The  problem  of  the  delinquent  child  from  the  comfortable
home  is,  then,  so  far  as  the  court  is  concerned,  a  comparatively
small  one  and  almost  exclusively  a  problem  of  the  boy.  Some  of

*  See  Chapter  IV,  p.  72.
1  1 60


THE   CHILD    FROM   THE   COMFORTABLE    HOME

the  families  in  this  group,  however,  although  they  may  be  in  good
circumstances  when  the  child  is  brought  to  court,  were  at  one  time
very  poor,  and  the  child's  delinquency  may,  of  course,  be  related  to
an  earlier  condition  of  poverty.  In  some  of  the  cases,  for  example,
a  widowed  mother  has  remarried,  and  the  stepfather  is  well-to-do
and  good  to  the  children,  but  they  may  have  been  much  neglected
owing  to  the  mother's  effort  to  support  the  family  during  her
widowhood.  Moreover,  in  some  of  the  homes  in  which  the  pe-
cuniary circumstances  are  satisfactory,  there  are  cases  of  degrada-
tion, incompetence,  or  orphanage,  which  place  that  particular
family  in  one  of  the  groups  already  discussed.  When  all  deduc-
tions are  made,  however,  there  still  remain  a  few  children,  almost
entirely  boys,  who  come  from  good  homes  and  have  good  parents,
and  whose  delinquency  does  not  seem  to  be  in  any  way  attribut-
able to  neglect.
