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Educational Psychology Monographs
This volume, which is No. 21 in the Series, was
edited by J. Carleton Bell
DEFICIENCY AND DELINQUENCY
An Interpretation of Mental Testing
by
JAMES BURT MINER, LL.B., PH.D.
Associate Professor of Applied Psychology, Carnegie Institute of
Technology, Pittsburgh; sometime lecturer at the school for teachers of
special classes, Minnesota State School for the Feeble-Minded
Baltimore
Warwick & York, Inc.
1918
Copyright, 1918
Warwick & York, Inc.
DEFICIENCY AND DELINQUENCY
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Preface 1
Chapter I. INTRODUCTION 3
PART I. PRACTICAL CONSIDERATIONS
Chapter II. THE FUNCTIONS OF A SCALE IN DIAGNOSIS 10
A. THE MEANING OF INTELLECTUAL DEFICIENCY 10
B. FORMS OF MENTAL DEFICIENCY NOT YET DISCOVERABLE BY TESTS 14
C. DOUBTFUL INTELLECTS ACCOMPANIED BY DELINQUENCY PRESUMED 18
DEFICIENT
Chapter III. THE PERCENTAGE DEFINITION OF INTELLECTUAL DEFICIENCY 20
A. THE DEFINITION 20
B. THE ASSUMPTIONS OF A QUANTITATIVE DEFINITION 21
(a) Deficiency is a Difference in Degree not in Kind 21
(b) As to the Variation in the Frequency of Deficiency at 23
Different Ages
(c) As to the Number of Deficients not Detected by Tests 34
(d) Allowance May be Made for Variability 40
Chapter IV. WHAT PERCENTAGE IS FEEBLE-MINDED 47
A. KINDS OF SOCIAL CARE CONTEMPLATED 47
B. ESTIMATES OF THE SCHOOL POPULATION VERSUS THE GENERAL 48
POPULATION
C. DESIRABLE VERSUS IMMEDIATELY ADVISABLE SOCIAL CARE 51
D. PERCENTAGES SUGGESTED TO HARMONIZE THE ESTIMATES 52
E. COMPARISON WITH IMPORTANT ESTIMATES 56
F. THE ABILITY OF THE MENTALLY RETARDED ESPECIALLY THOSE 74
RECEIVING SPECIAL TRAINING
Chapter V. ADAPTING THE PERCENTAGE DEFINITION TO THE BINET SCALE 82
A. THE BORDER REGION FOR THE MATURE 82
(a) Indication from a Random Group 82
(b) The Present Tendency Among Examiners 95
B. THE BORDER REGION FOR THE IMMATURE 104
(a) For the Binet 1908 Scale 104
(b) Data for Other Developmental Scales 110
(c) The Change in Interpreting the Borderline for the 116
Immature
Chapter VI. DELINQUENTS TESTING DEFICIENT 122
A. AT THE GLEN FARM SCHOOL FOR BOYS, HENNEPIN COUNTY, 122
MINNESOTA
B. COMPARISON OF TESTED DEFICIENCY AMONG TYPICAL GROUPS OF 127
DELINQUENTS
(a) Women and Girl Delinquents in State Institutions 128
(b) Women and Girl Delinquents in Country and City 134
Institutions
(c) Men and Boy Delinquents in State Institutions 141
(d) Men and Boy Delinquents in County and City 148
Institutions
C. SUMMARY OF TESTED DEFICIENCY AMONG DELINQUENTS 158
Chapter VII. CHECKING THE BINET DIAGNOSIS BY OTHER METHODS 170
Chapter VIII. SCHOOL RETARDATION AMONG DELINQUENTS 177
A. IN MINNEAPOLIS 177
B. SCHOOL RETARDATION AMONG OTHER GROUPS OF DELINQUENTS 185
Chapter IX. COMPARISON OF THE SCHOOL TEST AND THE BINET TEST 189
A. PRACTICAL USES OF THE SCHOOL TEST 190
(a) Estimating the Frequency of Deficiency by School 190
Retardation
(b) School Retardation as a Warning of the Need for 194
Examination
(c) School Success as a Check on the Binet Diagnosis 197
B. CHECKING DEFICIENCY AMONG DELINQUENTS BY THE SCHOOL TEST 199
Chapter X. BAD SCHOOL ADJUSTMENT AS A CAUSE OF DELINQUENCY 203
Chapter XI. DEFICIENCY AS A CAUSE OF DELINQUENCY 210
A. THE CHANCES OF THE MENTALLY DEFICIENT BECOMING DELINQUENT 211
B. THE CORRELATION OF DEFICIENCY AND DELINQUENCY 218
C. THE CAUSES OF DELINQUENCY 224
(a) Constitutional Factors 224
(b) External Factors 225
