superintendent of a desertion bureau, in answer to this question, said
that he emphasized "neighborhood references" more than in the ordinary
case. Social workers have become very wary, of course, of much inquiry
among present neighbors; but where the protection of the woman or the
children is involved it is often necessary to procure the testimony of
people who live nearby or in the same house. A deserted family is
usually so much a center of neighborhood interest or sympathy, or both,
that it is easier than in some other types of cases to secure
information from neighbors, tradesmen, and so on, without augmenting
neighborhood gossip.

Probably the most difficult part of the necessary information to be
secured in desertion cases is an adequate picture of the sex
relationship between man and wife. The part which sex plays in the
causation of desertion has been touched upon in Chapter II.[24] In
getting the information from the people concerned, the case worker needs
no elaborate equipment as a psycho-analyst; but she should know enough
about sex psychology to recognize a pathological problem when she meets
it, and to be able to call on the psycho-analyst or psychiatrist for
specialized service.

The securing of an adequate picture of the sex life of the couple may
have to be delegated, however, to some volunteer whose own sex,
profession, or marital experience makes him or her a suitable person to
secure it.

"The majority of social case workers are unmarried women under
forty, and in this particular respect they frequently find
themselves handicapped by the natural reluctance of the deserter to
discuss his conceptions of the marital relation in such a way as to