PHYSIOLOGY AND CRIME
In this chapter I want to show that crime generally does not proceed
from sheer wickedness, or the desire to be criminal. I am anxious to
burn this into the brain and conscience of the nation. I would like our
authorities to accept it as an axiom! For then they would seek as far
as possible to understand our criminals, and getting knowledge of them,
they would deal differently with them. And dealing differently with
them would bring blessed results, for many of our prisons would become
useless; they would be untenanted!
I maintain that the most serious causes of crime are physiological, not
psychological. And though in all probability we shall remain impotent
with regard to psychological causes, there is not the slightest reason
why we should not learn a great deal more about, and do a great deal
to cure or prevent, the physiological causes of crime. Perhaps if I
were a scientist I would say pathological causes, but I use the word
“physiological” to denote all bodily conditions other than brain
disease. This, too, is of course physical, though we term it mental,
for the brain is matter as truly as it is mind. I am ashamed to
confess that I do not know where the physical ends and the mental
begins, neither can I tell at what point the pathological ends and the
psychological begins, for psychology is but extended physiology.
The body acts upon the mind, and the mind upon the body in so many,
and in such mysterious ways, that I cannot differentiate between them.
But of one thing I am quite certain, and it is this: that the best way
to learn something of a criminal’s mind is to ascertain everything
possible with regard to his body.
In prison this can easily be done, for in prison there is an abundance
of time, ample opportunity, and a sufficiency of means for this
interesting study. In one Continental prison this is done. There
the doctor, not the governor, is the most important personage. From
him I sometimes get very instructive communications. The author of
the “manual” quoted tells us “that it is his aim to present such a
psychology as will deal with all states of mind that might possibly be
involved in the determination and judgment of crime.” This is a large
order, for he promises an impossibility. I marvel at his temerity,
I am then struck by his audacity. But on consulting his index and
searching his five hundred pages I admire his prudence, for he never
attempts to keep his promise. I find no reference to the influence that
physical disease, affliction or deprivation exercises upon the mind.
Of epileptics he has nothing to say. He ignores afflictions! Of the
blind, the deaf and dumb he is apparently unaware; the cripple, the
hunchback, the maimed, the one-armed, the one-legged, the sufferers
from sunstroke, and the vast army whose lives have been spoiled through
physical accidents—of their psychology we are told nothing.
Yet every one knows, or might know, that their psychological condition
is absolutely dominated by their physical condition. In each of them
physical nature has been outraged, it has been assaulted; and Nature,
knowing no pity, hits back again with a vengeance.
We know, or we might if we cared to know, that these unfortunates,
having suffered loss, must receive compensation of some kind, and if
that compensation be not of a comforting and inspiring character,
including training, education, control and new favourable developments,
they become potential criminals. Their wits become sharpened to
deceive, their tempers violent, explosive and dangerous. Some one has
said, “I am my body.” While this may not be wholly true, there is still
a world of truth in the statement. So I again suggest that before we
try to grope in the dark recesses of the mind, we set to work to learn
more of the body, for that is an open book.
Believe me, it is given to very few to bear about with them a deformed,
mutilated or afflicted body without their minds becoming changed also.
Verily, the writers of our old fairy tales and our early novelists
were not very far wrong. Have any of my readers ever walked through
Parkhurst prison? It is a sort of convalescent home for criminals—a
sanatorium, if you will, in the Isle of Wight.
If you have not, then come with me in imagination! Never mind the
building, take no heed of the officials, let us concentrate our
attention on the prisoners, the criminals, for they are all undergoing
penal servitude.
You gasp! and well you may. You never saw such a strange, pitiful mass
of smitten humanity! Well! that is something to be thankful for.
“Do you want any specialist in psychology to reveal the working of
their queer minds?” “No,” you say, “their poor bodies reveal their
minds.” “But they are convicts.” “Oh, no,” you say, “surely they are
patients.”
And patients they ought to be; but convicts the law declares them, and
convicts they will remain till their smitten bodies and poor minds part
company.
I declare that this criminal psychology business makes me hot! It is
criminal physiology we should be after, not psychology.
But let us go back to Parkhurst, and talk the matter over.
In Parkhurst there is a daily average of over 750 convicts, of whom
nearly one-fourth are under hospital treatment.
The death-rate is high in spite of great medical care and healthy
environment, and in spite of the number of prisoners released on
account of their health.
The number of consumptives in 1909 was 34, of whom 14 were new
admissions and 13 others were noted as having disease of the lungs
previous to their reception; 3 prisoners died of this disease during
the year. But hear this—for I am quoting from an official report for
1909-10.
