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John Bowlby 44 Juvenile Thieves
A Study in Maternal Deprivation and Juvenile
Delinquency 1946
Aim and Background
 AIMS: In the early 1940s it was recognised that children
could suffer if they were separated from their mother for a
long period of time. However, the extent of such suffering
had not been clearly established; and it was not properly
appreciated that separation from the mother could produce
long-term negative effects.
 Bowlby was a psychoanalyst and psychiatrist, working at the
London Child Guidance Cinic in the 1930s and 1940s.
Disrupted relationships...
 Bowlby had become interested in the effect of children’s
disrupted relationships with their parents when, as a medical
student, he volunteered to work in a residential children’s
home and encountered a range of abnormal behaviour.
 He thought many mental health and behavioural problems
could be attributed directly to early childhood experiences.
Bowlby noted that the median age for appearing in court for theft was 13 years,
suggesting that theft was a childhood condition. In 1938 9/10 crimes were thefts and
half of these were committed by someone under the age of 21.
Juvenile Theft...
 . Over 1/6 thefts were carried out by children.
 In the early 1940s it was recognised that children could
suffer if they were separated from their mother for a long
period of time. However, the extent of such suffering had not
been clearly established; and it was not appreciated that
separation from the mother could produce long-term
negative effects.
 Bowlby set out to investigate this.
From his conversations with mothers, Bowlby found that love for their child might be only
one aspect of their relationship with their child. (“...often an intense though perhaps unadmitted dislike and rejection of him also came to light.”) He aimed to establish a causeand-effect relationship between maternal deprivation and emotional maladjustment,
based on his observations of patients at his child guidance clinic.
Procedure
 PROCEDURE (METHOD): Between 1936 and 1939 an opportunity sample of 88
children was selected from the clinic where Bowlby worked - he literally picked suitable
children from consecutive referrals. Of these, 44 were juvenile thieves and had been
referred to him because of their stealing. The other 44 ‘controls’ had been referred to
him due to emotional problems - though they did not display anti-social behaviour. Half
the children in each group were aged 5-11; the other half 12-16. The 2 groups were
roughly matched for aged and IQ. There were 31 boys and 13 girls in the ‘theft group’
and 34 boys and 10 girls in the control group. Of the ‘theft group’, 24 were referred
by their school, 8 by parents, 3 by the court and 9 by the Probation Service. 15 of the
thieves were under 9 years old and half were under 11; only one under 11 had been
charged. In 22 cases there was chronic and serious stealing, mainly over a long time. In 7
cases the stealing had lasted more than 3 years. 8 of the thieves had been involved in only
a few thefts while 4 had only been involved in one.
Child Guidance Clinic
Arrival at the Clinic....
 On arrival at the clinic, each child had their IQ tested by a
psychologist who also assessed the child’s emotional attitudes
towards the tests. At the same time a social worker interviewed a
parent to record details of the child’s early life. The psychologist
and social worker made separate reports. A psychiatrist (Bowlby)
then conducted an initial interview with the child and
accompanying parent. The 3 professionals then met to compare
notes and read reports from school, courts, etc.
 The psychiatrist conducted a series of further interviews with the
child and/or parent over the next few months to gather more indepth information about the history and psychological
characteristics of the child.
Childhood aggression....
The Thieves....
 The thieves had a wide variety of
experiences. Some had been unstable for
year; some had received a sudden shock eg: bereavement; and some had had an
exceptional moral lapse. Each child from
both groups was eventually classified into
one of 6 categories:-
Affectionless psychopathy.
 Normal - no abnormal symptoms
 Depressed - symptoms of Depression - Bowlby also came up
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with sub-category of ‘Depression’ he called ‘Priggish’ for
over-conscientious children
Circular - alternating symptoms of Depression and overactivity
Hyperthymic - symptoms of over-activity
Affectionless - having no affection for others and no
shame or sense of responsibility
Schizoid - withdrawn and lacking relationship with others
Affectionless psychopathy....
Bowlby’s Results
 RESULTS : One of the ‘Normals’ had been stealing since the age of 14 but
only from his mother who was taking a lot of his earnings. The other boy, an 8year-old had only been stealing pennies.
 5 children suffered with mild Depression, 2 having a very low IQ. Some were
severely depressed, often associated with a specific event.
 Bowlby found that some of the children had experienced “early and prolonged
separation from their mothers”. He diagnosed 32% (14) of the thieves as
‘affectionless psychopaths’, but none of the controls were. Of the thieves
diagnosed with Affectionless Psychopathy, 86% (12) had experienced a
long period of maternal separation before the age of 5 years. (They had spent
most of their early years in residential homes or hospitals and were not often
visited by their families. They had been undemonstrative and unresponsive since
infancy.
Juvenile prison.
Conclusions
* Bowlby concluded that maternal
separation/deprivation in the child’s early life caused
permanent emotional damage. He diagnosed this as a
condition and called it Affectionless Psychopathy.
According to Bowlby, this condition involves a lack of emotional
development, characterised by a lack of concern for others, lack of
guilt and inability to form meaningful and lasting relationships.
Bowlby reasoned that the thieves could steal precisely because they
didn’t care for others.13/23 (56%) level iv persistent thieves were
‘Affectionless’. Affectionless psychopaths could also be very
impulsive. Bowlby claimed that once the attachment bond was
broken, the negative effects could not be reversed or undone.
Mother’s at work....
 He thought that the affectionless character was depressive at
an earlier stage in life and had suffered total loss of mother or
foster mother during infancy and early childhood.
 The implications were that this research could be used to
inform on issues concerning parenting - especially the
potential negative effects of mothers going out to work.