This present research of William I. Thomas with his trenchant sociological analysis is a distinct contribution not only to the study of delinquency but to educational and industrial problems. As his conclusions point toward the practice of the most advanced experimental schools and also conform to the theories of certain leading psychiatrists, this triple concurrence of opinion indicates approach to scientific truth. Mr. Thomas’s interpretation of today’s unrest as a “period of individualization following and preceding periods of socialization” emphasizes our present opportunity to reorganize the administration of justice. Let such reorganization be based upon that emergent truth which Dean Pound has called “the most important change of the century,—the transference of the sense of value from property to humanity.” ETHEL S. DUMMER CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE EDITORIAL ANNOUNCEMENT iii FOREWORD. By Mrs. W. F. Dummer v I THE WISHES 1 II THE REGULATION OF THE WISHES 41 III THE INDIVIDUALIZATION OF BEHAVIOR 70 IV THE DEMORALIZATION OF GIRLS 98 V SOCIAL AGENCIES 151 VI THE MEASUREMENT OF SOCIAL INFLUENCE 222 INDEX 259 THE UNADJUSTED GIRL CHAPTER I THE WISHES It is impossible to understand completely any human being or any single act of his behavior, just as it is impossible to understand completely why a particular wild rose bloomed under a particular hedge at a particular moment. A complete understanding in either case would imply an understanding of all cosmic processes, of their interrelations and sequences. But it is not harder to comprehend the behavior of the “unadjusted” or “delinquent” person, say the vagabond or the prostitute, than that of the normally adjusted person, say the business man or the housewife.