The Jack-Roller and the Life History Method: Notes on the Chicago School’s Clifford Shaw and Howard Becker’s Humanistic Narrative of Young Male and Female Delinquents in Different Ages

Clifford Shaw’s (1930) The Jack-Roller is a landmark study of naturalism, ethnography and crime. It the ‘own story’ Stanley—a young delinquent in Chicago. series ethnographic studies on delinquency sought to humanize deviance opposition pathological understandings delinquency. article looks representation crimes committed punishment received by male female delinquents. argument focuses structural inequalities poverty as cause deviance; result, was not explained sexual promiscuity, although he failed recognize women’s vulnerabilities. second edition introduced Howard Becker (1966, Introduction. Jack-Roller: A boy’s own story, pp. v–xviii) redefined within symbolic interactionist tradition. From 1950s, Shaw disagreed over writing deviant’s story,’ control narrative authorial voice. adds literature narrative, youth