Eleanor Touroff Glueck (April 12, 1898 – September 25, 1972) was an American
social worker
Social work is an academic discipline and practice-based profession concerned with meeting the basic needs of individuals, families, groups, communities, and society as a whole to enhance their individual and collective well-being. Social wo ...
and
criminologist
Criminology (from Latin , 'accusation', and Ancient Greek , ''-logia'', from λόγος ''logos'', 'word, reason') is the interdisciplinary study of crime and deviant behaviour. Criminology is a multidisciplinary field in both the behaviou ...
. She and her husband
Sheldon Glueck
Sheldon Glueck (August 15, 1896 – March 10, 1980) was a Polish-American criminologist.Staff report (March 13, 1980)Sheldon Glueck of Harvard Dies; Studied the Roots of Delinquency.''New York Times'' He and his wife Eleanor Glueck collaborated ...
collaborated extensively on research related to
juvenile delinquency
Juvenile delinquency, also known as juvenile offending, is the act of participating in unlawful behavior younger than the statutory age of majority. These acts would be considered crimes if the individuals committing them were older. The term ...
and developed the "social prediction tables" model for ascertaining the likelihood of delinquent behavior in youth. They were the first criminologists to perform studies of chronic
juvenile offenders and among the first to examine the effects of
psychopathy
Psychopathy, or psychopathic personality, is a personality construct characterized by impaired empathy and remorse, along with bold, disinhibited, and egocentric traits. These traits are often masked by superficial charm and immunity ...
among the more serious delinquents.
[Staff report (September 26, 1972)]
Eleanor Glueck, expert on crime; Writer on delinquency with her husband dead at 74.
''The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
''
Life and career
Glueck was born Leonia Touroff in
Brooklyn, New York
Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...
, the only daughter of Russian immigrant Bernard Leo and Polish immigrant Anna Wodzislawska, although she had two brothers. Upon graduating from
Hunter College High School
Hunter College High School is a public academic magnet secondary school located in the Carnegie Hill section of the Upper East Side of Manhattan. It is administered and funded by Hunter College of the City University of New York (CUNY) and no t ...
in 1916, she majored in English at
Barnard College
Barnard College is a Private college, private Women's colleges in the United States, women's Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college affiliated with Columbia University in New York City. It was founded in 1889 by a grou ...
and was awarded a B.A in 1920. She then entered the
New York School of Social Work
The Columbia School of Social Work is the graduate school of social work of Columbia University in New York City. It is one of the oldest social work programs in the US, with roots extending back to 1898. It began awarding a Master of Science d ...
, where she met the psychologist
Bernard Glueck, Sr., who was a
forensic psychiatrist
Forensic psychiatry is a subspecialty of psychiatry and is related to criminology. It encompasses the interface between law and psychiatry. According to the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, it is defined as "a subspecialty of psychiatr ...
at
Sing Sing Prison
Sing Sing Correctional Facility is a maximum-security prison for men operated by the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision in the village of Ossining, New York, United States. It is about north of Midtown Manhattan ...
[ specializing in social work and criminology. She also met Bernard's brother ]Sheldon Glueck
Sheldon Glueck (August 15, 1896 – March 10, 1980) was a Polish-American criminologist.Staff report (March 13, 1980)Sheldon Glueck of Harvard Dies; Studied the Roots of Delinquency.''New York Times'' He and his wife Eleanor Glueck collaborated ...
, who helped her become head social worker at the Dorchester Community Center of Boston from 1921 to 1922. She married Sheldon Glueck on April 16, 1922.[
In 1922, Glueck began her graduate school studies at the ]Harvard Graduate School of Education
The Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE) is the education school of Harvard University, a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1920, it was the first school to grant the EdD degree and the first ...
