Citation

Selling LS, Stein SP. Am. J. Sociol. 1934; 39(5): 674-677.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1934, University of Chicago Press)

DOI

10.1086/216563

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

A vocabulary study of one hundred boys at the St. Charles Corrective School and comparison with a high-school group from an area of low delinquency indicated that the argot for the delinquent boy is somewhat characteristic of his group, and serves to differentiate it from the general population. Since the delinquent boy comes usually from an inadequate cultural background he is handicapped when tested on a measure of intelligence that involves verbal responses.