); social agencies (8 per cent of total: 7 per cent boys, 12 per cent girls); and parents (6 per cent of total: 4 per cent boys, 13 per cent girls). The ''reasons for referral." were:* Per Cent Per cent Per Cent Reason of total of boys of girls Theft, burglary 40 50 14 Truancy 8 6 11 Runaway, incorrigible 17 12 30 Sex offense 15 9 33 Mischief, careless- ness 12 15 5 Injury to person 4 4 4 Other 4 4 3 Total 100 100 100 Taken from Table 3, p. 35 Kvaraceus Kvaraceus comments that the Bureau did reach some children who needed "guidance and direction, but who (had) not engaged in types of delinquency likely to lead to juvenile-court referrals." However, in most cases "there was but little difficulty in establishing a fairly distinct pattern'of overt, aggressive misconduct." The mean age of initial referral was 13.2 years for the total group (12.8 for boys, 14.0 for girls). Eighty per cent of the total group were referred initially at an age of 12 or more. All of the children were residents of Passaic. It is claimed that the Bureau "handled all cases of delinquency within the community as well as many others which were strictly of a predelinquent nature." The City of Passaic is an industrial and residential community. It had a population of 60,000 during the period of the study. The population is extremely heterogeneous with respect to ethnic background. The Negro population was about 4 per cent of the total. The city has a population density of some 20,000 per square mile, "which(was) among the highest to be found anywhere in the United States." There are, says Kvaraceus, "two Passaics, bound together by sharing a common network of community services." One Passaic is a self- contained industrial community; the other is a suburban community of white-collar workers employed outside the city. 4. Goals and program The resolution integrating the Bureau into the school system read: "Purpose: The Children's Bureau exists to deal with the problem of truancy and juvenile delinquency. Its purpose is to eliminate the 88 Kvaraceus causes of these offenses, to prevent their occurrence, and to make desir• able adjustment for children who have offended. The emphasis, of its activ• ities shall always be more upon prevention and readjustment than on correction and punishment...." The Bureau operated as a supplement to the regular school-guidance program. After a case was reported to the Bureau .the procedure wafl: (1) to take a case history; 2.) to assemble available information from the school, or give psychological tests; 3) to hold a conference of Bureau personnel; 4)'to hold a conference with the child, the parents and others who might have contact with the individual and his "gang"; and 5) to establish a study and treatment program. The nature of the treatment program is not discussed in depth. However, individual case work and the. enlistment of the aid of relevant agencies, like schools, churches and welfare agencies, appear to be the mainstay of the program. 5. Evaluation The "crime rate" for the city of Passaic declined 25 per cent during the first five years, 1937-1941, of the Bureau's operation. The rate for New Jersey as a whole rose slightly during this period. The "crime rate" reported is based on the FBI reports of crimes known to the police. The offenses reported, except for homicide, are regarded by Kvaraceus as "the next steps beyond juvenile delinquency." Moreover, an analysis of arrests in Passaic in 1937 showed that 35 per cent of persons .arrested for the charges covered in the FBI report are under 21. "Any marked reduction in the number of adolescent offenders, through the influence of such an agency as the Bureau," Kvaraceus claims, "should quickly be reflected in the . crime rate." He adds, "The burden of proof rests on those who would deny Kvaraceus that the Bureau had been a factor in the reduction of Passaic's crime rate." Investigation revealed that only 15 per cent of the boys and girls dealt with by the Bureau had been arrested after the age of 16 for non-motor vehicle violations. "In view of the early behavior patterns and the background of the children handled by the Bureau," Kvaraceus claims, "a higher frequency of arrests.;.might reasonably have been expected." Some 47 per cent of the 761 cases initially referred to the Bureau were not referred again. However, 35 per cent were referred three or more times. "The (cases) who came back again and again," Kvaraceus observes, "indicated a fallacy in the Bureau's policy of never using juvenile institutions instead of using them at the timely point in the adjustment process." A systematic reading of case records was a fourth aspect of the evaluation program. However, "no attempt was made...to make a statis• tical evaluation of cases according to the degree of improvement...or of the extent to which such improvement should be attributed to the Bureau's influences." "Yet," says Kvaraceus, "a reading of all cases contributed substantially to the confidence which the examiners had developed through external Indicators of the Bureau's operations." The study of 761 initial cases, the drop in crime rate, the rate of arrests after the age of 16, and the percentage of re-referrals Is said to give "assurance that the Bureau's program was reaching children in early stages of delinquency and was providing valuable and construc• tive social treatment...." 90 Kvaraceus A study designed to reveal etiologicalfactors in delinquency was also undertaken using the material collected in the files of the 761 cases. However, no control group was used. The factors, investigated included pre• natal influences, child-rearing, the family and .its influences, social and economic factors, community and character training, frustrating factors in school, and personality factors. The results of this work will not be re• ported here. The appendices contain copies of the referral and report forms as well as an outline used in compiling case histories. 6. Editors' analysis of program The absence of any detailed description of the program makes it diffi• cult to classify the work of the Passaic Children's Bureau. However, it is apparent that casework is the major Bureau activity. Such work is typically aimed at removing provocations for delinquency by working with the individual himself. 91 Mays, J. B, On the threshold of delinquency. Liverpool University Press, Liverpool, England, 1959. 1• Change The Dolphin Club, about which On the threshold of delinquency is written, was founded in 1953. It is an integral part of the work of a larger social welfare organization. The larger organization is not named, however it appears to be a traditional building-centered youth organization, such as the Boys Clubs of America or the YMCA's. The report deals with the Club's first four years. The adult leadership of the Dolphin Club was changed after the first fifteen months for reasons beyond the control of the project. Few of the adult voluntary helpers had any training In the principles of groupwork or child psychology. The two group leaders had professional social work training, but had no specific casework skills. The leaders had no experience in "experimental groupwork" and had to train themselves while on the job to "develop into continuing improvisors, ruthless opportunists, and incurable optimists." 2. Commentator Mr. May's exact connection with the Dolphin Club is not clear. He seems to be its originator and intimately connected with the larger organization of which the Club was a part. 3. Target population The club was established to serve boys between the ages of eight and thirteen who were said to be in special need by school teachers or social workers. In all, 103 boys attended at least one meeting during the first three years. Fourteen of these are regarded as "tasters" rather than members. Of the remaining 89, only 48 were recommended 92 Mays for membership by probation, offleers;:,school teachers or.other adult . authority. The other boys either came by themselves, were brought by a friend or relative in the club, or by one or both of their parents. At any given time men&ership was no more than 40, generally between 35 and 38. It is thought that "well over half the members came willingly and without resentment, some even with 'happy feeling' that they had attained a privilege." Thirty of the club members were officially delinquent, having been brought before the juvenile court. Of these 30, 27 had been prosecuted before joining the club. Another ten boys had committed offenses but had not been apprehended, and six had been cautioned by the police but not brought before court. Eight non-delinquents were viewed as "difficult boys who were unamenable to ordinary discipline, and who manifested behavioral or personality problems...." The area from which the club drew its members "had always been some• thing of a slum area." The general slum pattern of poor housing, over• crowding, and broken homes characterized this neighborhood. However, Mays reports, "there is a sharp division between those who hold themselves to be superior to their neighbors in certain respects and those who assume no such status." The club apparently drew most of its members from the latter group, the "roughs", rather than the former called the "respectables." No numerical accounting of the membership is given with respect to the dichotomy between "roughs" and respectables." Nearly half the families of the members were "broken or disturbed." 4. Goals and program : .i The primary aim of the Dolphin Club was to see what could be done, "positively and with conscious purpose, to immunize children against delinquent infection and to assist parents in carrying out their duties Mays more effectively and imaginatively." The club sought to attack its central problem on three separate fronts. The fronts were: 1) ; groupwork, 2) casework, and 3) contact with the parents. ."The novelty of the club group lay not so much in its internal structure and program as in the efforts to build up creative relationships with fathers and mothers." However, the book itself is devoted almost entirely -to material about the boys in the club, the environment in which it operated, and an attempt to evaluate its effectiveness. The content of the book is in keeping with the fact that the Dolphin Club was mainly designed as an experiment to see what could be done with a combination groupwork- casework approach for "promoting the personal and social adjustment of delinquent or near-delinquent boys." While the casework-groupwork aspects of the work were not as novel as work with parents, they do, apparently, represent Mays1 major focus of Interest. The Dolphin Club met every weekday from 6:00 P.M. to 8:30 P.M. It had its own program and premises. Parental consent was one pre• requisite of membership. Members were expected to attend regularly and to pay a small weekly fee. The program included sports activities, dramatics, arts and crafts, and occasional weekend camping trips. The problems pertaining to the recruitment of boys was "never entirely solved to the satisfaction of the staff." One goal of the Club was to test the utility of a casework-groupwork approach in delinquency prevention so a high proportion of delinquent boys in the club was desirable, and teachers, probation officers and other authorities were used as referral sources. A problem arose when "clearly well-behaved" boys requested membership. Since there was a desire not 94 Mays to have the Dolphins labelled a "bad boys ;club", some "well-b»haved boys" were admitted. Then the adult leaders could say the .club "tooit only those who were in need" and did not admit that it was instituted for "had boys." The "well-behaved boys" set standards of conduct and served an "important therapeutic' role...by their own conformity to law. and &x Early in the club's history an experiment in self-government was tried. The Club was divided into four sub-groups or houses. The groups met in their own houses. Each house elected a captain and a vice-captain. A club captain was chosen by the-total group. The captain "occupied a position of real responsibility and performed a duty that would otherwise have devolved on an adult helper." At one time, the leader decided to abolish the house system. The group almost unanimously opposed the. move. The system was retained. "Unknown to the (leader) many boys found satisfaction in being members of the four houses and in the measure of internal competition thus afforded." Discipline was always a problem for the leaders. In a normal club, members could be excluded for misbehavior. In,the Dolphins, however, "expulsion was a negation-of all It was striving to.achieve. Rules and regulations were chosen, insofar as possible, that could be explained and discussed with the boys...the members promised during the simple ceremony of inauguration to obey the club rules, thus making a personal decision." Rules could be changed, within limits, by club members during club meetings The group often decided what sanctions to apply to boys who violated club rules. Mays "The maintenance of what might be called a good tone, then, had to rely more upon the strength of personal relationships than on a punitive code." One facilitating factor in the maintenance of the personal relationship was keeping the size of the group at 40 or; less. The adult leaders tried to hold long term goals in the forefront of members' minds rather than the short term rewards for activities. In this regard an "immense advantage of the Dolphins resided in the fact that it was part of a larger organization and admission to the senior boys' club was automatically guaranteed at the age of thirteen or there• abouts." The value of moving up to a senior boys' club was increased by the presence of relatives actually attending senior clubs. The Dolphins, however, did not have the same activities as senior clubs; it was a "junior club, not a watered down senior boys' club." The activities of the senior clubs were visible since they both were in the same building. The Dolphins were "thus given a glimpse of future pleasures, dangled before their noses as bait." 5. Evaluation The effectiveness of the club was thought to be assessable in terms of its success in "actively promoting the psychological maturity or In eradicating the delinquent tendencies of a specific member of individual boys." It' is contended however that in evaluating the club, attention must be paid other influences on the boy besides the club, like his family. Effectiveness was measured by: 1) number of delinquents who remained as members, and 2) how many boys known to be delinquent or to have other behavior problems Improved. 