Are Broken Homes a Causative Factor in Juvenile Delinquency?

Author(s): Clifford R. Shaw and Henry D. McKay

Source: Social Forces, Vol. 10, No. 4 (May, 1932), pp. 514-524
Published by: Oxford University Press
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 ARE BROKEN HOMES A CAUSATIVE FACTOR IN
JUVENILE DELINQUENCY?*
CLIFFORD R. SHAW AND HENRY D. McKAY
The Institute for Juvenile Researchand BehaviorResearchFund

IN STUDIESof the problemof juvenile delinquency petitions. Breckinridge and

delinquency considerable emphasis Abbott made a careful analysis of the
has been placed upon the family both parental status of boys brought before
as a preventive agency and as a contribut- the Juvenile Court of Cook County on
ing factor in the development of delin- petitions alleging delinquency during the
quent tendencies among children. Partic- years I903-4 and found that of 584 cases,
ular importance has been attached to the 253 or 44.3 per cent of them lived in
unity of the family group and to the homes that were broken by death of one
serious consequence resulting from its dis- or both parents, desertion, divorce, sepa-
organization, especially in the form of the ration of parents, or commitment of one
broken home. or both parents to an institution. I
It has been widely assumed that the In I9I5, Healy reported that among
probability of delinquency is much greater the boys examined by him at the Cook
among boys whose homes are broken by County Juvenile Court, 36.I per cent
death of one or both parents, divorce, came from broken homes.2 Subsequently
desertion, or separation of parents, than Healy reported that among the male
among boys who live in unbrokenfamilies. recidivists whom he studied intensively
Whether this belief developed from the in the Cook CountyJuvenileCourt, 49.0
generally accepted conception of the per cent came from broken homes.3
family as one of the primary social insti- The weakness of these statistics is that
tutions and that a break in it must be they furnish no reliable basis for interpre-
important, or from the seemingly high tation, since standards of normality are
proportion of broken homes among de- not available. Apparently complete ab-
linquent children as recordedin the reports sence of broken homes has been taken as
of correctional institutions, courts, or the standard from which the percentage
other agencies, is of little consequence. of broken homes among delinquents is
It is significant only to note that the belief assumed to deviate. Before the impor-
that the broken home is one of the most tance of the broken home can be eval-
important causes of delinquency is widely uated, a comparative study must be made
accepted. to determine whether there are more
Soon after the development of the first broken homes among delinquent boys
Juvenile Courts in this country careful 1 S. P. Breckinridge and Edith Abbott: The Delin-
studies were made of the parental status quentChildandtheHome,p. 9'.
of the children brought before them on 2 Annual Report of the Chief Probation Officer of

the Cook CountyJuvcnilc Court, 19I5.

* Studies from the Behavior Research Fund of the I William Healy and Augusta F. Bronner: Delin-
Institute for Juvenile Research, Chicago. Series B, quettsand Criminals,New York, The MacMillan Co.
No. I87. I92.6,p. 263.
5I4

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 BROKEN HOMES AND JUVENILE DELINQUENCY 515

