44 Juvenile Thieves Study - Bowlby (1944)

 To determine if there's a correlation between maternal deprivation in infancy and adolescent delinquancy.

Bowlby studied a group of 44 juvenile thieves who atended a child guidance clinic, and compared them with a conrol group of 44 adolescents who "although emotionally disturbed, did not steal".

14 of the 44 thieves were classified as "affectionless" as they showed no shame in their actions, compared with none in the control group. 17 of the thieves had been seperated from their mother for 6+ months before 5, compared with 2 in control group.

There is a correlation between maternal deprivation in infancy and criminal behaviour in adolescence.

Indicates a link between maternal deprivation and adolescent delinquancy, so this suggests a field of extra study

No considerations of other explanations of the criminal behaviour

Unreliable, as it relies on recollection