This form of association is the typical one for
boys of twelve. After this age their interests are gradually
transferred to less loosely organized athletic clubs. Sheldon's
statistics are as follows:
Age 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 Total
No. of
predatory 4 5 3 0 7 1 1 3 1 0 25 = Girls
societies 4 2 17 31 18 22 (11) 7 1 0 111 = Boys
Innocent though these predatory habits may be in small boys, if they
are not naturally and normally reduced at the beginning of the teens
and their energy worked off into athletic societies, they become
dangerous. "The robber knight, the pirate chief, and the marauder
become the real models." The stealing clubs gather edibles and even
useless things, the loss of which causes mischief, into some den,
cellar, or camp in the woods, where the plunder of their raids is
collected. An organized gang of boy pilferers for the purpose of
entering stores had a cache, where the stolen goods were brought
together. Some of these bands have specialized on electric bells and
connections, or golf sticks and balls. Jacob Riis says that on the
East Side of New York, every corner has its gang with a program of
defiance of law and order, where the young tough who is a coward alone
becomes dangerous when he hunts with the pack.
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