than among boys in the general popula- among the delinquent boys, was 45.2 and
tion. The need for such studies in the in the control group of school boys it was
field of criminology is stated clearly by 19.3.6
Morris Ploscowe. He says: Cyril Burt found ,.,5 times as many de-
fective family relationships among two
In order to have significance the findings as rcgards
criminals must be comparcd with similar data in the hundred delinquent children in the Juve-
law-abiding population. But such data have not nile Court in London as among about four
bccn available. The lack of standards of normality hundred children from the same districts.
and data on the gcncral population has causcd causal The percentage of defective family rela-
significancc to be attributcd to many so-callcd 'ab-
tionship among the delinquents (both
normalitics" which, latcr rcscarch showcd, cithcr
wcre not abnormal at all, or if abnormal, wcrc almost boys and girls) was 57.9 and among the
as frcqucntly found among the non-dclinqucnt popula- non-delinquent school children 25.7.7
tion as among dclinqucnts.4 The results of these three studies would
Some students have clearly recognized seem to indicate that there is a very great
this point and have employed control difference between the incidence of broken
groups of varying degrees of comparabil- homes among delinquent and non-delin-
ity in their efforts to evaluate the impor- quent boys. However, certain serious
tance of the broken home as a causal fac- questions may be raised concerning the
tor in delinquency. comparability of the delinquent and con-
In a study of the parental status of 7,598 trol groups used in these studies.
delinquent boys confined in industrial Shideler's comparison was not with an
schools in 3I states, Shideler5 found that identical control group, but rather with arl
50.7 per cent came from broken homes.
estimate of the marital status of parents of
On the basisof the censusof I9IO, he esti- children in the general population made
mated that the percentage of children in from the federal census. Both Slawson
and Burt were concerned with the factor
broken homes in the general population
was 25.3, and that the incidence of broken of economic status, but even in this respect
homes among the delinquents in institu- their groups were not identical.
tutions was, therefore, 2.o times as Since our general studies have indicated
that factors other than economic status
high as in the general population.5
might be significant variables, an explora-
Slawson found that among I,649 de-
tory study was undertaken to ascertain
linquent boys confined in four correctional
the factors that should be taken into ac-
institutions in New York state the average
count in a comparative study of broken
percentage coming from homes with ab-
and non-delin-
normal marital relations was 2.3 times homes among delinquent
quent boys. At the same time it was
greater than the incidence among 3,I98
that such a study would be useful
boys in three public schools in New York hoped
not only in ascertaining these factors, but
City. These three schools were selected
in establishing norms that might be useful
because they representedcommunity situa-
in more accurately interpreting the inci-
tions of different economic and social
dence of broken homes among boys in
status. The incidence of broken homes
Chicagao.
I National Commission on Law Observance and

Enforcement, Reporton The Causes of Crime,I, I6-17. 6John Slawson: The DelinquentBoy, Boston, Bad-
6 E. H. Shideler: "Family Disorganization and the gcr, i916, p- 354-
Delinquent Boy," JournalAmericanInstituteofCriminial 7 Cyril Burt: The YoungDelinquent,London, U. of

LawandCriminology, VIII, 71 3. London Prcss, i92.5.

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516 SOCIAL FORCES
BROKEN HOMES AMONG 7,178 percentage of broken homes vary with
SCHOOL
BOYS8 race and nationality? (4) To what ex-
tent does the percentage of broken homes
The plan of the exploratory study was to vary with age?
ascertain the percentage of school boys The desired information regarding the
who lived in broken homes. Thus the family situation among school boys in
problem was not to determine the inci- Chicago was secured during the year i929
dence of broken homes for the population through personal interviews with 7,178
as a whole, but rather to determine the
boys in 29 public schools.9 These inter-
marital status of the parents of boys views were made by a trained and expe-
within certain ages. rienced worker. The interviews were con-
A boy was considered to be from a ducted in an informal manner and in order
broken home when one or both of his par- not to arouse suspicion on the part of the
ents had been removed from the home by child a large number of questions not
death, divorce, desertion, separation, or pertaining to the family situation were
prolonged absence due to confinement in asked. By this method it was possible to
an institution. It should be kept in mind secure an accurate picture of the marital
that the purpose of this study was to status of the family as indicated by the
establish the incidence of broken homes replies of brothers who were interviewed
among boys, and not to evaluate the separately, and by checking the boys'
broken as compared with the non-broken statements against the teachers' reports and
home. The study of the home as a func- schedules submitted for other purposes in
tional unit does not fall within the scope a limited number of schools. All of the
of this paper.
boys ten years of age and over in each of
In this study it was immediately appar-
the Z9 schools were interviewed and all
ent that the percentage of broken homes in
were included in the study except some
the school population might conceivably
orphans living in orphanages near two of
vary with economic status, rates of de- the schools.10 The ages of the boys inter-
linquents, age, and nationality or race. viewed ranged from 10 to 17 years with
Since it was impossible to secure a sample the
highest frequencies in the ages at the
of non-delinquents from each of the many
lower end of this range.
areas in Chicago, and from each of the
many cultural and national groups in the I The authors are under great obligation to Mr.

