Stanwyck's character in this film reminded me of a classic sociological theory I read in college, based on a book called "Delinquency and Drift" by David Matza. It shows that delinquent thinking and behavior really do tend to stem from not only a child's circumstances (e.g., the cold and unforgiving mother) but also the way that society and the legal system deal with delinquency, actually making it easier for a youth to become a delinquent.

I'll never forget seeing TV coverage of the late senator Robert Kennedy as he was touring a ghetto neighborhood with a bunch of reporters tagging along in the late 1960s. One reporter asked Kennedy how he thinks he might have turned out if it weren't for his family and their wealth, and the education it afforded him. Without hesitating, Kennedy said, "I probably would have been a juvenile delinquent."

Anyone interested in this concept should read Matza's classic book. Here's the blurb from Amazon:

"The first C. Wright Mills Award-winning book, Delinquency and Drift has become a recognized classic in the fields of criminology and social problems. In it, Matza argues persuasively that delinquent thought and delinquent action are distorted reflections of the ideas and practices that pervade contemporary juvenile law and its administration. His ideas are as persuasive today as when they were first published [in 1964].

By example and illustration, Matza argues that the delinquent subculture is based on many of the same standards as the conventional social order, and that the delinquent's negation of the law is the result of his relations with an inconsistent and vulnerable legal code. Once the juvenile breaks his or her ties to the legal order, the drift to delinquency becomes relatively easy to justify.

The author also maintains that being liberated from legal constraint does not necessarily lead to delinquency; that event depends on the will to commit crime. Because delinquency remains one of our most serious social problems, it is important to consider Matza's thesis that the drift toward delinquency is frequently aided by the unwitting support of society and the guardians of social order."