96 ' Mays Mays summarizes the evidence under the following points: "1) The degree of success measured in1terms* of sustained membership over a reasonable period was"44 per cent. Of these boys, 38 per-.cent wereclassed as easy, . 49 per cent as delinquent, and 13 per cent as. disturbed; 2) The degree of success with problem and with non-problem members was practically identical, which suggests that the methods used-were particularly effective for the problem boys and for their families.'' Other points in the summary are that delinquent club members did not "infect" non-delinquents; some delinquent members became less delinquent} some disturbed boys became less disturbed. The club had least success with boys who had committed an offense before joining. However, these boys also tended to be older than the average. Most.success was with boys ^whose delinquency was in its early stages." Lack of parental control and interest appearel to be related to unsuccessful.club membership. . . The conclusions reached are based, in part, on examination of frequency tables, but no formal statistical analysis was employed. There.was.no control group. No objective basis for classification of members,into one category or another is claimed except in such matters as the presence of father or father-substitute in home and officially recorded delinquencies. Variables such as a child's improvement,in social adjustment are based apparently on subjective evaluation. However, case material is often quoted for support or illustration. The degree of parental cooperation with the club and with the child was judged by "two of the club workers most constantly in touch with the members of their family...through regular home visits...." Parental Interest in the boys' activities, attempts to supervise their leisure time, attendance at club functions, and seeking the 97 Mays the leader out for advise were taken as indicators of cooperation. With these factors in mind, the workers rated the family as cooperative, uncooperative, or doubtful. No mention is made of comparisons of worker ratings or of a reliability check of the rating, of either worker. It is concluded: "Whatever the shortcomings...there is no doubt that some parents have been helped and that some children, who were straying dangerously across the threshold of delinquency, have been guided back into happier ways, safer activities and healthier relation• ships." 6. Editors' analysis of program The Dolphin Club was the unit worked with, and it was composed, apparently, of smaller natural groups of boys. It seems fairly clear that control was the major focus of the effort, with its reliance on personal relationships and personal commitments to obey the rules. 99 Miller, W. B. Preventive work with street-corner groups: Boston Delinquency Project. Annals Amer. Acad. Pol. Soc. Sci., 1959, 322 97-106. Miller, W. B. The impact of a community group work program on delinquency corner groups. Social Service Review, 1957, 31, 390-406. 1. Change agent The Boston Special Youth Program, also known as the Roxbury Project, was established after public opinion had been aroused by a murder of a rabbi, allegedly by a group of Negro boys. A special committee was set up by the United Community Services after a series of newspaper articles entitled, "Teenage Gangs Prowl Boston" heightened apprehension over gang delinquency. The Program began in June, 1954, and was terminated in June, 1957. The Program had its own board and its own office. However, certain 'i • administrative functions were performed for the Program by the United Community Services. The Project was privately financed by the Greater Boston Council for Youth, a committee of representatives of Boston's major youth serving agencies and affiliated with the United Community Service of Metropolitan Boston. Seven group workers were employed, five male, two female. The workers aged 25 to 40. One worker was Negro, one Irish, one Italian, two Jewish, and two of English background. No attempt was made to match the ethnic status of worker and group. Generally, male workers worked with boys and females with girls, however. All but one of the workers had graduated from schools of social work. The socio-economic status of the workers varied from upper-lower to lower-upper. The median was lower-middle class. 100 Miller 2. Commentator W. B. Miller, a cultural anthropologist, was the Director of the* research program of .the Boston Delinquency Project. 3. Target population The project worked with fourteen gangs. Seven received intensive attention; seven, less intensive or sporadic attention. Of the seven intensively served groups, three were Negro and four white, predominantly Irish. The ages ranged from 12 to 18. Four neighborhoods were serviced for a period of from four months to two and one-half years. A total of 193 youngsters were contacted, one-fourth of whom had appeared in court prior to the advent of the Project. The groups varied from those in which all of the members had official police records to a group with but 12 per cent with records. Only one of the project groups was severely delinquent "either in the sense that the majority of the group members had criminal records or that the commission of crimes constituted a significant proportion of their activities." Members of almost all the groups did engage ln theft, truancy, gang-fighting, and vandalism. The author regards the groups worked with as "fairly typical working-class street corner groups for whom (such) acts... represent normal and expected behavior." 4. Goals and program' The program made efforts in the areas of: intensive group work with adolescent gangs, casework with selected families who were persistent long- term problems for city welfare agencies, research on the nature of community welfare and social organization aid to evaluate the effectiveness of the service efforts, community organization efforts to facilitate formation of 101 Miller local citizens' organizations and to create a pattern of cooperation among existing welfare agencies in the community. The most intensive effort was the work with corner gangs. The goal of the street work program was "redirecting the energies of group members into constructive channels," Workers were in the neighborhoods three to five times a week. "Methods used...reflected attempts to accommodate groupwork methods--as outlined in textbooks.and geared primarily to relatively well-behaved agency groups — to the realities of life in an open, complex working-class community." Workers with boys' groups encouraged participation in organized athletics; workers with girls found group-centered techniques less useful. Groups of girls were less stable and many of the girls' basic interests would be pursued outside of group life. Workers with girls thus became less involved with groups as such and more with individuals and their families. •••••rr •• The principal target of change was the value system of the group itself. The Project hoped to shift the group's values from an emphasis on law-violating behavior as a basis of prestige, to an emphasis on law- abiding behavior. Such a change in the values of a group entailed "increasing the availability of law-abiding avenues to. valued-ends already present in the group's own cultural milieu." The over-all aim was the reduction of law-violating behavior. Miller- contends that during the age period from 12 to 19 the dominant influence on the behavior of members of lower-class adolescent groups "derive from the group's conception of prestige-conferring behavior and valued objectives." Intra-family relations and standards 102 Miller set by parents have little direct"influence on the adolescent's daily behavior. Intra-family factors may, however, be a. factor-r in one's becoming a group member. "The process of inducing changes in the value configuration of the group is predicated on the existence of substantial support for the main- tainance of law-abiding behavior within the value system of the lower-class community itself." 5. Evaluation The central goal of the groupwork program was taken as the limitation or reduction of illegal or delinquent acts by members of Program groups. Three behavior change indices were used since: 1) changes in officially • recorded illegal behavior were noted; 2) Qualitative changes in general group behavior patterns were noted; 3) Changes in "systemic" group rela• tions were recorded. With these three indices, the Project hoped to begin to answer the question of how much and how the gang's behavior had changed and to what extent the worker was responsible. The study of the developments of general patterns of group behavior involved some 70 categories -of patterns into which graduate research worker sort episodes from the detailed records. The categories refer to a variety of social and cultural "objects" such as school, police, alcohol, and sex. The data are analyzed to show: 1) the pattern of behavior and the area concerned; 2) the changes or trends in this area; 3) the specific activitie of the worker; and A) the extent of observable trends attributable to the worker* s action. A preliminary analysis of data mostly from one group indicates a heterogeneous pattern of''change. Behavior relating to police and the business world changed as did attitudes towards and relations with white 103 Miller people. Behavior relating to school, church, and drinking did not change much if at all. The preliminary data seem to indicate' that change is most likely in areas in which the worker is most active. The reported law-violations increased during the period preceding the worker's announced departure. The incidence of law-violation and decreased in the period subsequent to the arrival of the worker. In four groups, the incidence of law-violation did not reach the level it was at before the worker's arrival; for two it was higher. The overall change was a 25 per cent decline. A comparison of rates of committment to correctional institutions of the Project area and other areas for the group 13-17 tend to indicate that the Project was effective. A study was made of changes in the "systemic" relationship of the groups primarily based on accounts of two boys' groups (data analysis was not yet completed on all groups). Four areas are discussed: 1)Jchanges in community perception of the worker role; 2) changes in relations among corner groups; 3) changes in relations between subunits of larger corner groups; and 4) changes within the subunits. The worker had to make known just what role he (or she) was to play. Youngsters tended to place the worker in one or another of the categories known to him, e.g., plain clothes cop, welfare worker, parole officer, minister. Eventually the role of social worker became a part of the community. "A social worker came to be seen as someone who spends a good deal of time in the neighborhood, who helps youngsters to form clubs and find jobs, who serves as liaison between children and parents, teachers or other authorities, and who can be turned' to in time of trouble." ' ;; 104 Miller y *:> • One of..the earlier changes to occur in the groups worked with is the cessation of, active participation in the network on conflict groups in the area. .As.the Program groups become more successful, the basis for "rep" shifts both in the view of the teenagers and the adults. "Toughness" is replaced by effectiveness in running group enterprises such as sports teams, and dances. In later stages, however, Program groups were attacked by non-Program groups who had no worker. "There is good reason to believe that these attacks were an unintended product of Program efforts." Miller attributes the attacks to the envy on the part of non-Program groups. They hoped "to cut the Program groups 'down to size'". The .non-Program groups knew that one way,to get a worker was to be troublesome. Having a worker had become a basis for a good "rep". The worker took over many of the functions formerly performed by older group members for the younger. The worker became the one to turn to for advice. He took the place of the "older brother" group In setting the tone for group behavior. The older group often resented the growing influ• ence of the worker. However, he had become a force to be reckoned with. Relationships with the older groups were nevertheless built up. The worker thus could influence both groups. As each segment became more dependent and demanding of the worker's time, friction between them arose. The most evident result was a progressive loosening of the. ties between the older and younger groups. A similar loosening of ties between the older boys and local adults resulted from the workers action; for example, the "hang out" owner was no longer,as Influential. Local fathers who had often acted as coaches also lost contact with groups since the worker had more time. 105 Miller One of the major changes effected by the worker was the formation of organized clubs to replace the set of informal friendship cliques which previously made up the groups. The formation of clubs represented a step in the direction of a law-abiding value from law-violating ones. Groups often split into two factions, each supporting a different set of values. The differences became evident on a number of specific issues, like whether to fight a given gang or to drink at a dance. This intra-group tension poses a critical test of the corner-group method. To allow the resistent members to leave would be to negate a most powerful influence, that of their law-abiding peers. Developments in community relations were also studied. The method used was to examine a wide range of documents reporting relevant events. The documents included newspapers, committee minutes, worker reports, and interviews with community adults. Events related to Project groups, adults in the neighborhood, community organizations, and municipal departments were noted. A chronological chart was kept and trends were indicated. The greatest impact of the Project was on the area of direct Project operation. The impact lessened progressively as the distance from the Project area increased. The Project's Central Administrative Committee operated on the municipal level. However, the Committee, composed of representatives of the city's major youth agencies "became progressively dissatisfied with the Project." Conflicts among supporters and director resulted in resignations. Friction with the Youth Corrections Department was present and several parolees were ordered not to participate in the Project. Strong local pressures for continuation of the Project were exerted 106 Miller after the expiration of the three-year demonstration period. However, the Central Committee did not support the proposed plan for a city-wide delinquency prevention program. The plan was not accepted by the Mayor. The original plan called for state and municipal cooperation, but the Governor did not accept the original plan and a scaled-down version was rejected by the legislature. 