exact proportion that they are found in William J. Bogan, Superintendent, Chicago Public
the general population, the selection was Schools, for permission to interview school children
so made that answers to the follow- for this study.
10 These orphans were excluded because they had
ing questions might be secured. (i) To been placed in these institutions from all parts of the
what extent does the percentage of broken city; comparativelyfew of thcm had come from homes
homes vary with economic status? in the vicinity of the school. Furthermore, the
(z) To what extent does the percentage of groups of orphans represented single nationalities,
while in all of the other nationality groups considered
broken homes vary with rates of delin-
in this study most of the orphans had been eliminated
quents? (3) To what extent does the from the schools by placement in orphanages in other
communities or outside of the city.
8 For a more complete discussion of these materials It is evident that the percentage of broken homes
see Social Factors in Juvenile Delinquency, Chap IX, among school boys would be somewhat higher if the
National Commission on Law Observance and En- right proportion of orphans in each national group
forcement, Report on Causes of Crime, Vol. II. could have been included.

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 BROKEN HOMES AND JUVENILE DELINQUENCY
The schools that were selected for this
study were chosen because they repre-
sented areas of different economic status,
areas with widely different rates of de-
linquents, and with different racial and
national groups.
As a first step the percentage of broken
homes was calculated for the boys in each
of the Z9 public schools. These percent-
ages showed a surprising variation, rang-
ing from i6.o in one school to 53.0 in
another. The average rate was z9.o.
The fact that about three and one-third
times as many broken homes were found in
one school as in another, indicated that
some important differential factors were
operating.
RATES OF DELINQUENTS AND PERCENTAGE
BROKEN HOMES
When the Z9 schools in which the boys
were interviewed were divided into three
groups on the basis of the rates of delin-
quents in the areas in which the schools
were located, the range of rates and the
average percentage of broken homes for
the three groups were very similar. In
the nine schools located in areas with low
rates of delinquents the variation in per-
centages was from i6.o to 45.9; in the nine
schools from areas with intermediate rates
of delinquents zo.o to 5z.o; and in the
eleven schools located in areas with high
rates of delinquents the range was from
zo.z to 53.0. Thus in each of the three
groups of schools thus divided, the school
with the highest percentage has two and
one-half times as many broken homes as
the school with the lowest percentage.
The similarity of the absolute percentages
and the similarity of the range of percen-
tages in the groutpof schools in areaswith
low, intermediate, and high rates of delin-
quents suggests that there is no very con-
sistent relationship between rates of
delinquents and rates of broken homes.
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5I7
This same point is indicated by the fact
that the rates of broken homes calculated
for all of. the schools within each group
show relatively little variation. In the
schools in the areas with a low rate of
delinquents z6.z per cent of the boys were
in broken homes; in the medium rate areas
Z9.9 per cent, and in the high rate areas,
3I.I per cent. These figures would indi-
cate that there is a slight correlation be-
tween percentage of broken homes and
rates of delinquents, but because of the
range of percentages of broken homes in
each group, it is evident that this relation-
ship might be reversed by the addition of
one school with a high percentage of
brolcen homes in the low rate areas, or by
the subtraction of one such school in the
OF
high rate areas.
The absence of a significant relationship
between broken homes and rates of de-
linquency is further indicated by the low
coefficient of correlation (O.I9 + o.iL)
between the rates of broken homes in each
of the Z9 schools and the rate of delin-
quents in the area in which the school is
located. It will be noted that the prob-
able error is more than one-half the size of
the coefficient.
This absence of a significant relationship
between rates of delinquents and the per-
centage of broken homes among school
boys indicates, also, that there is no signifi-
cant relationship between percentage of
broken homes and economic status.
There is a high correlation between rates
of delinquents and the economic status
of the different areas in Chicago, so that
when the Z9 schools were divided into
three groups on the basis of rates of
delinquents, the same classification di-
vided the schools quite accurately on the
basis of the economic status of the area.
The absence of correlation between per-
centage of broken homes and economic
status is further indicated by the fact that
5I8 SOCIAL FORCES