(c) Weighing Heredity Against Environment 229
(d) The Criminal Diathesis 234
Chapter XII. SUMMARY AND SUGGESTIONS 239
PART II. THEORETICAL CONSIDERATIONS
Chapter XIII. THE THEORY OF THE MEASUREMENT OF MENTAL DEVELOPMENT 252
A. COMPARISON OF UNITS AND SCALES FOR MEASURING INDIVIDUAL 254
DIFFERENCES
(a) Equivalent Units of Ability When the Distributions 254
are Normal
(b) The Year Unit of the Binet Scale 260
(c) Is Tested Capacity Distributed Normally? 267
(d) Equivalent Units of Development When the Form of 275
Distribution is Uncertain
B. THE CURVES OF MENTAL DEVELOPMENT 279
(a) The Significance of Average Curves of Development 280
(b) Changes in the Rate of Development 290
(c) The Question of Earlier Arrest of Deficient Children 294
Chapter XIV. QUANTITATIVE DEFINITIONS OF THE BORDERLINE 304
A. DIFFERENT FORMS OF QUANTITATIVE DEFINITIONS 304
B. COMMON CHARACTERISTICS OF QUANTITATIVE DEFINITIONS 308
C. PRACTICAL ADVANTAGES OF THE PERCENTAGE METHOD 311
D. THEORETICAL ADVANTAGE OF THE PERCENTAGE METHOD WITH CHANGES 317
IN THE FORM OF THE DISTRIBUTIONS
BIBLIOGRAPHY ON TESTED DELINQUENTS 324
Other References Cited 329
APPENDICES 344
INDEX 353
LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES
TABLES
I. Age distribution of deaths in the general population and of 30
feeble-minded in institutions
II. Mortality of institutional deficients in the United States 31
compared with the general population
III. Test borderlines with randomly selected Minneapolis 89
15-year-olds
IV. Results with the Binet tests for mental ages XI and XII 98
(1908 series)
V. Percentages of mentally retarded children as tested with the 106
Binet 1908 Scale
VI. Mental retardation of children as tested with the Binet 1911 111
Scale
VII. Borderlines with the Point Scale 115
VIII. Test ages of the Glen Lake group of delinquent boys 124
IX. Intellectual development relative to life-ages and school 125
positions among the delinquent boys of Glen Lake
X. Binet 1911 tests of boys consecutively admitted to the 151
Detention Home at Thorn Hill, Allegheny County
XI. Frequency of tested deficiency among over 9000 delinquents 159
XII. Age and grade distribution of elementary school pupils in 178
Minneapolis
XIII. School retardation of Minneapolis delinquents and elementary 179
school pupils
XIV. Indices of frequency and amount of school retardation for 183
Minneapolis delinquents and elementary school pupils
XV. Percentage of pupils 12 and 13 years of age most seriously 193
retarded in school
XVI. School position of delinquents at Glen Lake relative to 204
their intellectual development
XVII. Goring's data as to the percentage of mental defectives 213
among men convicted of various offenses
XVIII. Goring's data as to groups of crimes committed most 214
frequently by those mentally deficient
XIX. Four-fold correlation table for juvenile delinquency and 222
deficiency in Minneapolis
XX. Average Intelligence Quotients of children of different 296
ability
XXI. Test records with random 15-year-olds 344
XXII. Test records with delinquents at the Glen Lake Farm School 349
FIGURES
1. Mortality among feeble-minded in institutions compared with 32
the general population
2. School retardation of Minneapolis delinquents compared with 180
elementary school boys
3. Hypothetical development curves (normal distributions) 253
4. The question of equivalence of year units 265
5. Hypothetical development curves (changing form of 277
distribution.)
