Inscribed by the Author to His Sister
SHAW, Clifford R.
The jack-roller. A delinquent boy’s own story. [Behavioral Research Fund Monographs]. Chicago, University Press, 1930.
8vo, pp. 15, [1 blank], 205, [1 blank]; folding map, torn but all present; a few slight smudges and stains, one page with large tear affecting text, otherwise a fine copy in original blue cloth, gilt, corners rubbed; authorial presentation inscription to Shaw’s sister: ‘To Gertrude, with my best regards, Clifford’; marginal annotation in pencil.
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The jack-roller. A delinquent boy’s own story. [Behavioral Research Fund Monographs].
First edition. A typical study of the school, charting the life and downfall of a single semifictional delinquent, called “Stanley”, as he joins a gang in the criminal underworld of Chicago. A ‘jack-roller’ was a criminal who hung around on street-corners to rob passing drunks. Shaw propounded the social disorganisation theory developed by the Chicago School, first by Thomas and Znaniecki in The Polish peasant (1918-1920), that delinquency was a product of one’s ecological surroundings.