of the ten schools with the lowest percent- lowest percentage of broken homes was
age of broken homes, five are located in the Jewish, 16.3, and the group with the
areas of very low economic status. highest percentage was the Negro, 46.o.
The absence of a significant variation The rates of broken homes among the
between the percentages of broken homes several groups ranged as follows: Jewish
in the schools in areas with different rates i6.3 per cent; Italian zo.8 per cent; Greek
of delinquents and different economic 21.3 per cent; Polish 28.3 per cent; Ameri-
status, and the wide variation in the per- can 31.0 per cent; others 32.1 per cent;
centage of broken homes in the areas with Mexican 39.8 per cent; and Negro 46.o.
approximately the same rates of delin- Thus the percentage of broken homes in
quents and the same economic status, the Negro group is almost three times as
indicates that there are other important high as in the Jewish group, and more
factors underlying the fluctuation. The than twice as high as in the Italian and
entire series of 7,187 boys will, therefore, be Greek groups.
considered from the standpoint of varia- These percentages are not strictly com-
tion by nationality and by age. parable since the age distribution varies
slightly within each nationality. In
PERCENTAGE OF BROKEN HOMES BY NATION-
order to eliminate this variation and to
ALITY AND BY AGE
secure a more adequate basis for compari-
In the division into nationalities the son between nationalities at different ages,
boys were divided into the seven national the expected percentage of broken homes
and racial groups in which the numberwas for each age and the expected average per-
sufficiently large for statistical treatment. centage of broken homes for each national-
Other groups were placed in an "others" ity, were calculated.
category. The boys were for the most This was accomplished by fitting a
part classified on the basis of the nativity straight line to the actual or observed
of their parents. The term American was percentages of broken homes for each age
used to designate all of the boys whose in each nationality. In fitting these
parents were born in the United States curves the observed values were weighted
excepting the Negroes, the Mexicans, and upon the basis of the number of boys
the Jews who were classified separately in each age in each nationality.
regardless of nativity. The Italians, These computed percentages of broken
Poles, and Greeks were classified on the homes, for each nationality, as calculated
basis of the nativity of their parents. for the midpoint of the age range, are as
The "others" group includes boys of for- follows: Jewish i9.8; Italian 23.o; Greek
eign parentage only. Throughout this 25.2; Polish 28.3; American 33.8; others
study this division will be referredto as a 33.9; Mexican 41.3; Negro 48.7. The
nationality classification, even though percentage for the group as a whole was
one distinction is racial and and another 30.9. Here, as in the uncorrected figures,
religious. the range of percentage of broken homes is
When these boys were divided by very great, the percentages among the
nationality and by,age, and the percentage Negro boys being about two and one-half
of broken homes calculated for each age, times as great as the percentages among the
each nationality, and the ages in each Jewish boys, and more than twice as great
nationality, some interesting variations as among Italian boys.
were revealed. The nationality with the This very wide variation in both the

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 BROKEN HOMES AND JUVENILE DELINQUENCY 5I9

