Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 5.djvu/213

 MORAL I NFL UENCE OF PUBERAL DE VEL 0PM ENT 1 99

of them have already been before the criminal courts; tnerefore their conduct, if not their character, bears the impress, not only of their age, but of the conditions of life in which they were before entering the institution. This state of things must naturally bring with it an inevitable cause of perturbation, in so far as the disciplinary influence of the life of the establishment could not count for all, in equal manner, as moderator of the tendencies characteristic of the various ages of the different children. The younger the child was when he entered the establishment, the more benefit he must have received from it in the regulation of his conduct. An examination of the conduct of the children in the institution gives the following result :

CONDUCT OF THE CHILDREN OF THE CASA BENEFICA, CLASSIFIED ACCORDING TO AGES.

Age (years).

Good.

Medium.

Bad

10

50

per cent.

20

per

cent.

30 per

cent

II

66

25

8

12

6i

•7

20

13

6o

32

7

u

70

14

14

15

65

30

4

i6

66

13

20

17

50

28

21

i8 & 19

70

20

10

Now, in this table, examining the good-conduct column, we see that it presents two minimums, one in the youngest age, the other about the relative maturity of the young men, that is, about the age of seventeen. We also observe that the same col- umn shows two maximums, of which one corresponds to the age of fourteen, the other to the age of eighteen, which is usually the last passed in the home by the young men. In the bad-con- duct column we find the maximum in the youngest age, and this could not be otherwise, as the children of that age cannot yet have received a disciplinary benefit from their stay in the home, which they have just entered. They also preserve still intact the germs of their naturally bad dispositions, which not only have had no correction from education, but have received in