6. Editors' analysis of program The Roxbury Project sought to establish effective controls over the motivations of the small, natural groups with which they worked, and to "redirect the energies of group members...." The means of establishing these controls was to alter the value structure of the groups. The aim was not .so much to create controls, as to render already present but ineffective controls effective, shifting the emphasis within the value structure from law-violation to abiding by the law. 107 New York City Youth Board. Reaching the Fighting Gang, New York, 1960. 1. Change, agent The New York City Youth Board, an agency of the city government, created the Brooklyn Detached Worker Project in June, 1950. The "saturation" principle was adopted with one worker for each of the eleven gangs in the two areas serviced. Two supervisors were hired who had worked with the Central Harlem Street-Club Project. An Advisory Committee composed of representatives of various groups in Brooklyn who were in touch with the problem were consulted before selecting the areas. The Project is officially known as the Council of Social and Athletic Clubs. However, it is generally referred to as the "Street Club Project." The Project now operates ten units in four buroughs.* The Project is currently administered by a Deputy Commissioner. The Chief of Street Club Work is his immediate assistant. The Chief supervises three Borough Directors, one each for Brooklyn and Manhattan and one for both the Bronx and Queens. Each unit has a supervisor and from seven to nine.senior and junior street club workers. The workers are provided a two-week orientation program before being assigned. The philosophy, history, and objectives of the agencies are discussed. A series of training seminars are held for all workers. llnterview Report #XIV cf the Juvenile Delinquency Evaluation Project, NYC entitled "Dealing with the conflict gang in New York City" (pl3-31) contains a fuller description of orgainzation of the Street Club Project than*given here. The interim report also lists recommendations for improvement. The JDEP is directed by R. M. Maclver of The City College of New York. 108 New York City Youth Board The seminars deal with the theory and techniques of social, work, the dynamics of human behavior and group work with anti-social gangs. 2, Commentator The text was prepared by Arthur Rogers, the Deputy Commissioner of the Youth Services and Director of the N.Y.C..Youth Boards' Council of Social and Athletic Clubs, Hugh K. Johnson, Chief of the Council, and Aaron Schamais, Supervisor. of • the Council'. 3. Target population • . The Council has.worked with the most difficult gangs, the conflict; or fighting, gangs. A "survey and assessment" of a neighborhood is made before a worker is assigned to a gang in it. The history of. the groups in the area, the organizational structure, membership, extent of delinquent commitment, function of groups as seen by the members, and extent to which groups actually perform this function are noted. A copy of one such assessment report is given as an appendix. The details of the procedures for collecting and utilizing the data contained in the "survey and assess• ment" reports are not discussed in great depth. The editors assume the procedures are essentially informal and subjective, rather than formal, statistical, and objective. There are no figures presented on the number, age, race, socio-econo• mic status, ethnicity, and religion'of the groups and individuals treated but an informal description is given. The gangs themselves are usually organized in one of two ways. Some have a vertical structure, along age lines; others are horizontally organ• ized, with members of similar ages but from different neighborhoods.. The hard core of a group usually consists of 15 to 20 members. Another 10 or 20 boys are related by "friendship, interest, and history" to the core but 109 New York City Youth Board are not themselves core members. Membership and size fluctuate constantly. The,conflict groups are generally led by an arbitrary, autocratic, compulsive and many times irrational leadership clique. The members have generally left school at the minimum age allowed and had been chronic truants while in school. 4. Goals and program "The prime goal of the Youth Boardfa work with antisocial teenage gangs is the building of a bridge between the members of these gangs and the .community from which they have cut themselves off." An intermediate goal is making groupwork, casework, vocational guidance, and recreational facilities available to the boys. The process of working with a gang proceeds from the critical states of development "making contact to the development of the relation• ships.": The worker introduces democratic procedures into the organization• al structure of the gang. Violent inter-gang conflict can often be avoided once the democratization of the gang has begun, as the weight of the "total gang opinion" will often deter the "hotheads." The Project accepts "the following underlying assumptions:.' 1) Participation in street gangs is part of the process of growing-up. .2) Such primary group associations possess not only potentials for negative and antisocial behavior but also for positive growth and development. 3) Such groups offer security and the possibility for development of loyalty, leadership and responsibility. 4) The initial focus in working with teenage gangs (.is) upon gang warfare. 5) The Youth Board was cognizant of the need for protection of the cotxiunity by use of repres• sive measures. . .but. ...these methods did not in and of themselves bring 110 New York City Youth Board about basic changes in attitudes'-and behavior *.. .and 6) It was' assumed :that the adolescent member of the street gang, as a human being, could be reached and would: respond to sympathy, affection, and understanding when approached by adults who posseeed these characteristics and could reach out to them oh their own level, " The key catalytic agent is the relationship' of the worker to the gang. It is, however, essential that the change process not.be perceived as externally imposed. The members should see the changes as stemming from their own desires.' ' The Board also regards it as essential to note that "we are dealing with basically insecure, frightened, anxious youngsters who, in many instances, lacked the skills, knowledge, or security-giving background sufficient to achieve the expectations of the community at large." The support of the group is, consequently, very important in the relationship between the youths and the worker. The individual adolescent may see adults as "formidable and threatening." With the support of his peers, "he feels equal to the task of confronting and maintaining a relationship with the worker," The worker's authority is thus conferred on him by the group. • . The worker's relationship to the group involves a good deal of planning and pufposefulness, but it is not a totally mutual relationship. The work• er is not a receiver as well as a giver; "he is viewed and experienced as a helping person." " * The process of "acceptance" is seen as crucial lv "Acceptance is defined in Street Club-work at that point in the development of the relationship in which the group and its members know and understand- that the worker has been assigned to them to help them modify their behavior: and attitudes... m New York City Youth Board because their functioning had constituted a problem to the community, themselves and other groups, and that the worker represents clear limitation with reference to the kinds of behavior which constitute a potential threat or danger to themselves, the community and other groups." The book contains a wealth of case material and anecdotes per• taining to the various stages, problems, techniques, and knowledge which are involved in the process whereby the worker-group relationship moves from initial contact to the development of the relationship-and acceptance to change, and termination of the relationship. A glossary of the language of boys in gangs is also included. 5. Evaluation No formal evaluation program is reported. However, detailed records are kept of the program's activities. A daily program record is kept. The worker reports where he was when in contact with the group and what he did. Records are kept of contacts with the group and individual members which "detail the many varied aspects of the worker's contact with the group." The summary is complemented by a report of the frequency of contact with the group and individual members. Each worker submits a yearly summary and perspective for the coming year. Annual evaluations of the workers are made after the initial six month probation period. "All phases of...operation are subject to continuing scrutiny and evaluation.,.." The various forms used in gathering the records and in making these evaluations are given in the Appendix. However, the procedures used in making the evaluations are not discussed. 112 New York City Youth Board :- - 6. Editors'analysis of program Clearly this agency works with.youngsters in groups. Its strategy is to place the streetworker, into a-relationship with his group, from which he can function as a positive controlling influence.. •".Iff 113 Penner, G. L. An experiment in police and social agency cooperation AnnalB Amer. Acad. Pol. Soc. Sci., 1959, 322, 79-88.1 Penner, G. L. Report on the Englewood Project. Chicago: Juvenile Protective Association of Chicago, 1958. 1. Change agent The Englewood Project was affiliated with the Juvenile Protective Association of Chicago, a casework agency, and financed by the Wieboldt Foundation. The staff consisted of two case workers, each with an MSW, a half- time casework supervisor who carried some cases, a psychiatric consultant, and a research consultant. In the last year of the Project, three case readers helped in the study of special cases. The readers were "very experienced" caseworkers. The Project began Its official operation in August, 1954, and terminated August, 1957. Discussions with police officials concerning the need for greater coordination of community services for the preven• tion of delinquency had begun in 1953. A member of the J.P,A. staff spent a month as an observer at the Englewood police station early in 1954 at the Invitation of the police department. The Project itself •was administratively independent of the Police Department. 2, Commentator Penner is the Executive Director of the Juvenile Protective Association of Chicago. ^•For a report on a groupwork project in which cooperation with the police played a similar role, see Grillo, E. Social groupwork in the community for the prevention and treatment of juvenile delinquency. Group work in community organization: National conference for social work. New York: Columbia University Press, 1955, 77-86. 1L4 Penner 3. Target population The Project was located seven miles south of the Loop in a district with nearly the highest rate of juvenile delinquency in the city. The population of the District had shifted from 10 per cent to 33 per. cent Negro. There was a lack of social service resources. The shopping center of the neighborhood was declining and- there was some industry in the neighborhood. •r The families of male and female teenagers who had been apprehended by the police were serviced. Only the families of teenagers adjudged by the police as' vulnerable to a career of delinquency but who had not reached the point of requiring Court action were referred to the Project. Referrals were made by the Police of the Englewood District of Chicago. A total of 218 children from 204. families were referred for offenses involving property (45 per cent); other people (21 per cent), and self (34 per cent). Seventy-nine per cent of the offenders were male and .21 per cent female. Negroes comprised 59 per cent of the group referred; 37 per cent were white; 4 per cent were Mexican,: Puerto Rican, and other. Two- thirds were between the ages of 12 and 15. The median age of the males > was 13.5 and 14.2 for the girls. The total range of ages was from 6 to .17. Fifty-six per cent were retarded one or more years in school. Of the original 204 families only 149 were serviced by the Project: Seventeen families refused aid at the police station; 16 were already involved with another social agency; and 22 families accepted aid at the station but evaded all efforts to be Interviewed. Sixty-six of the 149 families were randomly selected for analyses. In one-third of the cases, the basic problem seemed to be economic and 115 Penner social, the family income not being sufficient to provide a decent standard of living. In one-sixth of the cases, the basic problem was caused by the psychological inadequacies of the parents, the parents themselves needing intensive clinical help. In another sixth of the cases, the child was emotionally disturbed. The Project judged the major source of difficulty to be the lack of parental knowledge of how to rear children in another sixth. In a small number of cases, there were no serious family problems. The remaining 10 per cent of the families were not contacted for a period long enough to diagnose their cases. 