actual and computed rates of broken group is from I3.7 to -5.9; and the range
homes for the different nationalities in the Italian group is from 17.4 to z8.6 for
suggests tremendous differences in the the same ages. The rates of broken homes
stability of the family life in these va- by ages in the Polish group reveals, for
rious groups. It indicates further that a reasons undetermined, a slight decrease
rate of broken homes for a group of boys with increasing age. With this one ex-
in the general population is of little or no ception, however, the increase in the rates
value if the nationality and racial com- of broken homes by ages for the separate
position of the group is not known. The nationalities and for the series as a whole
fact of nationality must be taken into con- is sufficiently large and sufficiently consist-
sideration in making any comparisons ent to indicate that age variation is a fac-
between the rates of broken homes among tor of major importance in considering the
delinquents and among boys in the general rate of broken homes among the boys in
population if the conclusions are to have the general population. It follows that
scientific validity. in any comparison between delinquents
Another interesting variation revealed and boys in the general population the
by the percentages of broken homes for age factor must be taken into consideration.
each age in each nationality, and for the These variations in the percentage of
group as a whole, is the gradual increase broken homes by age and by nationality
with age. The actual percentages for furnish the explanation for the variation
ages IO to 17 are: 2.6.2., 25.3, 29.9, 28.9, in the percentage of broken homes already
32-.5, 32..6, 38.9, 36.7. These percentages noted in the 79 public schools in which
indicate an irregular but decided increase boys were interviewed. The schools
in the percentage of broken homes with where the percentages of broken homes
age. were high, were schools in which the na-
A curve fitted to these values by the tional groups with high percentages of
method of least squaresindicates the trend broken homes predominated, while
more clearly. The computed rates of schools with low percentages of broken
broken homes secured by this method homes were schools in which national
indicate that the expected percentage of groups with low rates of broken homes
broken homes among boys ten years of age predominated. For example the school
is 275.5, and the expected percentage at with the lowest rate of broken homes was
seventeen years is 36.2.. The increase, almost completely Jewish, while the
tlherefore,in this age range is 42..o per cent. school with the highest percentage of
Presumably this variation represents the broken homes was almost completely
expected natural increase in the rate of Negro. This fact suggests that any corre-
broken homes with increasing age. lation between percentage of broken
For the most part, the rate of increase in homes and economic status or rates of
percentage of broken homes for each na- delinquents might be due to the fact that a
tionality differs but little from the in- disproportionate number of the national
crease in the series as a whole, although group with high percentages of broken
the actual rates are, of course, very differ- homes lived in areas of high rates of
ent. For example, the range of rates of delinquents.
broken homes in the Negro group is from From the foregoing materials it is ob-
41.5 in the aged io group to 56.o in the vious that the rate of broken homes among
aged I7 group; the range in the Jewish these 7,z87 boys (z9.o) applies only to

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520 SOCIAL FORCES
this series, since it has a particular nation-
ality composition and a particular distri-
bution of cases in the different ages.
Even when the rate of broken homes for
this series is correctedfor age and stated in
terms of the average computed rate for
the mid-point of the age range, it does not
apply to the population of the city as a
whole, since the nationality composition
of this series does not approach that of
the total city population. The very wide
differences between the rates of broken
homes in the several nationalities indicates
that this general rate is subject to great
fluctuation with any change in the nation-
ality constituency of the series. It indi-
cates, furthermore, that it would be im-
possible to establish a rate of broken
homes for the "normal" population with-
out having in the sample exactly the same
nationality constituency as that found in
the total population.
On the other hand, the rates of broken
homes for the separate nationalities are
probably of more general significance,
since the rates for each nationality did not
vary markedly between schools or between
different areas of the city. These rates
can be used, therefore, as a basis for general
comparison between the incidence of
broken homes in delinquent and non-delin-
quent groups within each nationality.
Similarly the extent of the tendency of the
rates of broken homes to increase with
age probably indicates quite accurately
the tendency for the city as a whole.
Additional cases might modify the slopes
of the curves for the different nationalities
somewhat, yet the curve for the entire
group probably representsquite accurately
the expected increases in rates of broken
homes with age.
This study of the rate of broken homes
among boys in the general school popula-
tion has significance quite apart from the
value of the rates of broken homes that
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were established for ages and nationali-
ties. It indicates, in the first place, the
need for a control group to establish the
incidence of broken homes in the general
population before any conclusions are
drawn as to the significance of the broken
home in juvenile delinquency. The rates
of broken homes that were found in these
29 schools are probably much higher than
those that have been generally assumed for
the general population. Under-estima-
tion of the rate of broken homes in the
general population has probably led to an
over-emphasis of the broken home as a
factor in delinquency.
COMPARISON BETWEEN THE PERCENTAGE OF
BROKEN HOMES AMONG DELINQUENTS AND
BOYS IN THE SCHOOL POPULATION
On the basis of these general tables of
percentages of broken homes by ages and
nationalities, a comparison was made be-
tween the percentage of broken homes
among two series of juvenile delinquents
and comparable series of boys in the
school population."
The groups of juvenile delinquents
selected for this conmparisoninclude a se-
ries of I,675 boys who appeared in the
Juvenile Court of Cook County from
Chicago during the year i9Z9 and a series
of I,596 boys who appeared in the same
courtduringthe year1930.
Since the data presented in the foregoing
pages reveal such wide variations in the
rates of broken homes between different
11 It should be noted that this comparison is not,
strictly speaking, a comparison between delinquent
and non-delinquentboys since there are a certain num-
ber of boys who have been in the juvenile court in the
school population. This number is not large, how-
ever, both because the numberof boys in the juvenile
court in a year is seldom more than one per cent of the
total numberof boys in the city of juvenile court age,
and because some of the delinquent boys have been
removed from the community through commitment
to institutions.
 BROKEN HOMES AND JUVENILE DELINQUENCY 52.1

