In considering the frequency of school retardation among delinquents in Minneapolis, it will be noted that the most serious condition is clearly among the girls, 90% of whom are below grade as compared with the index of 35% for the corresponding group of school girls.
One may estimate that the chance of a Minneapolis boy who is retarded in school getting into juvenile court is about 3½ times that of a boy who is up-to-grade. But the chance of a girl who is retarded in school getting into juvenile court is about 17 times as great as that of a girl who is up to grade. This calculation is easily made on the assumption that the indices of Table XIV are typical for a single year, knowing that about 194 in 10,000 school boys in Minneapolis get into the court annually and 21 in 10,000 school girls.
The best measure of the difference in school attainment cannot be shown, however, without considering the amounts instead of the frequency of retardation in the groups compared. We should regard two years retardation as twice as serious as one year and make a corresponding allowance for each additional year of retardation. Thus weighting our results we find in the indices of Table XIV that the boys 8-15 years of age in the Glen Lake Farm School group of delinquents have on the average lost 1.54 of a year through retardation in school attainment compared with the satisfactory standard of 7 in the first grade. The ordinary delinquent boys have lost on the average 1.27 of a year, while the indices for Minneapolis school boys of corresponding ages are—.54 and—.61 of a year respectively. Among the ordinary delinquent girls the average amount of retardation on the same basis is 2.29 years as compared with .64 of a year among the school girls of corresponding age distribution.
The indices for the amount of school retardation are the most significant figures in any of these tables, although they are based on too few numbers to afford more than rough comparisons. It is, however, a fairly reliable estimate to say that retardation in school attainment in Minneapolis is about twice as great among ordinary delinquent boys and among the detention home group while it is three times as great among ordinary delinquent girls as among corresponding groups of elementary school children. If we had been able to credit the groups with those in advance of the expected position for their ages the difference would have been even greater.
B. School Retardations Among Other Groups of Delinquents
In view of the fact that retardation in school offers an important check upon the question of the frequency of mental deficiency among groups, besides stating a different training problem of its own, it is curious that it has not been more systematically studied in connection with delinquency. Few investigations include any reference to the question. Auden ([69]) reports that among 263 committed to Borstal institutions (juvenile reformatories) in England for the year ending March 31, 1909, 71% ([186]) had not reached the fourth standard, corresponding to the fourth school grade. These were delinquents between 16 and 21 years of age. The next year 402 out of 554 (72%) had not reached the fourth grade. Not one person had reached the eighth grade and only 13 the seventh grade. In the Minneapolis detention home group only 23 out of the 103 over ten years of age were below the fourth grade.
Cornell gives the distribution of 236 boys in special disciplinary classes of two Philadelphia schools ([93]). These classes are for truant and difficult boys 8 to 14 years of age inclusive. While they are not technically delinquents the problem is similar and they show even more serious school retardation than the Minneapolis group. Summarizing his results according to the standard which counts ages six or seven as satisfactory in the first grade, and so on, we find 12.3% satisfactory; 12.3% retarded one year; 26.7% retarded two years; 30.1% retarded three years; 15.8% retarded four years; 2.5% retarded 5 years; and 0.4% retarded 6 years. Eighty-eight per cent. are thus behind a satisfactory position in the grades, and 48.8% three or more years behind. This is to be compared with 70 and 16% among ordinary Minneapolis delinquent boys (Table XIII).
Among 647 prostitutes at the Bedford (N. Y.) Reformatory 48% either could not read or write any language or had not finished the primary grades. Seven per cent. had graduated from the grammar grades. Among 610 prostitutes in other reformatories reported in the same work, only 23% had finished the fifth grade. Among 877 street cases from which information was obtained 814 had no more education than ability to read and write, 53 had graduated from the grammar grades or had some special education ([133]). Another report by Weidensall we shall consider in the next chapter.
The attending physician ([60]) of the Morals Court in Chicago inquired “of as many of the defendants as she could, who were charged with being public prostitutes, as to what ages they had left school.” Among 3546 cases which passed before the court in seven months the report covers 494 cases. Of these only 17 had gone beyond the fifth grade in school, only one was a high school graduate ([161]). Among 100 girls at the Ohio Industrial School, 11 to 18 years of age, median age 15 years, 50% were in the third or fourth grade and 54% had failed of promotion three or more times ([55]).
Drucker gives the age-grade distribution of 100 randomly selected minor offenders, 15 to 22 years of age, in the Cook County (Ill.) jail. This shows that 41 of these were below the eighth grade and three or more years retarded at the age they left school. They might well be examined for deficiency. Among 86 who left school at 14 or after, 24 were in the fifth grade or below ([101]). Among 100 consecutive admissions to the Ohio State Girls Industrial Home, Renz reports 25% in the third grade and 25% in the fourth grade, 15% in the fifth grade; 29% failed of promotion 4.5 to 6 years and 25% more failed of promotion 3 years ([47]). Storer reports on the same groups ([55]). Bluemel finds that 100 probationers in the Denver Juvenile Court were retarded in school 2 years on the average as compared with an average school retardation among the school boys of Denver of 1 year ([2]). At the New Jersey State Home for Girls among a group of 163 selected cases 102 had not reached the fifth grade although their average age was 17 ([12]).