4. Goals and' program The goal of the Project was threefold: 1) To "determine the feasibility of police and social agency cooperation in the prevention of delinquency. 2) To'develop modus operandi using casework skills in working with voluntary referrals from the police. 3) To integrate and focus community resources for the treatment of children with developing patterns of delinquent behavior." The Englewood Project was "the first undertaking in Chicago in which a social agency, by formal plan, was to work on a professional level with a unit of the police department...." Both groups were aware of and Interested ln examining factors which might be barriers to communication between the Project and the police; for example, social workers are often seen as "Ivory towerish" and the police are expected to offer "venality and harsh treatment." Part of the process of achieving the goal of determlng the "feasibility of police and social agency cooperation" were the workers' attempts to learn about police work with children. The several weeks of observation of police practices by staff members before the Project's 116 Penner official start proved very helpful. Eventually the workers regarded "police work as;,a specialty, in much the same way as they regarded their own job casework to be a specialty. The.police officers, as they became acquainted with the Project, more than reciprocated this attitude...." It: is said that ''frank recognition . of...misunderstandings by both Project and Englewood.police staff simplified the working relationship immeasur-.. ably...." Caseworkers' avoidance of professional jargon in talking with police was also helpful. ' - The police referred the parents of children whose offenses did not warrant court 3ction to the Project. The referral process consisted of a conference between police and parents during which the nature of the Project was explained. The police suggested to the parent that they contact the Project. The voluntary nature of the service was stressed. A referral. , form with identifying data and a brief statement of the situation was then sent to the Project. At this juncture, the Project took over. However, communication with police about the case did not stop at this point. The case worker reported to police about the progress, or lack of it, with the family. On occasion, the casework process was described to the police by discussing cases which the police had referred. The Police took it for granted that no confidences would be revealed by the worker which would injure the client or the .relationship to him. The discussion of the casework process provided an opportunity to "share problems arising out of an attempt to deal constructively with children in trouble, and with the problems of family or peer relationships." A structured, confidential interview was held with each of the ..Juvenile officers and policewomen assigned to Englewood while the Project was.in operation." Some results of this interview,are presented in the Report but 117 Penner the interview schedule is not. "The interviews revealed resourcefulness; a sound basic attitude of deep concern for the welfare of children in trouble and a wish to help them...(and) a genuine appreciation of treat• ment resource, such as the Project." The second of the Project's three goals was "developing casework skills in working with voluntary referrals from the police." It was assumed that referred families would have little motivation to seek help. Consequently, the Project followed up referrals promptly. The reasons for referral focused on the behavior of the teenager, but it was found that it was often essential to work with the parents as well. The Project's "reaching out" program did not Involve "tireless pursuit of the body, but rather the employment of any method to reach them psychologically ." The first interview was an in-person interview. The Project's intent was to use the phone only to arrange appointments; thus, In only 5 per cent of the cases was the first interview conducted by phone. The mother was present alone in some one-third of the initial interviews mother and child in another third, for some 20 per cent of the cases the father alone was present; In only 10 per cent, mother, father and child were present; and twice the child came alone. In at least one- third of the families there was no father figure. A variety of problems were discussed in the initial interview; problems of the child and parental inability to cope with the child (1/3), the referral incident (1/4), personal and marital problems (1/5), and the social and economic situation of the family (1/5). During the first interview, the authority of the police which had been used to establish contact was removed. In eleven cases, less 118 Penner than one-fifth of the families, the client became "uncooperative and in some instances overtly hostile." However,'one- quarter of the families had a "positive, accepting attitude" at the conclusion of the intake process. In about one-fifth of the cases, the "dumping syndrome", the feeling of "let the agency take care of all my problems", was evident. In the remain• ing third, motivation for continuation was unclear at the end' of the final interview. Some perhaps did not know how to disengage themselves; for others in this third, dependency needs might have kept them in contact with the agency. The Report contains an account of each of the first ten cases dealt with. It was found that it was unwise to tell a child, during the first interview, that all information except revelation of delinquent activities would be held in confidence. ''This was soon recognized by the staff as mistaken frankness...blocking'confidences, causing unnecessary fears in children, and offering infinite opportunity for fantasy and action. It achieved absolutely no useful- purpose and was quickly abandoned." When children revealed antisocial behavior, the practice became for the worker to make it clear "he was not seduced into approving such behavior, so that any 'identification'the child would make with the worker's standards would lead him to make such reparation' as was possible." The worker would also attempt to discuss the boy's motivation with the hope of finding some acceptable outlets for potentially antisocial impulses. A dictaphone proved a useful device for providing an outlet for hostility through verbalization. Often the child would make a game of talking to the machine. During the course of the Project's operation sources of clients other than from the police emerged. First, there were adults who had heard of the Project in one way or another and had come to it because the Project's 119 Penner office was located in the neighborhood. These people were referred to other agencies. More interestingly, two "gangs" of young boys aged 12 to 15 attached themselves to the Project. Some of the members in each group admitted committing delinquent acts. One boy at least, was on probation. Apparently, the others had not been caught. These boys had come because they viewed the Project as a source of, aid. "You help kids." "Kids need help because they're bad." "The worker, they felt, would tell them 'what's right and wrong'." Both groups were dealt with on an informal basis. The Project did not have the staff to deal with them regularly nor the time or resources to "cement the relationship." Work aimed at achieving the third goal of integrating community resources for the treatment of children was hampered by the resignation of the original supervisor due to pregnancy. Work toward the establish-? ment of a treatment center could not be pursued. The original view that the Project would "permanently serve as a screening and referral unit" had to be altered. Other agencies could not afford the extra time to reach out to "timid, insecure people who need special assurance of the agency's interst." The problem of referrals was also compounded by the fact that many of the families could not tolerate being transferred to another agency. They had been afraid of establishing a relationship and once having done so they could not change agencies. 120 Penner Throughout' all its attempts'-to reach its three goals the Project regarded its own wort: with apprehended delinquents as a,"second-line of defense" in the prevention of delinquency. Early detection of delinquents before adolescence, for example by the schools, was seen as the "first line of defense."' The Project assumed that the "neglected, .unwanted, uncared for child often becomes the delinquent." The city to such children is merely a collection of slums. -Moreover, the parents of such children are often themselves Isolated socially* Parents do not- use and do not teach their child to use community centers, playgrounds, churches, and- cultural facilities which the urban family needs as "pivot in relation• ship with other families." No theoretical scheme is given to link neglect with delinquency. The: Project apparently regarded these "correlations" as indicative of areas of interest. In particular, the Project was concerned with initiating some community action to replace the neglect so often experienced by children apprehended by the police, 5. Evaluation No formal evaluation was made. The use of a control group was deemed inadvisable because of difficulties involved in locating a group for which there was sufficient "similarity of internal factors to.give it validity." Penner reports that "on the basis of internal evidence presented, the entire staff concurred that'a.significant, number of children and their families had been helped, and that a voluntary agency.-.can engage families referred by police in a casework relationship." It is noted that some children prone to delinquency cannot be helped in their own homes. "There are children whose parents by devious methods actually push them into delinquency." Nevertheless, the establishment of treatment centers to deal with cases referred by both police and schools, 121 Penner using both casework and street club work techniques, is suggested. The appendices of the Report contain copies of the referral form used by the Police, the Informational Statement for Referred Barents, and several tables describing the distrubution of the treated population on a number of variables, like age, sex, religion, grade placement, offense, and adults, with whom they are living. 6. Editors' analysis of program The technique employed in this program was casework with the youthful offender and his family. The casework approach implies that the worker became involved with clients primarily on a one-to-one basis, rather than with families as groups. Diagnoses of the problems presented by clients are not clear on a provocation-control dimension; socio• economic conditions, emotional disturbance, and parental inadequacies might imply both provocation and controls and probably do. Similarly, mention is made of both identification with the worker's standards (control) and finding acceptable outlets for antisocial impulses (provocations). 123 Powers, E. and Witraer, H. Prevention of Delinquency:, The Cambridge-Somerville Study, New York, Columbia University Press, 1951. Powers, E. An experiment in prevention of delinquency. The Annals Amer. Acad. Pol. Soc. Sci., 1949, 261, 77-88. McCord, Wm. and McCord, J. Origin of Crime. Columbia University Press, 1959. McCord, J. and McCord, Wm. A follow-up report on the.Cambridge- Somerville study. Annals Amer. Acad. Pol. Soc. Sci., 1959, 322, 89-96. 1• Change agent The Cambridge-Somerville Youth Study was initiated by Dr. Richard Cajoot, Professor of Social Ethics and of Clinical Medicine at Harvard University. He served as the co-director of the project until his death, in 1939. The Cambridge-Somerville Youth Study was a private venture. There was no community financial support. Finances were provided by the Ella Lyman Cabot Foundation established by Dr. Cabot in honor of his wife. Planning for the project began in 1935. A co-director was selected who had the responsibility for planning, developing, and executing the program in the first few years. The project began with a staff con• sisting of two co-directors, ten counselors, a research assistant, and three psychologists. The actual treatment work did not begin until fall of 1937, and in May, 1939, the last of the boys to be selected for treatment entered the program. The major work of the project was carried on by the ten counselors. The directors sought "men and women of good character, intelligence, and tact, who had had professional experience In dealing with people." A "lively faith in the value of the project (and willingness) to give their time and strength to an untried venture" were also criteria for 124 Cambridge-Somerville hiring counselors. Formal training,was preferred, but "a social worker, no matter how well trained, was not to be preferred to a warm; outgoing person who had that vital spark so essential to human relationship, but who had not had the benefit of formal social work education," Before the end of the project 19 counselors had been employed, never more than 10 at a time. Fifteen of the counselors were men and four were women. Eight were professional social workers, six had completed part of the academic work for a social work degree, two were experienced Boys Club workers, one a trained nurse, and two were psychologists. The average age-'of* the counselors was about 31. In all, from beginning to end, the project employed 84 people. Many were hired for specific, non-social work treatment like medical examiners. The project also had a research staff. 