1910's Lifestyles and Social Trends | The Individual Delinquent

Nonfiction work

By: William Healy

Date: 1918

Source: Healy, M.D, William. in The Individual Delinquent: A Text-Book of Diagnosis and Prognosis For All Concerned in Understanding Offenders. Boston: Little, Brown, and Company, 1918, 308–310.

About the Author: William Healy, M.D., born in 1869, was a recognized authority on adolescent criminal psychology.

Introduction

The Progressive era exhibited an obsession with what could be characterized as "social engineering." Eschewing America's longstanding libertarian tradition and its reliance on voluntary self-improvement and moral persuasion to produce changes in individual behavior, the period circa 1910 saw an increased emphasis on the use of state police power to alter individual behavior. The problem of handling what appeared to be an epidemic of juvenile delinquency fits this pattern perfectly.

In...