6. Tests of the development of memory processes. Medians at 285
each age for the central tendencies of the tests
7. Different types of development. Medians at each age for the 286
central tendencies of the tests
8. Forty tests of development. Distribution at each age for the 287
central tendencies of the tests
9. Relative positions at each age of the median and of 299
corresponding bright and retarded children with the Form
Board Test
DEFICIENCY AND DELINQUENCY
PREFACE
In undertaking in 1912 to examine the mental development of delinquents
for the clinic started and supported by the Juvenile Protective League
of Minneapolis, in connection with the Juvenile Court, I soon became
convinced that a safer method for evaluating the limit of
feeble-mindedness with tests was more needed than masses of new data.
The researches that have been published in the past three years do not
seem to have changed this situation. Numerous studies with psychological
tests are already available, but they generally treat of average rather
than borderline conditions. In the field of delinquency the work of
testing has been carried on with especial activity. Here, as well as
elsewhere, the conclusions seem likely to be misleading unless social
workers better appreciate the real place of mental tests, their value
and their limitations.
The tables of a few hundred juvenile delinquents and school children
examined in Minneapolis, which are presented in this book, indicate the
occasion rather than the aim of the present study. The purpose is mainly
to help clear the ground for other work with mental tests, and
especially to put the determination of feeble-mindedness by objective
examination with the Binet or other scales on what seems to me a sounder
basis. Furthermore, the results of objective testing which have been so
rapidly accumulating in the field of delinquency need to be assembled
and reorganized in order to avoid confusion. It is especially desirable
to discover a conservative basis for objective diagnosis of deficient
intellectual capacity in order to prevent very useful testing systems
from becoming unjustly discredited and to preserve the advance that has
been made.
The work out of which this monograph grew was begun through the
encouragement of Judge Edward F. Waite of the Hennepin County Juvenile
Court. His earnest co-operation and my interest in the field of mental
testing has led me to continue the study. Judge Waite's insight into his
court problems resulted in the early organization of a Juvenile Court
clinic (_153_, _170_) in Minneapolis. The clinic is in charge of Dr.
Harris Dana Newkirk, who has contributed materially to this study by his
thorough medical examination of each of the cases brought to him. To the
staff at the probation office I am also much indebted.
The earnest help of Superintendent D. C. MacKenzie, of the Glen Lake
Farm School for the juvenile delinquents of Hennepin County, made a
close study of our most interesting group of boys much more profitable
personally than I have shown here. For detailed expert work in
tabulation and in examinations I wish to express my thanks to my
advanced students, a half dozen of whom have contributed materially to
the data of this book.
JAMES BURT MINER.
Carnegie Institute of Technology
Pittsburgh, Pa.
CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION
As an interpretation of the results which have been obtained with mental
tests, this book lies between the topics of deficiency and delinquency.
It is an attempt to discover the significance of objective measurements
of ability in connection with both of these fields. The pressing
practical problem was to find out what positions on a scale for testing
mental development were symptomatic of social deficiency. After working
out a percentage method for conservatively indicating these borderlines
for tested deficiency, it was then possible to reinterpret the test
records of over 9000 delinquents who have been examined with some form
of the well-known Binet Scale. The size of the problem of the deficient
delinquent has thus been determined on a significant scientific plan.
The outcome is a new basis for judging the current statements about this
problem by those who have used the Binet scale. Scores of investigators
by their tireless energy have provided data which may now be compared
for many types of delinquents and in many parts of the country. Some
sixty studies of deficient delinquents have been thus summarized from
the point of view of psychological tests.
Closely related to the problem of the frequency of feeble-mindedness
among delinquents is the question of the cause of delinquency. This has
further been considered in the light of the most important scientific
studies, especially those using the method of correlation. Among these
researches stands out the fundamental investigation of the causes of
criminality by Goring, a work which has received very inadequate
attention in this country, although it involved ten years study of a
group of 3000 convicts by the best quantitative methods. The careful
study of these objective investigations should take the question of the
relation of deficiency and delinquency out of the realm of opinion and
theory. It may be expected to have an important influence upon the
social handling of these problems. In this connection I have added a
chapter of suggestions which have grown out of my year's study of the
education of deficients and delinquents in European schools and
institutions.
