The Artificial Delinquent Generation
G. N. G. Rose · The Journal of Criminal Law Criminology and Police Science · 1968
University of Cambridge in 1963. He has published several papers on criminal statistics. As the result of several previous studies of trends in criminal statistics, the existence of Delin-quent Generations has been hypothesised in at least four countries. This paper questions the validity of the statistical techniques which have been used in these previous studies, and concludes that there is at present no evidence of Delinquent Generations. In 1960 much interest was aroused by the report Delinquent Generations in which Leslie T. Wilkins produced statistical evidence showing that British persons who had passed through their fourth or fifth year of life during some part of the Second World War were more likely than others to be convicted of a criminal offense. These persons were the British "delinquent generation". Later Walters (1963) made it clear that the statis-tics on which the analysis had been based were