500 Criminal Careers

work by E. and S. Glueck

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June 26, 2026

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500 Criminal Careers is a pioneering work by American criminologists Sheldon and Eleanor Glueck. Published in 1930, the study meticulously documented the lives of former inmates from the Massachusetts Reformatory. The Gluecks, researchers at Harvard Law School, aimed to understand criminal behavior and the effectiveness of correctional treatments. Their research profoundly influenced the field of criminal justice.

The book was part of a larger body of work by the Gluecks that extensively studied criminals, delinquents, and recidivism. Their parallel study, Five Hundred Delinquent Women, and other works like One Thousand Juvenile Delinquents provided a comprehensive scientific literature on the subject at the time. The Gluecks' research also explored factors such as social class, family environment, and physique in relation to criminal behavior.12

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Sheldon Glueck and Eleanor Glueck
…their thoroughly documented findings as 500 Criminal Careers (1930), a pioneering work in the field. Follow-up studies of the same men were published as Later Criminal Careers (1937) and Criminal Careers in Retrospect (1943). The parallel study Five Hundred Delinquent Women (1934), conducted at the Massachusetts Reformatory for Women, together…
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…their thoroughly documented findings as 500 Criminal Careers (1930), a pioneering work in the field. Follow-up studies of the same men were published as Later Criminal Careers (1937) and Criminal Careers in Retrospect (1943). The parallel study Five Hundred Delinquent Women (1934), conducted at the Massachusetts Reformatory for Women, together…
Read More