nationalities and racial groups, and be- broken homes for the same age in each
tween the different ages, it is evident that nationality in the school population.
the control group used in this comparison When these calculations were complete,
must be identical with the delinquent it was found that while the percentage of
group as regards both nationality and age brokenhomesin the i9Z9 delinquentgroup
composition. This comparability must was 4Z.5, the expected percentage of
apply not only to age and nationality broken homes in a group of the same
in general, but to the age distribution of age and nationality constituency in the
each national group. school population was 36.I. For conven-
Therefore, the control groups used for ience in making comparisons this rela-
comparison with the delinquents will not tionship may be expressed as a ratio:
be the 7,z78 boys from whom data were -- -= I. I8.
secured in this study, but rather groups 36.I
theoretically identical as regards ages Similarly it was found that the percent-
and nationalities with the delinquent age of broken homes among the juvenile
groupsfor i9Z9 and 1930. The rate of delinquents in the Cook County Juvenilc
broken homes assumedfor each age in each Courtduring 1930 was 4Z.3, and the per-
nationality in this control group will, centage of broken homes in a group of
however, be the rates calculated for each school boys comparable as regards age and
age in each nationality in the entire group nationality was 36.4. Expressed as a
of 7,z78 boys.
ratio we find: 43 = I.I6.
Since it was found that rates of broken 36.4
homes did not vary consistently with It is significant to observe that the per-
rates of delinquents, in the several areas centages of broken homes in the delinquent
in which the Z9 schools were located, it groups, the percentage of broken homes in
was not deemed necessary to make correc- the control group, and the ratios are
tions for areas in order to insure compar- almost identical for the two separate
ability between the delinquent and control years. While the percentages of broken
groups. However, it is probable that the homes are similar to those observed in
delinquent and control groups will be other studies, it is surprising that the
quite comparable in this regard both percentages of broken homes among the
because the 7,z78 boys interviewed in the school boys are so high. These percent-
schools and the I,675 delinquents showed ages of broken homes (36.I and 36.4) are
about the same distribution among the higher than the percentages in the entire
areas of low, intermediate, and high rates school group, both because the average
of delinquents; and because in making cor- age of the delinquents is higher than for
rections for nationalities, corrections for the total school group and because in
areas are made automatically, since most the delinquent group the proportion of
of the national group are quite highly boys in the nationalities with high
localized. percentages of broken homes is greater
The numberof broken homes in the con- than that for the school boys considered
trol group was calculated by multiplying in the preliminary study.
the number of boys in each nationality
in each age by the computed rates12 of actual rather than the computed values had been used
in these calculations. The computed values were
12
The rate of broken lhomesfor the control group as used because by this method the fluctuation due to
a whole would not have been greatly different if the smnallsamples was eliminated.