“The number classified as weak-minded at the end of the year was
117, but in addition 34 other convicts were attached to parties of
weak-minded for further mental observation.”
Now, add together the hospital patients, the consumptives, the
weak-minded and those suspected of mental weakness, subtract them from
the total 750 convicts; how many have we left? I don’t know, I have no
means of knowing. But we will suppose that one-half of them are neither
invalids nor weak-minded. March them out! let us look at them; one look
is enough, what have we seen? Blighted bodies! twisted bodies! and
mutilated bodies! retarded physical growth accompanied with undeveloped
minds. Bleared eyes and defective eyesight, epileptics and similar
sufferers, a motley, pitiful assemblage of unfortunate humanity, and
alas! hopeless humanity.
You say, “But these broken fellows cannot commit crime.” Can’t they?
here is a list of their crimes tabulated by the medical officer for
State purposes, but it refers to the weak-minded only: False pretences
3; receiving stolen property 3; larceny 18; burglary 7; house- or
shop-breaking 19; uttering counterfeit coin 1; threatening letters
4; threatening violence 1; robbery with violence 3; manslaughter 6;
wounding with intent 8; grievous bodily harm 2; attempted murder 1;
wilful murder 7; rape 5; arson 15; carnal knowledge of little girls 8;
cattle-maiming 1; placing obstruction on railway 2; unnatural offence
3; total 117.
“An awful list,” you say. “Yes, but it is an illuminating list!” Again
I quote: “During the year 35 convicts were certified as insane and sent
to asylums”; work that out in your minds, think of it! “Why,” you say,
“the State has been punishing them when they are not responsible; it
has been tabulating them as criminals when it ought to have restrained
them as patients!” True! for the State awarded an average of something
like seven years’ penal servitude to each of them for their last
sentence only. Now, what reasonable man wants to know more about the
psychology of these men than is apparent to any one who possesses eyes
and can use them?
But let us listen to the chaplain, and here I quote from his official
report—
“The large number of ‘weak-minded’ cases located here adds considerably
to the strain imposed by prison work.
“Many of them are irritable and very exacting in their demands for
individual attention.
“We do our best to meet their requirements, and find that patience and
kindness go a long way in allaying their excitement. The work amongst
this class of prisoner is highly interesting, but I sincerely regret
that their prospects on discharge are no brighter.
“In many cases freedom simply means a relapse into crime, from sheer
inability to obtain or follow any ordinary occupation.
“It is surely time that some comprehensive scheme be started for
dealing with these unfortunate creatures.
“It is worthy of note that out of the 142 weak-minded prisoners
confined here in 1908-9, only 8 could be held responsible for their
lamentable state, their weak-minded condition being attributed to
over-indulgence in alcohol. ‘Unfortunate’ seems, therefore, a correct
description of this class of prisoner, who are really more deserving
of pity than punishment, and certainly call for special treatment on
discharge.
“There are a considerable number of senile and debilitated convicts
here, many of whom have several convictions recorded against them. They
are absolutely unfitted for employment, and on release have to face one
of two alternatives—the workhouse or another period of imprisonment.
The great majority openly confess their preference for a penal
establishment, and I am convinced that a large number deliberately
commit a crime which will ensure their return to this prison.
“The State would save a considerable sum annually if such men could
be placed, under a medical certificate, on an old age pension list,
or boarded out in some home under proper supervision. It would be
interesting to watch an experiment tried with a few selected cases of
senile prisoners released on a conditional licence.
“This is a somewhat revolutionary suggestion, perhaps; but the problem
of dealing with habitual offenders who are incapable of work is worthy
of consideration, and needs solution.”
But I may be told that Parkhurst is an exceptional prison, and that it
is intended chiefly for weaklings.
This is quite true, but it is beside the question; for the inhabitants
of Parkhurst are convicts, men who have, as my list shows, committed
serious crime; that they have been gathered from other prisoners goes
to prove my point, viz., that physical causes which are evident demand
attention to an infinitely greater degree than speculative and obscure
causes that we cannot diagnose, and which, for all we know, may not
exist.
But what obtains at Parkhurst exists in every other prison, unless
it be a specialised prison such as Borstal in England, and Elmira in
America.
Year after year in their annual report the Prison Commissioners tell
us, and they are never tired of telling us, that our prisons are filled
with the very poor, the very weak, the afflicted and the ignorant.
