The Jack-Roller: A Delinquent Boy's Own Story

By Clifford R. Shaw

Book Overview

The Jack-Roller tells the story of Stanley, a pseudonym Clifford Shaw gave to his informant and co-author, Michael Peter Majer. Stanley was sixteen years old when Shaw met him in 1923 and had recently been released from the Illinois State Reformatory at Pontiac, after serving a one-year sentence for burglary and jack-rolling (mugging),

Vivid, authentic, this is the autobiography of a delinquent-his experiences, influences, attitudes, and values. The Jack-Roller helped to establish the life-history or "own story" as an important instrument of sociological research. The book remains as relevant today to the study and treatment of juvenile delinquency and maladjustment as it was when originally published in 1930.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0226751260
• ISBN13: 9780226751269
• Release Date: December 1966
• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Length: 225 Pages
• Weight: 0.58 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.3" x 8.2"

Customer Reviews

A deliquent's own story

The Jack-Roller is one of the most famous studies carried out by the Chicago School of Sociology. It's a personal account by a young deliquent about the reasons for his criminality. The study brings us close to the motivations and the reasoning of a criminal and also paints a striking portrait of life in the inner city and the social inequalities present in the 1930's which are still persist nowdays.

damn good boooyy

this is a story about the real life of a person, seen through the persons own eyes, with his own words