2. Commentator Edwin Powers was one of the ten original counselors and became Direc• tor of the project in 1941, Dr. Witmer was invited by the Study to evaluate the counselors' accomplishments after the project had terminated its treatment program. The authors of the Powers-Witmer Study "were not collaborators in the usual sense, for each wrote independently of the other." • The McCords were given a grant in 1956, twelve years after the project ceased operations, "to trace the lives of the boys now that they had_ reached manhood." William McCord has a doctorate in sociology; Joan McCord is a research associate in sociology. 3. Target population Three hundred and twenty-five boys, two-thirds from Cambridge', one- Cambridge -Somerville third from Somerville, were serviced. Another 325 boys formed a matched.control group. The formation of treatment and control groups facilitated the evaluation of the project's effectiveness. The ages at the beginning of treatment ranged from 5 to 17, with a median age of 11. The major sources of referrals were the public schools of Cambridge and Somerville. The former referred about 40 per cent of the total treatment population, the latter about 25 per cent. Various social agencies ranging from a Family Welfare Agency to a community center and settlement houses also referred boys, as did the Police Department. The term "referred" is perhaps a bit misleading. The project was not a community organization with a history. Consequently, it could not wait for its clientele to be referred to it. The project went to the various "referral sources" and asked for the nameB of "difficult" boys. The term "difficult" was never precisely defined although rating scales and questionnaires were designed for use by the teachers. More• over, some "non-difficult" boys were included to avoid the possibility of the project acquiring a reputation of being a refuge for "bad beys." A variety of medical and psychological tests were administered to all boys in the population from which those serviced were to be selec• ted. In addition more material was gathered on the boy and his family. A description of the boy's neighborhood was included in his portfolio. Using these portfolios, the Selection Committee classified all cases "in terms of apparent trends toward or away from delinquency." The 650 boys, 325 control and 325 treatment, were drawn from some 1,900 referrals. About 100 of the 1,900 boys could not be used in the 126 Cambridge -Somerville study for such reasons as being too old, having moved from town, or:present• ing insufficient material available to evaluate their behavior. A Pre• selection Committee screened out over. 500 cases. "By studying the (Selection) Committee's judgments for the first few months one could get some idea of what kind of boy was usually judged difficult by them." . The different constellations of traits which "would probably be labelled.dif• ficult" were identified. Cases were then rejected by the pre-selection Committee to lighten the load- of the Selection Committee. In all, 782 cases were rated by the.Selection Committee, on an 11-. point scale "indicating the tendency toward or away from delinquency." The 650 boys used in the Study were apparently selected from the 782 classi- fled'by the Selection^Committee on a "first-referred and classified, first- served basis." The 650 boys were divided into 325 pairs by an elaborate matching procedure. The boys were matched in terms of physical health, intelli• gence, emotional adjustment (as noted by teachers), home background, (as rated by social workers), neishborhood residence, and delinquency prog• nosis (as judged by the Selection Committee). A flip of a coin decided which member of a matched pair was treated and which was not. Of the 325 boys in the treatment program, 137 had been judged as delinquency prone, 163 as tending away from delinquency, and 25 were rated as doubtful. . The sections of Cambridge and Somerville where all the boys lived wercdensely populated, economically deteriorated, and dominated by factories. 4. Goals and program Dr. Cabot, in a Foreword to 500 Criminal Careers by J. S. and E. T. Glueck, reviewing the failure of reformatories and other then current Cambridge -Somerville penal practices, observed, "There has been at least one necessary con• dition (absent): that someone could come to know and to understand the man in so intimate and friendly a way that he comes to a better under• standing of himself and a truer comprehension of the world he lives in." Cabot was led to establish the Cambridge-Somerville Youth project in the desire to test out his hypothesis that, as G. W. Allport observes in the Foreword to the Powers-Witmer volume, "delinquency can be pre• vented by establishing a sustained friendly ego ideal for boys in trouble...." The initial hypothesis, as Allport notes, was the broad one; "that the impact of personality upon personality, guided by good• will and maturity of judgment, would have beneficial results." Throughout its history the project focused on "sound, physical, intellectual and spiritual growth...and on the prevention of delin• quency in particular." The frequent contact by one counselor which was seen as necessary to implement Dr. Cabot's hopes of establishing a "sustained friendly ego-ideal" was difficult to bring about. Initially the average full- time case load was over 30 cases. The case load was lightened in 1941 by dropping 65 cases who appeared to be in no need of further help. A major factor hindering the establishment of a close counselor- boy relationship was the turnover of staff due to the demands of World War II. Only two counselors remained with the project until 1945, when all cases were closed. One of these two counselors, Powers, carried only a small case-load after 1941 when he became Project Director. Changes in residence and military services termi• nated or caused the withdrawal of boys from the project. It was also decided to drop a case when the boy reached his 17th birthday. Thus, 128 • Cambridge -Somerville • only 75 of the original 325 boys were being counselled when, the project terminated. Only 10 of these had had the same' counselor throughout. table 20, of the Power-Witmer volume, reflects the counselor turn- :t over' rate. 1 ' Table 20 Total group Boys in program (N = 325) to the end (N = 75) Number of counselors Number of boys Per Cent'" Number of boys' Per Cent 1 118 36.3 10 13.3- 2 103 31.7 14 18.7 3 58 17.8 24 32.0 4 ' 39 12.0 23 • 30.7 5 6 1.8 . • - 4 5.3 6 1 ._3 0 0.0 Total, 325 99.9,, . 75 100.0 The treatment program itself varied from counselor to counselor. Some counselors did establish an intimate friendship with the boy. Treat• ment ln other cases consisted of talks between family and counselor, trips for the boys, medical or welfare aid as needed. Summer camp experience was provided some boys. Tutoring in reading and arithmetic was provided. Some counselors worked at co-ordinating the work of welfare and social agencies. Dr. Cabot had emphasized the importance of religion. Powers quotes Cabot as remarking, "The first fact about growth is our dependence on God. However, Powers comments, "The religious development emphasized by Dr. Cabot at the outset of treatment received relatively little attention by the counselors." Only one counselor "devoted much time and thought to the 129 Cambridge-Somerville religious training of the boys.... The counselors, as a rule, with the one exception, hesitated to discuss religion "with a boy or family of another faith." Sixty-one per cent of the boys were Catholic, while only 26 per cent of the counselors were. "The religious faiths of the boys were not a vital factor in the assignment of cases...." The McCords, on the other hand, contend, "Religion formed an important part of the treatment; boys and their families were encouraged to attend church; priests and: ministers were alerted to their problems." 5. Evaluation 5.1 Powers' evaluation Powers reports the results of three evaluation studies. Two were done while the project was in progress, one after termination. After the first two and one-half years of the study, a sample of 60 boys in treatment was compared to the 60 boys to whom they had been matched. A randomly selected sample was constructed to reflect the characteristics of the total treatment group In terms of all variables used in the matching process. Statistical tests showed that the sample of treatment and of control boys were as well matched as the total groups were. This first study was based on interviews with boys, their families, their teachers, and various ratings on test scores. The measures in• cluded the Vineland Social Maturity Scale, Furfey's Test for Develop• mental Age, part of the California Test of Personality, school records, contacts with police, and official Court records. The treatment group scored higher on ten measures, the control group on three, and there was no difference on the others. However, 130 Cambridge -Somerville none of the differences were statistically significant-. Somei of the longer measures'were then subdivided; "...in the total, of 79 measures or items, the treatment group excelled in 55." Again, differences were not statis• tically significant. Power concludes, "We do not presume to interpret the tendency that although virtually none of the individual measures are statistically sig• nificant", yet a majority of them favor: the T-boys.1.' Two alternate explanations are offered. The choice is left to the reader: the first choice is that the differences are a result of chance; the second, "the counselors may have been making slight but scarcely measurable progress....' The second evaluation of the program in progress began in 1942 and was concluded in 1943. This study dealt only with 56 boys "whom the counselors were seeing most frequently and who could be most easily reached and made available for testing" and their matches. However, it was found that there were discrepancies between the delinquency prognosis ratings of the 56 matched treatment and control pairs. In general the boys in treatment were more delinquency prone. To correct for the bias the sam• ple was reduced to 30 pairs, perfectly equated on the pre-treatment delinquency proneness rating. None of the measures used in the first study were used again. The second survey "again revealed no great differences in scores achieved on a variety of tests, schedules, and ratings." Nevertheless, a definite trend was apparent in favor of the treatment groups, "a trend somewhat stronger than that found in the first evaluation." After the project had concluded It6 treatment program and evaluation, study using police statistics was undertaken. The files of the Crime Prevention Bureau of the Police Department of the City of Cambridge, where 131 Cambridge -Somerville two-thirds of the boys lived, were examined, for the years 1938 through 1941. Most of the offenses were of a mild nature, and few were referred to court. After examining the figures, Powers con• cludes, "Throughout the treatment period the counselors were evidently not successful in preventing boys from committing offenses that brought them to the attention of the police...." The files of the Massachusetts Commissioner of Probation, where the names of all boys brought before any state or county court on a delinquent or criminal charge is noted, were also examined for the peri• od up to July 1, 1948. The number of boys appearing in court was about the same for treatment and control groups. Indeed, more boys in treat• ment (123) appeared in court after their seventeenth birthday than did control boys (86). Of the 142 boys who received the most extensive treatment, 60 had appeared in court during the six-year period begin• ning sight months after treatment had begun. Only 48 of the 142 controls appeared in court during the same period. Four police officers and four probation officers were asked to rate the seriousness of some 69 different offenses on a four-point scale. There was substantial agreement in 60 per cent of the ratings. The frequency of control and treatment boys committing offenses of the varying degrees of seriousness is as follows :a T C Least serious offenses (1) 76 57 Fairly serious (2) 52 31 Serious (3) 88 72 Most serious (4) 48 58 Taken from Table 56, Powers & Witmer. Cambridge-Somerville The Witmer study differs from both the Powers and McCord-McCord work in two ways, by de-emphasizing official records.and by relying less heavily on the control-treatment group research design used by the others. Witmer attempted to supplement the design provided by the Study, a design she criticizes on two grounds: 1) "The control group method is a statistical method, relying on the principle of the. stability of large numbers and referring to. average effects rather than to individual performance. According to that principle, the behavior of the individual units under consider• ation (the boys in our case) may vary widely in reaction to numerous and diverse influences; the range and distribution of the variation will, however, remain constant from group to group and from time to time, unless some new and important factor intervenes. That factor (the Study's services in our case) may not affect the behavior of all the units, but if it affects any significant number of them the dis• tribution will be altered and the effectiveness of the new factor will be demonstrated. In any Individual case, however, we will not know whether it was the new factor or one or more of the old factors that produced the beneficent results. Moreover, even if no significant differences between study and control group appear, It is not demon• strated that the new factor was without importance; the most that can be concluded Is that the new factor was not more important, on the average, than those previously operating. Even this conclusion may not be justified, for there may be other explanations for the apparent similarity in the behavior of the study and control groups. "Such conclusions do not satisfy the clinical worker, who by the nature of his task, has little interest in averages.... He wants 134 Cambridge-Somerville information that' he can- use in-work with individuals, information that will increase the efficiency of his performance." 2) "In planning the study, Dr. Cabot was apparently using a medical analogy...