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522 SOCIAL FORCES

It would be difficult to ascertain area was compared with the nation-ality

whether these differencesbetween the rates composition of the delinquent group some
of broken homes among delinquent and interesting variations were evident. For
school groups are significant factors in example 6.3 per cent of the total numberof
delinquency, or whether they indicate a school boys in the six schools in the area
greater likelihood of a boy from a broken were Mexican, while among the delin-
home being brought to court. Surely the quent boys from this area there were no
latter is a probability. However, even if Mexicans, notwithstanding the fact that,
there is no such selection, the differences excepting the Negroes, the rate of broken
between the percentage36.I and 41.5 in homes among the Mexicans is the highest
i919, and 36.4 and 41.3 in 1930, are not of any nationality group in Chicago.
sufficiently great to indicate that the On the other hand, while 66.9 per cent
broken home as such, is a significant causa- of the school boys interviewed were
tive factor in the cases of delinquent boys Italian, 69.9 per cent of the delinquents
brought before the Cook County Juvenile were so classified. It will be recalled in
Court. this connection, that the Italians, accord-
ing to our study have the next to the
COMPARISON OF THE RATE OF BROKEN
lowest percentage of broken homes in
HOMES AMONG DELINQUENTS AND THE
the city. Thus, in the national group
SCHOOL POPULATION IN A LOCAL AREA
with a low percentage of broken homes
Some further evidence on the question of there was a disproportionately high numn-
the relationship between broken homes ber of delinquents, while in another
and delinquencywas securedin a more con- national group with a rate of broken
trolled comparison of the rates of broken homes almost twice as great there were no
homes among delinquents and among delinquents.
boys in the general population in one The findings in this local situation are,
afea on the near west side in Chicago. In of course, not conclusive. However, they
this area, which is predominantly Italian tend to substantiate the findings of the
in population and characterized by a high larger study, namely that the incidence of
rate of delinquents, all of the boys between broken homes among delinquent boys in
io and 17 years of age who were attending Chicago is not significantly higher than
the six local public schools were included that for a strictly comparable group of
in the study. Of the total I,I67 boys in- boys in the public schools.
terviewed in these six schools, 318, or
SUMMARY
26.4 per cent, were from broken homes.
From this same area 93 boys appearedin In the introduction to this paper three
the juvenile court of Cook County on studies are mentioned in which control
delinquency petitions during the year i9Z9. groups were used in the study of delin-
Of the 93 delinquents, 24, or 15.8 per cent, quency. In each of these the conclusion
were from broken homes. Thus the rate was reached that the percentage of broken
of broken homes among the delinquents homes in delinquent groups was more than
in this area was slightly less than among twice as great as in control groups. Our
the unselected school boys in the general study indicates that the percentage of
population. broken homes in control groups and two
When the nationality composition series of delinquents of the same age and
among the school boys in this square-mile nationality constituency were not signifi-

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 BROKEN HOMES AND JUVENILE DELINQUENCY
cantly different, and that in one local area
the percentage of broken homes among the
unselected school boys was greater than
among the delinquents from the same area.
How can these findings be reconciled?
The explanation seems to lie in the fact
that the control group in the three studies
referred to were not identical with the
delinquent group as regards age and
nationality. Shideler estimated the per-
centage of broken homes in the general
population from the I9IO Federal census.
Obviously in such an estimate the nation-
ality and age factors could not be
controlled.
Slawson, as previously indicated, used
the pupils of three New York City schools
as a control for his study of delinquent
boys in four institutions. In one of these
schools the predominating nationalities
were Italian and Irish; the second, which
included the largest number of pupils, was
predominatingly Jewish; and in the third
the pupils were classified as American.
Probably some of the Americans were
Jewish, and even if they were not, the Jew-
ish group, which in Chicago was found to
have the lowest rate of broken homes, was
the predominating nationality in his con-
trol group, since it comprised at least 43
per cent of the total group.
In contrast only 14.2 per cent of the de-
linquents in the four institutions were
Jewish. It appears therefore, that the
low rate of broken homes in Slawson's
control group, was partially the result of
the preponderanceof Jewish boys and the
absence of groups with higher percentages
of broken homes.
Two other factors mentioned by Slaw-
son may be considered in explaining the
difference between the percentage of
broken homes in the three New York
schools and the delinquents in the four
institutions. One is the fact that the
delinquent boys were older than the
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523
school boys, and the other is the fact that
one institution, especially, tended to re-
cruit boys from disintegrated homes.
The data are not available to interpret
the differencebetween Cyril Burt's findings
and our own. It is important to note,
however, that Burt's study is not strictly
comparable to ours since he was interested
in what he termed "defective family rela-
tionships" which was partially evaluative
and included "only child" as one of its
categories, while our study was limited to
the broken home.
Conceivably, also, the problem of de-
linquency is quite different in the more
stable and homogeneous culture of Lon-
don, from what it is in Chicago, and that
there the broken home may be a more im-
portant causative factor.
A study of the incidence of broken
homes among 7,178 unselected school boys
in 19 different public schools revealed that
there were wide differences between the
percentage of broken homes in the differ-
ent schools, and that these percentages
were quite unrelated to rates of delin-
quents or the geographic location of the
school in the city. Further analysis re-
vealed that these differenceswere due, pri-
marily, to variations in the incidence of
broken homes among different racial and
national groups. Also it was found that
the rate of broken homes among school
boys increased regularly with age. This
increase between the ages io and 17
amounted to 41 per cent for the group as a
whole.
These findings indicate that age and
nationality are variables that must be
taken into consideration in any valid com-
parative study of the incidence of broken
homes among delinquent and non-delin-
quent boys.
A comparison of the percentage of
broken homes in a series of i,675 delin-
quents brought into the juvenile Court
524 SOCIAL FORCES

