Psychiatric and Social Characteristics of Bright Delinquents

Abstract

It has been reported that delinquents of superior intelligence differ from those of average and below average intelligence in their psychological, social, criminal and educational characteristics (Burt, 1944; Simmons, 1956 and 1962; Caplan and Powell, 1964; Cowie et al., 1968). Simmons has suggested that bright delinquents are more likely to be emotionally disturbed. He describes the boys at an Approved School for highly intelligent boys as suffering generally from ‘deep emotional disturbance’, and maintains that ‘the emotional disturbances which turn an intelligent child into a delinquent have usually been far more severe than they would have been in a less intelligent, less sensitive one’.