potentiality the mature pattern of social behaviour depends upon the pattern of behaviour established in early family relationships. Normal behaviour presupposes that the child in the home should have met firstly with stable and secure affection. This is a biological need without which he cannot develop normally. In its absence, relative or, rarely, complete, he will be liable to a wide variety...

A chapter on the mental growth of the child, precedes an attempt to correlate aetiological factors with the stages of child development and so to reveal the psychological basis determining the origins of susceptibility to delinquency. Here the general views of Aichhorn. Healy and Bronner, Kate Friedlander, Bowlby, Stott, Glucks and Bovet are briefly represented and examined. Most of the book co...