of Cook County during I929 and the per- boys who present personality problems
centage of broken homes in a compara-
ble series of boys in the school popula-
tion revealed that, while the percentage
of broken homes in the delinquent group
was 42.5, the percentage in the control
group was 36.I. In a similar comparison
for the year 1930 the results were almost
identical.
In one area on the near west side in
Chicago the percentage of broken homes
was found to be higher among the school
boys than among the delinquent boys from
the same area. Similarly it was found
that the incidence of brokeni homes in a
national group is not an index of the rate
of delinquents in that group.
It should be borne in mind that the cases
of delinquents used in this comparison
were largely serious gang offenders. While
no very significant differencewas found be-
tween the rate of broken homes in this
series of delinquents and the control group,
it is entirely possible that there might be
very great differences between a group of
and a group of school boys of the same age
and nationality.
This study was limited to an analysis of
the percentage of boys in the school popu-
lation who came from broken homes,
and a comparison of the rate of broken
homes in a delinquent and a control
group, without regard to the importance
of the broken home in individual cases.
It was found that the difference between
the rates in the delinquent and the control
group furnished a very inadequate basis for
the conclusion that the broken home is an
important factor in delinquency. This
should not be interpreted to mean that
family situations are not important fac-
tors in cases of delinquent boys. If these
situations are important influences in
cases of delinquency among boys, the
foregoing data suggest that we must look
for these influences in the more subtle
aspects of family relationships rather than
in the formal break in the family
organization.

LECTURERS
The following announcement comes from the Institute of International Education, Two
West Forty-fifth Street, New York, regarding two lecturers, Dr. Fritz Rager and Mr.
Alfred W. Flux, whom the Institute is bringing next fall.
DR. FRITZ RAGER, one of the leadersin the labor movement in Austria, and an authority
on unemployment insurance and the problems of re-educating the unemployed who have
been trying to work at unsuitable jobs, will lecture in the United States next fall. He can
give first-hand information about the various social experiments carried on in Europe
during recent years.
MR. ALFRED W. FLUX, Assistant Secretaryof the Statistical Department of the British
Board of Trade, who is at present Chairman of the Committee of Statistical Experts ap-
pointed to carry out the recommendationsof the International Convention of Geneva
(I928) relating to Economic Statistics, will lecture in this country from the middle of
October until the middle of December. He will speak on the present currencyproblems,
both national and international. His subjects include: The Gold Standardand Its Break-
down, the Prospects for Sterling; CurrencyPolicy and Trade Depression; Can the Inter-
national Gold StandardBe Made to Work; and Banking Policy in Relation to Prices and
Exchange. Mr. Flux was a memberof the group of the Royal Institute of International
Affairs in London who recently published "The International Gold Problem."

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