I could fill a volume with extracts from reports with such testimony;
governors, chaplains and medical officers with wearying monotony have
testified to the same effect.
Has not their accumulated evidence been published in Blue books? It
has; but it has suffered the fate to which all Blue books are doomed,
for it has been buried with the dead past. The Prison Commissioners
have taken infinite pains to ascertain the truth, and have not been
slow in declaring the truth so far as it has been revealed to them.
They tell us that for ten years they have in Pentonville prison
measured, weighed and medically examined all the young prisoners,
_i.e._, all those under twenty-one years of age who have undergone
sentences in that huge establishment.
Many thousands of such prisoners have passed through Pentonville during
those ten years, and a terrible procession of smitten humanity they
have presented.
Listen, my lords and gentlemen of both Houses! Heed! all Social
Reformers of every kind! Think of it, all you specialists who claim to
explore the criminal mind! “On an average they are two inches less in
height, and fourteen pounds less in weight than the average industrial
population of similar ages; 28 per cent. of them suffer from some
physical disease or deprivation,” and then the report goes on to add
“the highest proportion of reconvictions was amongst this class, being
no less than 40 per cent.”
I demand attention to this statement; nay, it demands and should compel
attention of itself.
This very bald statement of a stupendous fact ought to make us think.
Thousands, tens of thousands of young fellows, two inches below
their proper height, fourteen pounds less than their proper weight,
twenty-eight out of every hundred physically afflicted, and forty out
of every hundred reconvicted again and again!!
Who cares to trouble about their psychology? Not I! But I do care and
want others to care a great deal about their bodies, so I say let
psychology go hang! Let us concentrate on their bodies.
And my own observation, in prison and outside prison, confirms these
startling facts.
Hundreds of young fellows who have served short sentences of
imprisonment find their way to my house or to my office. I rarely find
a full-sized and well-developed fellow amongst them, for, mostly, they
are of the class described by the Prison Commissioners.
Round shoulders, flat chests and flat feet, poor teeth, sore eyes, are
ever noticeable, while not a few point me to their maimed hands or
other limbs and tell me of their illnesses.
I am heartily tired of meeting with such afflicted humanity that I
cannot help or assist in any useful way.
But I want no specialist or professor to read me their minds, for their
bodies are their minds.
These young fellows are not particularly wicked; they have no great
passion that dominates their lives. They are not anxious to do ill;
they have no great aspirations for good. If they were free agents,
which they are not, they would prefer good to evil. But being good
does not happen to fill their stomachs, but doing evil does, either in
prison or in the lodging-houses.
Now, I myself will venture into psychology, and I will voice their
opinions. “We are poor, weak and afflicted, but we are not to blame; no
one will give us work, for we have had no training; we cannot do hard
work, we are not big or strong enough; we do not want to be dishonest,
but we must live somehow. If we are caught we go to prison, where we
have food and lodgings and no hard work to do; and they are good to us
in prison.” This, I contend, is a fair statement of the condition and
temperament of thousands that we call criminals!
Is it a wonder, then, I would ask, that many of them find their way
into convict prisons, Portland, Parkhurst or Dartmoor, as their health
permits?
What about Borstal! I hear some one say. The doors of Borstal are
closed against them, for they are neither big enough, strong enough
nor healthy enough for Borstal, which demands, and receives, strong,
healthy young fellows only—no others need apply!
I have no doubt that the psychology of these fellows changes with the
flight of years and frequent imprisonments, and probably when they
arrive at forty years of age they will provide an interesting study for
clever professors of psychology, though I am inclined to believe that
even at that age their bodies will still be indexes to their mind, for
their weaknesses and abnormalities will be the more pronounced.
Now, all this does not mean that I wish it to be inferred that healthy
and well-developed men never commit crime, for that is far from true.
Some of the worst rogues and most dangerous criminals I have ever
met have been strong, handsome fellows, well over the average size
of fully developed men. There are, however, so far as my experience
has shown me, but few criminals of that description; though it is of
course certain that big men may commit crimes of any kind, and healthy,
handsome, educated men who persist in crime may well be subjects for
psychological research; but of that class I shall have more to say
in another chapter. For the present I am maintaining that physical
causes determine the character and lives of the bulk of our criminals;
that they are criminals not because they possess a dark, mysterious
psychology, or because they are of malice aforethought determined to be
criminals, but because they are either weak or afflicted.
In a word weakness, not wickedness, is the one general cause of crime.
