Identifying Delinquency-Prone Children

Abstract

Results obtained from use of predictive tables developed by Sheldon and Eleanor Glueck support the accuracy of predictions made with the original five-factor scale approximately ten years ago in the District of Columbia. A study of the use of several of the Gluecks' modified scales found that a three-factor table which rates the children as having a high, low, or even probability of becoming delinquent proved most accurate. Sub sequently a further scale focused upon the ambiguous even- chance group to discriminate more clearly between those chil dren who are likely to become delinquents and those who are not.