Juvenile Delinquents—A Sociological Perspective: A Study of Social Factors of Juvenile Delinquents as Seen in the American Sociological Review, the Catholic Sociological Review, Years 1950 – 1961 and Related Literature

Background and Timeliness of the Study. In recent years, there has arisen a greater mutual respect between psychiatrists and sociologists. Each science has something to offer and this mutual sharing has widened the vision of the particular sciences thus destroying myopic claims to truth. For example, Karen Horney and Erich Fromm both outstanding psychoanalysts place more emphasis on culture in relation to human behavior, and the work of Harry Stack Sullivan in this direction needs little amplification. I use the phrase more emphasis because if one general criticism can be laid to classical psychoanalysis, it is that it viewed culture as essentially negative. The role of culture was to suppress, to inhibit, and to forbid. Hence, the environment was not understood, logically speaking, as playing a creative role in the I development and experience of the person . However, recent research shows that culture plays a major role in the way, the when, the where and the how a person acts. It defines what is normal and what is abnormal