Women's Reformatory Study, 1921-1925

The study aimed to look at the childhood, adolescence, and adulthood backgrounds of offenders in terms of their physical, psychological, and social characteristics, and to determine the effect of the Reformatory experience on subsequent post-Reformatory adjustments in work and family, and on the incidence of crime desistance.

Five hundred women were studied in order to assess the overall effectiveness of correctional treatment. Information concerning the personal, family, reformatory, and parole history of these women was gleaned from reformatory and parole records, and interviews with the subjects as well as their relatives, acquaintances, and employers. The data gathered consisted of information covering the time up to the end of the parole period and information covering the five year period after the expiration of the reformatory sentence.