A. At the Glen Lake Farm School for Boys, Hennepin County, Minnesota.

We are now in a position to evaluate the Binet examinations of delinquents. Let us first note our results for a group of 123 consecutive cases at the Hennepin County Detention Home.[[14]] It is not a detention home in the sense of a place where children are held awaiting the disposition of their cases by the Juvenile Court. It is better described by its unofficial title, The Glen Lake Farm School for Boys. This county training school for delinquents is located on a splendid farm beside a small lake fourteen miles outside of Minneapolis. The boys are sent there by the juvenile court for a few months' training as an intermediate discipline between probation and sentence to the State School at Redwing.

The character of this group of 123 randomly selected delinquents is further indicated by the fact that 69 of them had already been brought into court two or more times, 54 were first offenders. Boys are sent to Glen Lake whenever the nature of their delinquency or the conditions at home, together with the personality of the boy, seem to the court to require this special training. A summary of the offenses for which the boys were brought into court does not, therefore, show the character of the boy as it is known to the court through the evidence and the efficient service of the probation officers. It shows, however, that the last offenses for which this group were being disciplined were as follows: Petit larceny 29, truancy 25, incorrigibility 25, burglary 9, grand larceny 6, disorderly conduct 4, malicious destruction of property 4, trespass 3, sweeping grain cars 3, breaking and entering 3, indecent conduct 2, miscellaneous offenses one each 8, total 123. Perhaps a more important indication of the character of the offenders in this group is that they represent about a quarter of the cases brought before the juvenile court during the period of this study, a little over a year. With the exception of a very few cases sent directly to the State Industrial School they may thus be regarded as typically the worst quarter of the delinquent boys under 17 years of age in Minneapolis.

The majority of boys were tested by myself after several year's experience with the clinic in mental development at the University of Minnesota and after examining many other delinquents. Some were tested by assistants from the university clinic, Mrs. Marie C. Nehls and Mr. Harold D. Kitson, who had been specially trained for this. Their detailed reports were carefully gone over and evaluated. The Binet 1908 series ([136]) was used, except that for tests above XII either tests XIII were used, or later these were supplemented by two other tests, which have been placed in the age XV group or adult groups, in the revisions of the Binet scale published by Goddard ([110]) or Kuhlmann ([135]). This variation was of small importance since a boy was regarded as of passable intellect if he scored X.8. We always gave the three tests of the XIII group and the boy was credited with age XIII if he passed two out of the original XIII year tests or four out of five tests given above XII. In accordance with our conservative position the rule of this 1908 scale for scoring was followed and the boy credited with the highest age for which he passed all but one test, plus one year for each five higher tests passed. This is the basis of the 1908 form of the scale as standardized by Goddard. Appendix II gives the detailed results for each boy with exact life-age and tenths of test-age on the scale, basal test-age with the tests, grade in school at the first of September when he was of this life-age and offense for which he was being disciplined. It also indicates which boys were repeaters. The results of this table are summarized in Tables VIII and IX. The life-ages at the last birthday are used rather than the nearest ages, since this accords with Goddard's standardization and with the common use of the term “age.” Moreover it seems to conform to the best practise and to be less likely to lead to mistakes. Table IX also shows the school position of each boy. Since a number of the older boys had left school, in order to tabulate their school positions in reference to their life-ages it was necessary to assume that they would have continued to progress normally from the position they held when they left. The Minnesota law requires attendance at school until sixteen years of age unless before that the child graduates from the eighth grade. In this group most of those sixteen years of age and a goodly number of those fifteen years old had left school, so that their school position had to be advanced a year in the table; a very few of the 16-year-olds had to be advanced two years in the table. In all cases the school position is given relative to the first of September when the boy was of the life-age given. Either ages six or seven are taken as satisfactory for the first grade, ages seven or eight for the second grade, and so on with the other grades.

TABLE VIII.

Test-Ages of the Glen Lake Group of Delinquent Boys

Life-Ages at Last Birthday
Test-Ages678910111213141516Totals
VII 1 1
VIII1 1 1 3
IX 421 1 18
X 1221523117
XI 12869613348
XII 125467327
XIII 148518
Total11068131221183013123

TABLE IX.

Intellectual Development Relative to Life-Ages and School Position Among Consecutive Delinquents at the Glen Lake Farm School for Boys of Hennepin County, Minn.

Life-Ages
School Position GradesNo.67910111213141516
+1 XI
+S17VIIIVIII XIIXIXIIIXIII
IX-3 XIXIIXIXII
X XII-2XII
-S21 XXI-3 XIII-2XIXIII
IX XIX
X XII-2
XII XIII
XIVII XI
-128 XIXI-3XIXI-3XIIXIXIII-2
IX-1VIII
XXXIIXIIXI-2XIII-4XI
IX XII
-226 IXXII-2XII(X)XIII-3XIII-2
XIXI-2X-2XIIIXII-2XII
XXI XI-5
-319 XI(IX)XII-2(X)XI-2
XI-3XI-2XI-XII
X XII
-47 VIIIXI(X)XII
X XI
XII
-54 (X)(X)(IX)
(X)
Totals1231168131221183013