Juvenile Delinquency

Originally published in 1922, Juvenile Delinquency was written while the author was Director of the Ohio Bureau of Juvenile Research. He believed that juvenile delinquency could be prevented and therefore a large part of adult criminality could be eradicated.

Henry Herbert Goddard (1866-1957) was an American psychologist, eugenicist and segregationist. He helped develop the new topic of clinical psychology and in 1911 helped to write the first US law requiring that blind, deaf and intellectually disabled children be provided special education within public school systems. In 1914 he became the first American psychologist to testify in court that subnormal intelligence should limit the criminal responsibility of defendants. He devoted the later part of his career to seeking improvements in education, reforming environmental influences in childhood, and publicizing better child-rearing practices.