When the study of delinquent groups stood still: In defense of a classical tradition

This essay focuses on reductionism, the study of delinquent groups, and citation analysis. It describes Frederick Thrasher’s epistemological break with reductionists like Sigmund Freud and William Healy. It shows how Freudian, neoFreudian, and social-control theorists attributed ‘the group factor’ in delinquency to pathological traits, early childhood disorders, frustrated desires for mobility, or social disabilities of group members. From 1950 to 1970, the mobilization of bias accompanying these regressive developments nullified a classical sociological view of delinquent groups by transforming a fruitful legacy of non-reductionist theory and research into ‘non events’. When criminologists employ citation indices to legitimate such degenerative developments, they rely on spurious subjective criteria for gauging scientific contributions to knowledge.