Citation

Taft DR. Am. J. Sociol. 1933; 38(5): 699-712.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1933, University of Chicago Press)

DOI

10.1086/216221

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The concentration of delinquency in certain areas in large cities has been established, but not yet completely explained. It may be the result of conditions found in such areas or of selective forces, or of both. The study of selection has been neglected. Mr. Clifford Shaw's tests of the selection of nationalities for residence in such areas seem inconclusive. A survey of crime in the city of Danville, Illinois, offered opportunity to test indirectly selective processes. It shows that over two-fifths of adult felons resident in Danville and committed during three years to prison or reformatory had a criminal record before coming to the city and that probably over half of them cannot be called "Danville products" or products of its delinquency areas. Racial and economic isolation in delinquency areas, the concentration of crime in rooming-house areas, the transient residence of delinquent as compared with non-delinquent families in delinquency areas, the existence of conflicting group patterns of behavior within the areas, and data from case histories seem partially to confirm this finding. The conclusion, though confined to this one study, is that areas of delinquency not only produce delinquency but act as selective forces attracting delinquents and pre-delinquents. Therefore criminological surveys should study this factor of selection and enlist the service of psychologists and psychiatrists as well as sociologists.