A cross cultural study of delinquency among West Indian boys

Social and psychiatric findings among boys at an approved school in Jamaica are described. Parental deviance and other evidence of family disorganization are less prevalent than elsewhere. A third of the boys are admitted for personal aggression and give a history of a previous offence. These factors are associated with a benign non-psychiatric (50 per cent) or malignant psychopathic (20 per cent) personality disorder and characterised by pre-morbid data of head injury, conduct disorder and intellectual deficit. Psychoneurosis (30 per cent) is associated with late separation experiences. It is of interest that paternal deprivation and other factors are similarly distributed among personality disordered and neurotic delinquents in Jamaica. Socio-cultural aspects of delinquency are discussed.