author
James Burt Miner
1873–1943
A pioneering American psychologist, he is best remembered for writing Deficiency and Delinquency, an early study linking mental testing with juvenile delinquency and social reform. His work reflects a moment when psychology was becoming a practical tool for schools, courts, and public policy.
1 Audiobook
Deficiency and Delinquency: An Interpretation of Mental Testing
by James Burt Miner
About the author
Born in 1873 and active in the early decades of the twentieth century, James Burt Miner was an American psychologist associated with the University of Minnesota. He wrote during a period when psychology was expanding beyond the classroom and laboratory into everyday public life.
Miner is best known for Deficiency and Delinquency, published in 1918, which explored mental testing, juvenile delinquency, and the treatment of people then described in the language of that era as mentally deficient. Today, some of the terminology in his work feels dated and uncomfortable, but the book remains a revealing document of how psychologists and reformers of his time tried to understand crime, education, and social welfare.
He died in 1943. For modern readers, Miner’s writing offers both a window into the history of psychology and a chance to see how scientific ideas were once applied to real social problems, for better and for worse.