Deviant children grown up

A summary of Deviant Children Grown Up -- A Sociological and Psychiatric Study of Sociopathic Personality (1966), a 30-year follow-up of 536 youth referred to juvenile court in the 1920s & a control group of 100 public school children. The follow-up study of some 90% of the original sample provided information on rates of different psychiatric illnesses & statistically significant childhood predictors. Without access to records, the results would not have reached statistical significance & would have had little meaning. Subsequent rules against invasion of privacy would make such a follow-up study impossible today, because access to records is restricted. It is argued that access to records should be given to researchers if data are separated from personal identifiers & the government offers legal protection of research data from subpoena. 4 Tables. M. Pflum