(But)dellnquency and'poor character, • the disorders that the study sought to remedy, are not analogous to specific diseases, and social services'(especially those as heterogeneous as.the study provided) can• not be regarded as having the unitary character' of a specific medical ' remedy. To give a greater: variety of. service to a great variety of boys, , each practitioner doing what he thinks best without reference to any com• monly held body of theory, seems—control group or no control group—no more a scientific experiment than a medical one would be in which different kinds of medicine were given to patients suffering from different kinds of disorders by doctors who held different theories as to the causes of the illness." In view of the above criticisms, Dr.' Witmer was "led-to the conclu• sion that a way must be found for making judgments about the value of the study service case by case." The aim was to supplement the control group method rather than to abandon it entirely. ... A three-step approach was used: -1) a case-by-case•judgment was made as to whether the boy had benefited.from the study services; 2) these rat• ings were compared to ratings of a) the boy's terminal behavior, b) amount of change that had occurred, c) the boy's own evaluation of the study; and 3) comparing each treatment with each control boy to see if he had turned out better than his control; We will report step 3 first, then step 1. Step 2 is omitted. The Witmer analysis is based on only 254 of the original 325 cases. The 65 cases which were dropped in 1941 "because their social adjustment 135 Cambridge-Somerville had been uniformly good" and six others who had died or moved away from the study area were not included. In.rating the boys' terminal adjustments, "attention was paid chiefly to the social aspects of their behavior." The "social aspects" included behavior at home, in school or the job, with friends, recre• ational interests, and with respect to the law. The severity of the original maladjustment was said to be a factor in terminal adjustment. "At the extremes the boys tended to maintain their original ratings; the well adjusted...stayed well adjusted and those who were extremely, maladjusted remained at least "rather poor." An upward trend was found in the middle categories. Of the 254 boys, 101 Improved and . 24 became le68 well adjusted; 129 did not change. Great, changes for better or worse were infrequent. An attempt was made to determine the social adjustment of the control boys. Visits were made to them and their families; inter• views were conducted. Only 153 controls could be located; of these, five were not used because of sampling requirements. The five were dropped to reduce the proportion of controls committed to institutions to -he proportion found in the total control group. Statistical studies revealed that the 148 controls were a representative sample of the total control group. On the basis of information gathered in the follow-up of the controls, each was rated as to adjustment as the boys in treatment had been. The distribution of adjustment ratings for the two groups was compared. "Even granted a certain amount of inaccuracy in the ratings.. ."it would appear difficult to maintain that the presence of study services made any great difference in the terminal adjustment of the (boys in treatment)," Witmer concludes. 136 Cambridge-Somerville The above conclusion','of course, pertains to the groups-as-a-whole. Witmer, as we have observed, does not-regard • judgment of the group-as-a- whole as very helpful to' the caseworker who" wants to learn how to improve his services. She proposes that a case-by-case analysis can help one "discover not only thatservices, when-effective, resulted in better social functioning (as judged by comparison with the controls) but' also with what boys and by what means those services become effective...." Since It is obvious that no-one type of service will meet the needs of all boys who are in difficulty,' :such discoveries are "of real value to social work." Each case was studied by witmer and rated on the "value of service." The "judgments refer not only to the boy's behavior, but to the conditions believed to influence that behavior." If the conditions included the ser• vice of the counselor,, then the boy was said to have been aided by the services. If the conditions did not include the counselor's service, the boy was not said to have been aided. All judgments were made by Witmer. She was the only judge, although there was "a certain amount of informal, checking by reason'of the fact that case records were abstracted and rated by several readers (Witmer was one of the readers) before final judgment was passed." Since it was held that an adequate judgment required that all - records be "studied and compared with as much care as was given by (Witmer)...(the use of) a larger number of Judges...would be too time- consuming a job." "Reviewing (the) whole series of cases (N»51) in which boys clearly benefited from the counselor's services, we see," says Witmer, "that the good results are largely to be attributed to services of the type that the organisation originally set out to perform, those of friendly study, 137 Cambridge-Somerville counselling, and the procurement of assistance of health, recreation, educational and other agencies whose services were needed." The boys whom the project aided were "those whose problems were never very severe and whose home situation, both emotionally or socially, was at least fairly adequate." In all the situations in which the boys were helped "the parents were willing and, in many cases eager to have the boys helped...and the boys were pleased to have the counselor's attention." The conditions Just cited were viewed as "necessary conditions for the receipt of marked benefit" from the project's services. A study of boys who were not helped was undertaken to decide if these conditions were also "sufficient." Three elements were found in the cases in which the project had not helped the boy: "the boy's disinterest in the services offered, thecounselor's lacks in time and skill, end the severity of the boy's handicaps, chiefly emotional ln nature." Witmer observes, "In most of the successful cases all three of these favorable elements were present. In many of the failures all were missing." Witmer comments on "the study's understandable aim to give chief attention to the most needy boys" be remarking "it appears so far in our analysis, at least, that, if good results were desired, more would have been gained by concentrating on those who were less maladjusted." 5.3 The McCordB* evaluation The McCords' study was rather similar to that of Powers. For the McCords, the criterion of success or failure was the presence or ab• sence of criminal behavior as indicated by official court conviction. Powers had used court convictions as well as other official records. 138 Cambridge-Somerville The McCords'. study.began some twelve years after the .study had ter• minated its treatment program. They note.Witmer's second criticism of the use of the treatment-control group,research design, but add: "Wc cannot agree, however, that uniformity is necessary for either effective treatment, or for an evaluation of effectiveness...variation can itself be studied by the investigator. If differences had appeared between treaty ment and control groups,, this would be an indication that some forms of treatment were effective. The task for the evaluator would then be to isolate those forms of treatment which did secure the beneficial results." The McCords used the treatment-control group design as the basis of their evaluation. The evaluation also includes some comparison of sub• groups of the treatment group with each other. , The population studied by the McCords, like that studied by Witmer, was "all of the treated boys, except those who had died and those who had been dropped in 1941" and their controls. The McCords found that control and treatment groups did not differ significantly with respect to the numr ber of ^convictions nor the number of individuals convicted for criminal acts. The IQ, personality, parental affectional attitudes, neighborhood, and parental discipline, as measured by. the original study, were each held constant. The treatment and control groups still did not differ, signifi• cantly with respect to number of convictions and of convicted individuals. The ages at which the subjects intthe treatment group had been convicted, if at all, were compared with those of the control group.. There was no significant difference in the number of crimes committed either as juve• niles or adults between the two groups.. The number of( boys convicted as juveniles only, adults only, or as both adult and juvenile in the control group was not statistically different from that pf,tthe treatment group. 139 Camb ridge -S omervi lie The McCords "were forced to conclude tnatNit'he>treatment program, i • considered as a totality, had been ineffectual as a preventative of crime." The effect of variations in the treatment program from counselor to counselor were also investigated. However, the number of counselors seen by each boy was not related to the criminality rate. The duration of treatment from the first counselor also was unrelated to differences between the control and treatment groups. Similarly, the total duration of treatment by all counselors with one boy did not result in a reduced crime rate. However the McCordB did find that the intensity of treatment was related to a drop in the crime rate. The rates for boys seen every week was lower than that of boys seen every two weeks for a period of six months or more. The rates for boys contacted before the age of 10' was lower than that of boys who were contacted at a later age. The group of boys from 11-13 years old, who had had a female counselor had a lower crime rate than those of similar age who had had a male counselor. A third aspect of the McCords' evaluation program was the compari• son of twelve boys who had received intensive treatment with their controls. The criteria used to select the boys who had "intensive . treatment" were: the counselor worked with the family, paid attention to medical and educational handicaps, maintained a relationship with the boy for at least two years, and visited the child an average of once a week during the two year period; the boy volunteered statements indi• cating regard and respect for the counselor; and the "discussions between the boy and his counselor had, at some point, to touch on the L40 1 Cambridge -Somerville child's bauic. personality problem,.hi? relations with his parents his sexual feelings, r-his attitudes toward authority and his peers, or his feelings of guilt, anxiety, and aggression." The twelve cases which met these criteria.involved some of the.most potentially delinquent- cases In the project. The twelve who had received this Intensive.treatment were(matched with twelve who had received non-intensive treatment on eight, variables. The variables were: 1) mother's attitude toward her son; ;2.) father's, attitude toward his son;- 3) child's personality; 4) parental disciplinary methods; 5) general home atmosphere; 6) intelligence, measured by the Stanford-Binet; 7) neighborhood; and 8) delinquency prognosis score assigned .at 'the beginning of the project. ;1 "The results of the comparison are suggestive: while six of the boys who received (the most intensive treatment committed at .least one crime, eleven of their matched comrades became criminal." The .McCords conclude that "intimate, long term 'supportive' counseling may prevent crime...(but) using'the standard-of -official' criminal behavior, we must conclude that the Cambridge-Somerville Youth Study was largely a failure." . ' • i' . b. Editors' analysis of program The basis for classifying the Cambridge-Somerville strategy as one aiming at controls is the fact that the guiding principle of the strat• egy was Cabot's belief that "delinquency can be prevented by establishing a sustained friendly ego ideal for boys in trouble...." An ego ideal is, in our terminology, a source of controls as It establishes constraints on behavior. Some hesitation wa6 felt in classifying the work as being on the individual revel. The project did do a bit of -work with the family unit. 141 Cambridge-Somerville However, such work was seen as auxiliary to the work with the individual boy and as facilitative of efforts directed at the boy. The counselor-boy relationship was the major area of concern. Uence, the work is primarily directed on the individual level. 143 Slack, C, W. Experimenter-subject.psychotherapy: A new method of introducing intensive office treatment for unreachable cases. Mental Hygiene, 1960, 44, 238-256. 1. Change - agent .'. Dr. Slack himself and two associates are the change agents. He is an assistant-professor of clinical psychology in Harvard University's Department of Social1 Relations. His work was aided by grants from the Louis and Pauline Cowan Foundation and the Aaron Norman Foundation. 2. Commentator The report is authored by Dr. Slack and is a report of his own work. 3. Target population Dr. Slack has worked with eleven cases, all males. Of these, three "don't count" since work with them did not progress beyond 15 hours. Two of the three were delinquent; the other was not. Treatment of one was stopped when he went to work and couldn't make the hours. The other delinquent committed a robbery on the night of his first interview. He was caught and eventually sent to reform school. Of the eight "who count" seven are delinquents still in treatment; the eighth was a conscientious objector whose treatment was successful after 50 hours. Two criteria were used in the selection of cases for treatment: 1) the subjects were "hard-core" delinquents with long records; and 2) they had "histories of active refusal to go to treatment." The initial contact is made with the help of some responsible person who knows the subject; for example the Director of the Cambridge Neighborhood House has been one such contact. 