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The problem of the young delinquent is approached by the authors from two points of view, the clinical and the social. Runge presents the clinical side of the question. His investigation is based on a study of the German literature and of a fairly large material of his own, consisting of cases of young delinquents observed in an outpatient clinic. It is more a comparative and statistical than a purely clinical study of the material. The basic principle is that, although environmental influences materially aid in precipitating delinquency, the major cause is constitutional. The constitutional factors consist mostly in abnormal psychic make-up, and investigation brings out the following proportional representation of such abnormal states: the most frequent is psychopathic personality; the next in frequency is feeblemindedness; organic disease (encephalitis, etc.), epilepsy and incipient or abortive psychoses are represented to a much less extent.
Given an abnormal psychic state, delinquency