Between Medicine and Criminology: Richard Cabot and the Making of the Cambridge-Somerville Youth Study [Hardcover]

Drawing on extensive archival materials and published works,Between Medicine and Criminologyis the first book to investigate the history of the making of the Cambridge-Somerville Youth Study, its operation and long-term follow-up, as well as what this history holds for modern criminology. Started in 1935 by Richard Cabot, a renowned physician and professor of clinical medicine and social ethics, the CSYS was a kind of mentoring program for young, underprivileged boys. It represents one of the earliest delinquency prevention programs and criminology's first randomized controlled trial. With the influence of several pioneers in criminology-including Sheldon and Eleanor Glueck, William Healy, and Joan McCord-the CSYS stands as an iconic study in the history of criminology.In 1935, Richard Cabot (1868-1939), a renowned physician and professor of clinical medicine and social ethics at Harvard University, founded the Cambridge-Somerville Youth Study. Appalled by high recidivism rates of reformatories of the day, Cabot wanted to do something to help young, underprivileged boys from engaging in delinquency and embarking on a life of crime. Described as character development through positive role models, with similarities to today's mentoring programs, the prevention intervention enrolled 650 boys (later reduced to 506) from Cambridge and Somerville (Mass.) and operated from 1939-45. Over the next 30 years, three major follow-ups would be undertaken, producing a wealth of knowledge on the development and prevention of offending over the life-course.As the earliest randomized controlled trial in criminology, one of the earliest trials of a social intervention, and the longest running trial in the Western world-with the latest follow-up currently tracing participants well into old age-the CSYS is a famous and consequential study in the annals of criminology. But Cabot was not a criminologist. Instead, he worked at the interface of medicine and the social sciences, bril