These men form a stage army of criminals; they move from place to
place; they are classified and catalogued in prison after prison; they
are tossed from pillar to post; they are subjected to short terms of
useless imprisonment and then thrust into short terms of hopeless
liberty. What wonder that their physical condition gets worse! Or that
they ultimately attain to certified feeble-mindedness!
Many of them, as I have pointed out, eventually commit serious crimes;
and then a series of sentences to penal servitude await them, if happy
death does not claim them or lunatic asylums absorb them.
The great majority, however, pursue their wearying round of small
crimes and small imprisonments.
The State then discovers that, though they are not insane, not
absolutely feeble-minded, that there is something wrong with them, and
that they are, so to speak, “childish.”
So a half-way classification has been coined for them; they are, the
State declares, “unfit for prison discipline.” Unfit for prison! unfit
for asylums! unfit for liberty! unfit for social or industrial life!
unfit for anything!
They are in a parlous state, they commit crime, but they are not
criminals. Every year 400 new names are added to the list of these
unfortunates who are still regularly committed to prison, so the Prison
Commissioners tell us. Again I ask, what can it profit us to know more
of the psychology of these “criminals” than is apparent to any one with
eyes?
I am almost ashamed of calling attention to this national disgrace,
I have done it so frequently; but I have called to deaf ears so far
as this country is concerned. But I have some comfort in knowing that
in one European country where my pamphlets on this question have
been very largely distributed, a large piece of uncultivated land has
been secured and a colony established for the permanent detention
and complete segregation of these helpless people. To Holland, then,
belongs the honour of being the first nation to make a merciful and
sensible provision for this unfortunate class.
But I would like to ask our authorities whether they ever read their
own Blue books! Whether they really do so, or carefully abstain from
doing so, I would like them to read carefully and consider seriously
the following extracts from the Prison Commissioners’ report for
1910-11, just issued. These extracts I give exactly in the same words
used by the different prison officials. They speak for themselves, and
all bear testimony to my contention that the physical condition of
thousands of our prisoners is the root cause of their criminality.
Lancaster
“Forty-seven prisoners of weak intellect (thirty-six males and eleven
females) were received during the year. Only the worst cases are here
referred to. This useless procedure (the committal and recommittal
of such people to prison) continues. No good purpose is served by
it, except that these people receive perhaps better food and better
treatment than they are accustomed to outside.
“They usually work well under supervision, and, except for occasional
offences against the regulations (rather in the nature of silly pranks)
they are fairly well behaved, orderly and respectful.”
Holloway
“Forty-six prisoners on remand from police courts and petty sessions
were reported insane. Two were found ‘insane on arraignment,’ and five
‘guilty but insane.’
“No convicted prisoners were certified as insane at the prison.
Thirty-two were classed as feeble-minded, 403 prisoners under remand
were specially observed and examined as to their mental condition: 204
were remanded for this purpose.”
Liverpool
“The number of epileptics was 92. Out of 167 prisoners remanded for
mental observation, thirty-four males and ten females were found to be
insane, and dealt with by summary jurisdiction.
“When prisoners are suspected by the Liverpool police of being
weak-minded, they are remanded for mental observation, and on my
confirmatory report are discharged to the workhouse or care of friends.”
Wakefield
“It was found necessary to put 360 prisoners under mental observation,
either on reception, or after location, in the general prison. The
following are the details of 210 of the more marked and decided of
these cases of mental defect—
Reported weak-minded 66
Certified as lunatics and removed to an asylum 9
Epilepsy and allied conditions 53
Prisoners with a past history of threatened or
attempted suicide 15
Temporary alcoholic excitement 67
“Last year the number of weak-minded was sixty, and of certified
lunatics seven. It is interesting to observe how closely the figures
now given approximate to those of last year.”
Wormwood Scrubbs
“Twenty-six prisoners of markedly feeble mind were received (four of
them were each committed twice and one of the number three times during
the year), and the cases of thirty-five prisoners of this class were
brought to the notice of the police prior to their discharge from
prison.
“The chief defects noted were as follows—
(_a_) Physical deficiency and deformities 126 per 1000
(_b_) Mental deficiency 25 " "
(_c_) Affections of heart, lung, and principal organs 129 " "
(_d_) Visual defects 49 " "
(_e_) Auditory defects 14 " "
“They were regularly inspected at work, and their training and general
well-being were closely supervised.”
Feltham
“The very poor physique of the inmates on admission impresses one very
much more than is shown by the figures of comparison with any so-called
normal standards, as we do not separate our town and country inmates.