4. Goals and program A technique, unique to this project was employed for "introducing 145 Slack "It is believed that the experimenter-subject transaction which belongs to the larger class of employer-employee relationships is better suited to psychotherapy with involuntary and unreachable groups than the doctor-patient relationship which belongs to the larger class of professional relationships." The experimenter-subject relationship Is said to be better because the prejudices on the part of the delinquent which would.preclude his becoming a patient are not activated. One such prejudice is that the working-class adolescent is said to view the psychiatrist as a person to avoid rather than a source of aid. A "fundamental indignity (is) involved in submitting oneself to examination in very personal areas." The delinquent .is said to be extremely sensitive about his needs for attention, love, and help. Slack advises that during the course of the experiment (treatment), "In general, whatever is done for the patient be done with these thoughts in mind--the subject is basically a deprived individual, no matter what his protests to the contrary." However, one must take care not to Insult the subject's pride. "Pride is ego-strength and must be conserved." The subject will often tell stories of his escapades. The experimenter may accept the message's emotional content, but register disbelief at some of the subject's attempts to "con" him or accept the lies as truth, .but make the subject feel that he would be accepted even if he had not lied. The matter of attendance is also an area of concern. Slack observes, "In the middle class neurotic, attendance failure indicates a breakdown of control mechanisms; in the working, class delinquent it merely indicates what we alraady know--he never learned to schedule his time." 146 Slack 5. Evaluation ' The' work reported in this paper is still in its early stages. However, as Slack notes, since it is a technique for "introducing treatment in otherwise unreachable cases...(it) can be evaluated from cases in treat• ment as from completed onesi" The results are viewed as "exceedingly encouraging. Although the number of cases is small, one must remember that they would all be defi• nitely classified as unreachable. This makes the attainment of a therapeutic relationship in even a single case a noteworthy event." It is argued that the approach to individual therapy is not in com• petition with the work of street workers or total milieu treatment. "These methods are valuable and successful in themselves." Individual therapy is seen as a possible supplement to such programs, as "the method of choice for those individuals who...fail to readjust as the group acquires new norms." Some fifteen specific' advantages are claimed for the technique describ• ed above. For example, the procedure is socially acceptable to gang members (anecdotal material is given to support this) and recording of sessions is possible. 6. Editors' analysis of program Slack quite clearly operates on the individual level. However, it is not as clear whether he Is oriented primarily toward provocations or control. Generally, "office-type depth psychoanalysis" places great emphasis on processes of transference, identification, and the formation or clarifica• tion of ego-ideals. Slack recognizes that these control processes are involved in the "experimenter-subject" relationship, as he structures it. 147 Slack But he seems more concerned with removing impediments to the subjects' recognizing the totality of his motives (provocations). Chief impediments are the effects of deprivation of status and of self-respect. Slack provides his subjects with prestigeful Jobs, spending money, and therapy to remove these deprivations. With increased recognition there Is, presumably, better control on one's motives. 149 Stranahan, M. and Schwartzman,. C. An experiment in reaching asocial adolescents through group therapy. Annals Amer. Acad. Pol. Soc. Sci., 1959, 322, 117-125. 1. Change Agent The program was part of the Girl's Service League Group Psychotherapy Project, under the auspices of the New York City Youth Board. 2, Commentator Stranahan is a psychiatrist and is the Clinic Director of the Girl's Service League. Schwartzman is a psychiatric social worker and is Director of the group therapy program of the Girl's Service League. 3.. Target population The adolescents referred to the Project had been chronically in trouble at school and in the community. Efforts of social agencies to reach them through individual treatment or their families failed. The adolescents selected were impulsive and destructive, guilty of fighting, stealing, insubordination, and truancy. Diagnostically, they were "suffering from character disorders, with some having neurotic features and a few borderline psychotics. A few of the group members were withdrawn and inhibited rather than the 'acting-out' type." Both boy and girl groups were constituted. Our summary deals only with the report of the work with boys. 4. Goals and program The treatment process began with a personal interview with individuals to acquaint them with the purpose of the group and to outline the program. Only about half of those interviewed elected to continue with the project. Letters' were then sent out to notify the members of the time and place of the meeting. A site near their homes was selected. Food and play equip tncnt were provided to satisfy the needs of teenagers in cocial settings. 150 Stranahan and Schwartzman "From the'first-meeting, purposeful and fair reality limits are set regard• ing injury to another and to property." Occasionally, during the course of a year, trips are taken to parts of the community not known to the boys. The reactions of the boys in the course of about three years showed four phases. Good behavior characterized the inital phase of several weeks. During this stage the boys are an assembly of individuals. They are polite, restrained, and behave as they think adults expect them to act. The therapist is .called "teacher" and viewed as an authority figure. In the second phase there is a resumption of customary behavior. Communications center around the use of.equipment. . The primary relation• ship is to the therapist, not to.the other group members. The members are each concerned about being "first" in various activities and when various refreshments are distributed. , The therapist is continually being tested by the various group members. During the third phase there is a growing favorable reaction to the therapist. Dependency regarding school, problems, employment, and family difficulties are typical in this phase. . The boys begin to identify with and imitate the therapist. In the last phase group solidarity deepens. . The bjys become concerned for one another. The identification with the therapist's standards is expanded. Verbalization increases. The topic of group discussions is generally some problem about present or future life situations. Such discussions supplant games and physical activities. The group disbands by natural means. Employment, military service, and marriage prevent members.from attending. Stranahan and Schwartzman In reviewing the stages of the development of group processes, the authors comment, "What we assumed, we found true. These boys and girls are too infantile In their character development, too poorly related to adults, and too conditioned to...language as a source of criticism, abuse, or confusion to be reached through a discussion or oral interpretation for a long time, whatever communication they can establish has to be through 'living out' experiences with adults. They cannot enter into the rapport needed for the usual psychotherapy until they have had experiences that convince them there is an adult devoted and respectful of their needs for safety, protection, fun, and recognition whom they can trust and love. Then comes the 'give and take', which eventually means they can 'belong' to the group. They find in the therapist the needed parental person to believe in and with whom to identify in their approaches to themselves, adults, authorities, and their peers. The therapist's actions and emotions provide their first healthy model and help them develop positive feelings and attitudes within the group." The therapist's attempts to maintain the group involve activities both within and outside of group meetings. The absence of a boy from meetings or some other sign may indicate a crisis is present in the home or school situation. The therapist then makes contacts with the home or school. In order to get the adolescent to accept intervention in his behalf, however, it is necessary to reduce his "fear that the therapist is going to be influenced by or combine with other authorities against him." In school, effort Is often made to enroll the boy in appropriate courses. Occasionally, the boy will leave school but return to take night classes. 152 Stranahan and Schwartzman 5. Evaluation " No formal evaluation program was conducted. "Consuming demands in maintaining the current groups make it impossible to follow up systematically the groups that have terminated." The original prognoses for the group members were poor. Nevertheless, not more 'than 5 per cent of those who had taken part in the program have been institutionalized. Many left school as soon as the law allowed.' However, most of them have gotten employment and accepted the demands of their employees as reasonable. Three-fourths reported having jobs. "They are suprisingly satisfied and dependable in their attitudes about work." Some of the group members completed high school, a few have entered college. "Certainly, no one of these boys of girls would have graduated from high school.. .without the group experience and the staff's tutoring and repeated interference with, and guidance in, the school system." Many original group members are now members of community centers and other recreational groups; Previously they were not acceptable'to such programs. Few agencies contact the Girl's League concerning the group members themselves; but contacts pertaining to their brothers and sisters are frequent. It is noted, however, that even' after the group sessions are termina• ted, many still could benefit from individual therapy. The strains of an adult life and responsibilities may prove toe much for some of them. However, "the confidence and ease with which members of closed groups have returned encourage us to believe that a good percentage of these erstwhile unreachable adolescents will seek aid in their adult crises." In addition to the above informal attempt to evaluate the effects of the program, the authors provide some comment on indications of progress 153 Stranahan and Schwartzman during the group meetings themselves. For example, the boys' actions regarding refreshments is seen as one such indication. The boys took turns buying the soda for the group with money supplied by the therapist. The member who got the soda had the job of cleaning up after the group meeting. He returned the bottles and kept the deposit money. In the early stages, members expressed the hope that few would attend the meetings so that they might get larger portions of the available refreshments. Turns at buying the soda were zealously watched. The therapist was asked to keep records. In the latter stages of the process left-overs were divided fairly. The boys become confident that they would get their fair turns at buying the soda. The refreshment period became a relaxed time. This is for them "literally the first experience of participating in the equivalent of a family mealtime." Changes in the use of the carfare provided by the program and In behavior during trips are other indicators of "changing maturity." 6. Editors' analysis of program Here the group, albeit one organized by the change agent, was chosen as the unit to work with after attempts at working with the members on an individual basis had failed. Emphasis on identification and imitation of the change agent point to a primary concern with control factors. 155 Tefferteller, R. Delinquency prevention through revitalizing parent- child relationships. Annals Amer. Pol. Soc. Sci., 1959,322,69-78. 1. Change agent This special group work program was part of the "regular and normal" Henry Street Settlement House program. 2. Commentator Ruth Tefferteller was the Director of the Pre-delinquent Gang Project of the Henry Street Settlement House in New York City. She has been part of the settlement house staff since 1946. 