[1] It was commissioned in 1936 by Dr. Richard Cabot, a Boston physician who proposed an experiment to evaluate the effects of early intervention in preventing or reducing rates of juvenile delinquency.
[2][4][5] For the initial and ten year follow up, there was either no difference or a greater rate of negative results as reported by the authors.
[2] 30 years after the initial experiment about 95% of the participants were found by using public records and surveyed by Joan McCord.
[5][6] McCord found that when compared to the control group, men in the treatment group were, to a statistically significant degree Yet the program had no significant impacts on juvenile arrest rates measured by official or unofficial records.
(4) that the helpfulness of the counselors increased expectations of the boys in the treatment group which could not be sustained, resulting in disillusionment after the program was completed.