Our country inmates, as a rule, have better physique, and though not so
mentally quick are more hopeful cases when once a hold can be obtained
of them. Among the town inmates one finds two classes, one showing
signs of degeneration, as poor physique, narrow chest, short stature,
light weight associated with a low cunning and a peculiar restlessness
of their eyes, watching for every movement; and among these a high
arched palate is often noticed.”
Borstal
“Although evil environment must of course take first place among the
causes of most of these youths’ downfall, I am becoming more and more
struck with the importance of physical unfitness as a determining
factor.
“From observations actually made among a large number of our older
receptions, I find that some 60 per cent. had tried (some many times)
to join either the Army or Navy. Only 15 per cent. of these had passed
‘fit.’ Many of the remaining 40 per cent., knowing that their physical
defects would unfit them, had not been to a recruiting-office, so that
presumably, but for physical inferiority we might have saved about
one-half of those sentenced to the Borstal system.”
Note.—The above remarks become the more striking when it is borne in
mind that Borstal receives the best and healthiest young prisoners.
Parkhurst
“A new feature has been the formation of ‘An Aged Convicts’ Party’
consisting of old men of sixty-seven years of age and upwards; they
are located together, with special diet and privileges. A day room has
been provided, also a garden with a yard adjoining; they are expected
to do any light work they can undertake, without being tasked, and they
are allowed to read and converse together. They appear to appreciate
the relaxation of the ordinary prison discipline, and so far their
behaviour has been excellent.
“The number classified as weak-minded at the end of the year was 120,
but in addition there were twenty-seven convicts attached to the
parties of weak-minded for further mental observation.
_Classification of Weak-minded Convicts_
(_a_) Congenital deficiency—
1. With epilepsy 10
2. Without epilepsy 36
(_b_) Imperfectly developed stage of insanity 26
(_c_) Mental debility after attack of insanity 13
(_d_) Senility 3
(_e_) Alcoholic 9
(_f_) Undefined 23
---
Total 120
---
“The following is a list of crimes of the classified weak-minded, for
which they are undergoing their present sentences of penal servitude,
and the number convicted for each type of crime—
False pretences 1
Receiving stolen property 2
Larceny 24
Burglary 13
Shopbreaking, housebreaking, etc. 19
Blackmailing 1
Manslaughter 5
Inflicting grievous bodily harm 2
Wounding with intent 7
Shooting with intent 3
Wilful murder 10
Rape 2
Carnal knowledge of little girls 8
Arson 17
Horse-stealing 3
Killing sheep 1
Unnatural offence 1
Placing obstruction on railway 1
“A study of the criminal history of these 120 weak-minded convicts
shows that sixty-two committed their first crime before the age of
twenty years, and the total number of previous convictions standing
against these 120 convicts amounted, in the aggregate, to 91 penal
and 1,306 others. Forty convicts were certified insane: of these
twenty-four were removed to the Criminal Asylum at Parkhurst, five
to Broadmoor Asylum, seven to the County or Borough Asylums, one
recovered, and three detained in the Prison Infirmary. Please notice
how closely these figures approximate to the figures of the previous
year.”
Gloucester
(_a_) The _bona fide_ working men in search of
employment 17 per cent.
(_b_) The casual labourer unwilling or unfit
for continued work—the first to lose
employment and the last to regain
it as trade falls or rises 31 "
(_c_) The habitual vagrant and mendicant 41 "
(_d_) Old and infirm persons “wandering to
their own hurt,” crawling from ward
to ward, entering the workhouse infirmary
only when compelled to do
so, living by begging, and constant
trouble to the police and magistrates 11 "
---
100
---
“Altogether 207 tramps were received during the above-stated period.”
Pentonville
“As in former years the number, especially of youths, imprisoned for
minor—I will not say trivial—offences has been considerable. What to do
with these lads is a problem of much difficulty, many are homeless and
friendless. Their parents are dead, or have forsaken their offspring;
living just anywhere or anyhow, one can only have for such a feeling of
profound pity.”
Wakefield
“The steadily increasing number of the vagrant and feeble-minded is a
subject urgently demanding special legislation. It is hopeless for any
Discharged Prisoners’ Aid Society to attempt to do anything for these
cases.”
Wandsworth
“The weak-minded have been collected and reported in each case
according to Standing Order. Sixteen cases of insanity were also dealt
with.”
Can any words of mine add force to these terrible statements and
convincing figures? I think not! Can any master of the English language
add potency to them? I think not! so I let them stand in their bald
simplicity as a proof of my contention, and as an indictment of our
present methods for dealing with smitten and afflicted prisoners.