. She was awarded a M.Ed. in 1923 and an Ed.D. in 1925 with a thesis on ''The Community Use of Schools''. Their only child, Anitra Joyce (1924–1956) was a poet.[ Glueck worked at the ]Harvard Law School
Harvard Law School (HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, Harvard Law School is the oldest law school in continuous operation in the United ...
as a research assistant
A research assistant (RA) is a researcher employed, often on a temporary contract, by a university, research institute, or privately held organization to provide assistance in academic or private research endeavors. Research assistants work under ...
from 1928 until 1953, while her husband was a professor there.[
Eleanor and Sheldon Glueck embarked upon an internationally recognized partnership in criminology that would last the remainder of their lives. They would collaborate on more than 250 publications, beginning with ''Five Hundred Criminal Careers'' (1930), followed by ''Five Hundred Delinquent Women'' (1934) and ''One Thousand Juvenile Delinquents'' (1934). For the juvenile delinquents, they made attempts to predict criminality using ]statistics
Statistics (from German language, German: ', "description of a State (polity), state, a country") is the discipline that concerns the collection, organization, analysis, interpretation, and presentation of data. In applying statistics to a s ...
, followed by the likelihood of their rehabilitation upon release.[ They were the first criminologists to perform studies of chronic juvenile offenders and among the first to examine the effects of ]psychopathy
Psychopathy, or psychopathic personality, is a personality construct characterized by impaired empathy and remorse, along with bold, disinhibited, and egocentric traits. These traits are often masked by superficial charm and immunity ...
among the more serious delinquents. Their studies showed that psychopathy was 20 times more common among juvenile delinquents.[
In 1940, they began a ten-year ]longitudinal study
A longitudinal study (or longitudinal survey, or panel study) is a research design that involves repeated observations of the same variables (e.g., people) over long periods of time (i.e., uses longitudinal data). It is often a type of observationa ...
that was published as ''Unraveling Juvenile Delinquency'' (1950). This resulted in the Gluecks' "Social Prediction Tables" that gave predictions of the likelihood of juvenile delinquency based upon parameters from when the youths were six years old. In 1953, she became a research associate at a Harvard Law School Research Project that was investigating the causes, treatment and prevention of juvenile delinquency.
In 1947, the United Prison Association of Massachusetts awarded her its Parsons Memorial Award.[ Although Glueck never received a tenured appointment with the faculty,][ both Eleanor and Sheldon Glueck were awarded honorary Sc.D. from Harvard in 1958. She was elected a Fellow of the ]American Academy of Arts and Sciences
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and other ...
in 1960. In 1969, Glueck was awarded a Distinguished Alumni Award from Barnard College. She was a trustee at the Judge Baker Guidance Center.[ She became a fellow with the International Society of Criminologists and the ]American Association for the Advancement of Science
The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is a United States–based international nonprofit with the stated mission of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific responsib ...
.[ The couple retired during the 1960s. Glueck accidentally drowned in a bathtub at her home in ]Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. It is a suburb in the Greater Boston metropolitan area, located directly across the Charles River from Boston. The city's population as of the 2020 United States census, ...
, at the age of 74.[Staff report (September 26, 1972)]
Dr. Eleanor Glueck, 74, Harvard criminologist.
''The Boston Globe
''The Boston Globe,'' also known locally as ''the Globe'', is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes. ''The Boston Globe'' is the oldest and largest daily new ...
''
References
Further reading
*
* Laub, John H., et al. (1992). Pioneers in criminology and criminal justice: Sheldon and Eleanor Touroff Glueck: a retrospective exhibition honoring Professor Sheldon Glueck and Dr. Eleanor Touroff Glueck for their remarkable achievements: on view in the Harvard Law School Library, April 10, 1992 – June 8, 1992: exhibition and catalog. ambridge, Mass.: President and Fellows of Harvard College. HOLLIS catalog record
990025248170203941
*
External links
*
Finding aid for Eleanor T. and Sheldon Glueck Papers, 1911-1972
Harvard Law School Library
Sheldon and Eleanor Glueck
featured in online exhibit
Collections , Connections: Stories from the Harvard Law School Library
{{DEFAULTSORT:Glueck, Eleanor
1898 births
1972 deaths
American criminologists
American women criminologists
American social workers
People from Brooklyn
Barnard College alumni
Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Hunter College High School alumni
Harvard Graduate School of Education alumni
Columbia University School of Social Work alumni