ABSTRACT
Mental hygienists have always been concerned, on the one hand, that many a youthful violator of the law goes unprosecuted and even undetected until a delinquent pattern becomes deeply ingrained; and on the other, that many a lad receives a juvenile court record for a relatively innocent misdemeanor. Students of juvenile delinquency have long suspected that juvenile court statistics do not reflect adequately the extent of youthful misconduct and that a considerable number of violations and violators never find their way into official court records. Hitherto, research workers have been baffled as to how to get at this pool of hidden delinquency. Truancy and school offenses were a matter of official court complaint only rarely in comparison to the frequency with which these was committed. This suggests that school authorities manifest a considerable degree of tolerance of such juvenile offenses and tend to handle them by their own methods rather than to call upon the help of the court.
