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This book is a study of the first five years of the Maximum Benefit Project on delinquency undertaken in 1954 by the Commissioner's Youth Council in the District of Columbia. The book is divided into two parts. In the first part, the authors discuss the background, methods, and findings of this project. In the second part, based on their experience in this project, they advocate a different method which they feel would be superior for the treatment of delinquents.
The major research question that the authors sought to answer was "Could special services in the school (a) identify children likely to become delinquent and (b) reduce the number of such children who actually become delinquent at a later date?" The authors defined a delinquent as "a child known to the police or court for an act legally defined as 'delinquency' by the particular community." Their definition of treatment was "consisting