3. Target population At present the project is servicing five groups of pre-delinquent boys who came to the attention of the agency as pre-adolescents through "their disorganized and deviant behavior in the House." The groups did not reject the House; they made attempts to participate. However, they could not tolerate the mild discipline of the House. The groups are of heterogeneous ethnic composition. The Henry Street area is a low socio-economic area. 4. Goals and program The goal of the Pre-delinquent Gang Project of the Henry Street Settlement House was to "prevent the development of new gangs." The Project detected early signs of gang behavior in younger groups and proceeded to work intensively with their parents and them to "wean them away from the older gangs' Influence." The Project began its treatment program with a pre-delinquent group of younger boys by holding up their application for club privileges under the House's auspicies. Such action was^a^-departure from the usual practice of rapid approval. During the delay, the House met 156 Tefferteller with parents of: the boys to determine whether or not;to.maintain the boys as a group. It was then made clear to the boys that their group behavior was unacceptable. The boys were informed that "steps must be taken to be sure that official recognition of them would not contribute toward strenght- entng them as a gang." In group discussions with the boys the House point• ed out how their pre-delinquent behavior could impair the success of the club. Work with parents went on simultaneously with that with the hoys. The aim was to help the parents understand the natural process of formation of juvenile antisocial groups, and the behavior to which It leads. Parents met in groups. The Project's earlier attempts to see the parents one at a time were not fruitful. The parents were encouraged to work with the House in planning the kinds of programs and activities best suited to the needs of their boys. After a number of such meetings with boys and with parents the club is informed of acceptance by the House. An adult group leader is assigned to the club. He handles programs and all manner of problems affecting the group and the individuals in it. "Nothing can be ignored and with children nothing can wait." The techniques used vary from psychiatric casework to talks with probation officers and school officials. The key to checking pre-delinquency in pre-adolescent groups "lies in helping to reinstate parental influence where it rightfully belongs and in building stronger bridges between children and their parents and between family and community...." The lack of parental control and the influence of older boys are seen as the major etiological factors in the misbehavior of the pre-adolescent. r ...X.I Tefferteller 5. . Evaluation No formal evaluation program was undertaken. However, the author does indicate what In her opinion are the "active ingredients" of the program. She also indicates, what were taken as signs of progress. The meetings with parents in groups were seen as: 1) reducing the defensiveness of the parents; 2) demonstrating parental authority and awareness to the boys; 3) facilitating meetings of parents with the parents of their sons' friends; 4) involving parents in setting time limits and other rules for attendence at the club; 5) placing respon• sibility upon the parent for granting permission to the children to have a club, thus helping set an expectation level for behavior prescribed by the parents themselves ; 6) providing the House with an opportunity to express an interest in working with parents as both adults and parents; and 7) opening up opportunities for social service to parents themselves. The essential criteria of success are "evidence of more purpose In the group, new values in their thinking and boasts about putting things over on adults begin to be replaced with plans for activities which will give them a good reputation and recognition from their families." Other criteria of success include: 1) acquistion of new members who are "well-controlled, happy youngsters whose parents feel the behavior level and group activities of the group are good enough for their children"; 2) lessened racial prejudice and abandoning of desire to be a "good fighting club" to keep "Portos" or "spies" off the block; 3) improved relationships with the staff; 4) self-directed programs; 5) constructive projects; 6) more regard for person and property; 7) : 158 Tefferteller Improved relationships with parents; and 8) signs of independent thinking and action on the part of individual group members. 6. Editors' analysis of program This effort was carried on at the group level. ' Comments on reinstat• ing parental influence and building stronger parent-child and family-commu• nity bridges point fairly unambiguously to an orientation toward controlling forces, even though psychiatric casework may have dealt some with provocative motivations. 159 Epilogue Twenty-five separate community-based action programs have been examined in the course of this review, 21 of them abstracted here. We are immediately struck by the wealth of experience which has accumu• lated in these operations. The report of the action programs are potential sources of great aid in the initial stages of programs like • our own. However, we can't help but feel that much of this experience is beyond our reach for at least two reasons. First, it is not the kind of experience which is easily commu• nicated. Finely distilled accounts of a rich series of episodes by their very nature must omit much which would guide other workers. When Gandy writes that a worker in the Hyde Park Project established himself as "an understanding and interested adult and one who is symbolic of the larger community," he summarized in 14 words, count• less gestures, postures, and utterances. Similarly, no brief report of the guided group interaction technique which Empey imported to Provo. from Highfields can impart the insight which comes from merely lis• tening to one of Empey's tape recordings of a session. These reports of action programs do say to an action worker, "Look, it can be done, we did it, try it yourself." and tell him to whom he may talk when he wants the benefit of relevant experience. Second, the original reports do not all describe the same as• pects of their programs. We have here imposed a systematic outline on the materials and found we had to leave many "gaps in our reports because relevant information was wanting. This makes it difficult to compare one program with another, either for the purpose of weighing action alternatives or to extract data for research purposes. 160 Perhaps the reason for lack of systemization is due to the failure to define the social dimensions of the program itself and how these re• late to the problem of delinquency. It seems that most of the programs were conducted without benefit, of some explicit, albeit tentative notions about the delinquency process or the process of effective anti-delinquency action which would guide the program in its selection of action alterna• tives and make clear to an outside observer why certain alternatives were chosen before others. In only nine of the 25 reports (Ackley and Fliegel; Alston; Bowman*, Empey and Rabow; Franklin; New York City Youth Board; Slack;. Stranahan and Schwartzman; and Tefferteller) did we find com- ments about the relationship of the action program to the causes or cures of delinquency. While it is not reasonable at this time to ask action people or anyone to outline complete theories of delinquency or its prevention, it seems to us that without some ideas along these lines> a program is likely to drift. Certainly the absence of systematization hinders others -from generalizing from an experience or evaluating it. We imposed two dimensions on the. reports: I) the social unit with . which the program worked, and 2) the .control-provocation emphasis. A tabulation of the 21 abstracted studies yielded this table: Provocation-Control Emphasis Social unit worked with Provocation Control 1 Total Individual 4 1 1 6 Small group: program-created - 3 - 3 Small group: natural 1 7 2 10' _1 _2 Community organization —- -1 • Total 5 ... 12 4 21 161 A few observations may be-made from this Cable. First, community organization has not been a popular technique for combating delin• quency. The great majority of program formulators included here have preferred more direct contact with delinquent youngsters. Bowman's report on the Quincy Youth Development Project explicitly records a shift from a community organization to an individual- oriented program. Programs which work with individuals amount to less than half the number of those which work with groups. This may however be mis• leading, since a lot of anti-delinquency action on an individual level goes on in child guidance clinics like the Passaic Children's Bureau (Kvaraceus) and in private offices (Slack) but is never reported in the literature as anti-delinquency programs. Probably more delinquent and pre-delinquent children are worked with in such ways than are contacted in groups. Nevertheless, the heavy weighting toward efforts with groups among reports in the recent literature is indicative of the current emphasis in combatting delinquency. "Detached work," "extension work," and "street club work" seem to be the patterns dominating new efforts in the field. Some speculation about the reasons behind this shift require a discussion about the provocation- control dimension. Among the projects examined here, more- seem to aim at the estab• lishment of controls than at the alleviation of provocations. We suspect that this reflects a development in recent years of theory concerning provocations to delinquency reflected in works such as Cohen's Delinquent boys and Cloward's and Ohlin* s Delinquency and opportunity. Students of delinquency are converging on the idea that 162 boys become delinquent-because:they are or.perceive themselves to be de• nied opportunities for upward mobility. Concomitantly there is less said lately about emotional disturbance among delinquents.. Practitioners of social action may be responding to this shift in theory with a shift in practice.•'Faced with' the task of changing basic patterns of social stratification and social'mobility rooted in.complex and vast technologi• cal and economic arrangements Instead of the relatively less complicated task of- changing a boy1e psychic structure, practitioners have shifted their attention from alleviating provocations to instituting controls. The latter course seems more feasible. Concentration on controls has been accompanied by the decision to work with groups. The table shows a clear relationship between the two: control-centered programs are more likely to work with groups while provocation-centered programs tend to work with Individuals. Social action practitioners may here too be reflecting the findings of social science, specifically about producing social change'in the works of Lewin, Coch end French', Newcomb, and others which show the influence of inter• personal and perBon-group relations upon the decisions of individuals. - In our introduction to this review, we pointed out that by making the implicit theories of the action programs explicit and then-evaluating the results, an action program may become action—research as well. Unfor• tunately, the effectiveness of only six programs (cf. Bowman; Brown and Dod• son; Franklin; Gandy and Shireman; Kvaraceus; and Powers and Witmer, and-i. the McCords) was systematically evaluated and an evaluation is-planned for two others (Empey and Rabow and Group Guidance Section, L. A. County- Probation Department). Bowman found that problem pupils In special classes less often became delinquent than problem'pupils In control classes. Brown 163. and Dodson'report that- the delinquency rates in the neighborhoods of theirs participating Boys Clubs held steady or declined while rates In comparable areas rose, but they do not unqualifiedly ascribe this re• sult to Boys Club action. (Thrasher's similar study of Boys Clubs elsewhere revealed no marked effect of the program.) Franklin cites a decline in delinquency rates as an accomplishment of the All-Day Neighborhood School program, with supporting evidence by Wrightstone of better teacher-pupil relationships in participating schools than in control schools. Gandy and Shireman addressed their evaluation to the factors associated with successes and failures within their program rather than to comparisons with controls; group work was successful in preventing further delinquency when it was applied to boys who had only minimal delinquent experience, and casework was successful when a family was concerned about the child's problem and felt the caseworker could help them with it. Kvaraceus asserts that the decline in the crime rate of Passaic, New Jersey, while it was rising elsewhere in the state, is probably due to the effectiveness of the Children's Bureau. Three evaluations of the Cambridge-Somerville casework program conclude that it was not very effective but prevented delinquency in those few cases where the worker was able to establish a close relationship over a long period of time with the boy. We hesitate to generalize from just a few evaluations, aside from observing that at this stage of innovation in anti-delinquency program• ming, the paucity of systematic evaluations seems unfortunate. We might note however that most clearly in the MCCords' Cambridge-Somerville evaluation but implied in the others is that a close continuing relation• ship with some adult interested in working with a child is the active 164 ingredient of a successful program; It does.not seem necessary that the adult be a trained psychotherapist; teachers and warm people Interested in children seem to'do the trick-. If this Indeed turns out to be the case, then we would suppose that the means to.delinquency treatment and prevention is establishment of interpersonal controls. z DOCUMENT SERIES 1. Progress Report on Analysis of Data RESOURCE MATERIAL FOR CLASSROOM from First Year of Field Work* TEACHERS--FOUR PAMPHLETS OUT OF PRINT 2. A Selective Review of Research and 12. Solving Interpersonal Problems Theory on Delinquency. $2.00 in the Classroom. $1.00. 3. A Symposium on—Delinquency: Patterns, Classroom Study Tools for Causes, Cures. $1.00. Improving Classroom Atmospheres. 4. Report on the Flint Youth Study: $1.00. A Resource Book of Selected Findings. $3.50. OUT OF PRINT 14. Creative Practices Developed by Teachers for Improving Classroom 5. A Selective Review of Community- Atmospheres. $1.00. Based Programs for Preventing Delinquency. $2.00. 15. Role Playing in the Classroom. $1.00. 6. Occupational Identity and the Cognitions of Children—An Exploratory Study. OUT OF PRINT 7. Inventory of Teaching Innovations Directed Toward Improving Class• 16. Pupil-Teacher Adjustment and room Learning Atmosphere. $.50. Mutual Adaptation in Creating Classroom Learning Environments-- 8. Inventory of Classroom Study Flnal Report. $3.50. Tools for Understanding and Improving Classroom Learning 17. Direct Workers' Report. $1.00. Processes. $.50. 9. Parents, Teachers, Youth: A 18. The Activities Club Program. Teenage Weekend Laboratory. $1.00. $.75. 10. Flint Community Leaders Seminar '--»•> 19. The Visiting Teacher Program. Reports. $1.00. $.50. 11. Linking Social Class and 20. The Social Adjustment Room Socialization: toward a framework Program. $.75. for analysis and research. $1.00. 21. Flint Schools Experimental Pro• gram for the Emotionally Hani-* capped: Final Report. $.50. 22. The Classroom Human Relations Program. $ .75. Intercenter Program on Children, Youth, and Family Life INSTITUTE FOR SOCIAL RESEARCH The University of Michigan Ann Arbor, Michigan