To determine the size of the problem of dealing with deficients,
especially deficient delinquents, is a task of first importance. In
spite of our more conservative basis for judging the results with tests,
the necessity of caring for the feeble-minded remains the most vital
problem connected with social welfare. The movement for more individual
training in our schools, which has been gaining such headway, may also
be encouraged by the evidence that maladjustment to school work is also
definitely related to delinquency.
It is essential that we should have objective data for determining the
borderline of tested deficiency among adults. To meet the present
serious lack of knowledge on this point, new data were collected which
for the first time afford the means of determining, by the use of a
randomly selected group what is a conservative borderline of tested
deficiency for those intellectually mature. These data include the Binet
test records for all the 15-year-old children who resided in seven
school districts in Minneapolis and who had not graduated from the
eighth grade.
The urgency of plans for indefinitely segregating certain types of the
feeble-minded, especially deficient delinquents, has placed a new
emphasis on those quantitative aids to diagnosis. The difficulty of
establishing feeble-mindedness before a court has been called to
attention by both Supt. C. A. Rogers (_173_)[1] of the Minnesota School
for Feeble-Minded, and Supt. Walter E. Fernald (_104_) of the
Massachusetts School. Both of these men recognize that psychological
tests are the most hopeful way of improving this situation.
A fundamental feature of the diagnosis of deficiency is the plan here
advocated for designating the borderlines on a scale on the basis of a
percentage definition of tested deficiency. This involves the
distinction of intellectual deficiency from certain rare volitional
forms of feeble-mindedness, which the tests do not at present detect.
This percentage definition seems to afford the best approach to a test
diagnosis. It is apparent that the data are insufficient for finally
establishing such a quantitative description of the lower limit for
passable intellects on a mental scale. The plan, however, may be easily
adjusted to new data, and meanwhile avoids some of the serious current
misinterpretations of test results.
While the idea of a quantitative definition of the borderline of
deficiency is not new, the percentage method seems to have certain
fundamental advantages over either the “intelligence quotient” of Stern
(_188_), the “intelligence coefficient” of Yerkes (_226_), or the
description in terms of deviation, mentioned by Norsworthy (_159_) and
Pearson (_164_, _166_, _167_). Several investigators, including Terman
(_57_) and Yerkes (_226_), are utilizing the percentage method
indirectly for describing the borderline of feeble-mindedness, but have
inadequately distinguished it from the ratios. While ratio and deviation
methods are possibly more serviceable for certain purposes, they are
especially faulty near the borderline of deficiency, since they are
affected by variations in the units of measurement and in the form of
distribution from age to age. My paper on a percentage definition and
the detailed plan for determining the borderline in the Binet scale,
which was read at the meeting of the American Psychological Association
in 1915, seems to have been contemporaneous with a similar suggestion by
Pintner and Paterson (_44_). They, however, would restrict the term
“feeble-mindedness” to tested deficiency, while I advocate the use of
percentage borderlines on a test scale as symptomatic of one form of
feeble-mindedness, much as excess of normal temperature on a clinical
thermometer is symptomatic of disease.
Although no system of objective tests will ever dispense with the need
for expert interpretation in diagnosing individual cases, still there
are few who would doubt that it is desirable to reduce the option of
expert judgment as much as we reasonably can. This is the scientific
method of procedure. The borderline cases, however, which are often most
troublesome in their delinquencies, are just those which will longest
defy rigid rules. The diagnostician who wants to be as free as possible
from external restraint will find in this border field of mental
capacity a happy hunting ground. His scientific instincts should make
him eager to discover when he leaves the mundane sphere and sallies
forth into uncharted realms where he bears the full responsibility of
his own opinion. Let me hasten to add that reasoning from objective data
in the mass to the diagnosis of an individual case may lead to serious
mistakes, unless one keeps alert to detect the exception from the
general rule, and unless one understands the numerous sources of error
entering into an examination. On the other hand the test results when
properly interpreted afford the most important criteria on which to base
a prognosis if they are considered in relation to the history of the
case and the medical examination.
By the use of more conservative borderlines for raising the presumption
of deficiency and also by designating a doubtful position on the scale,
on the plan advocated herein, it is possible to make scales for testing
mental capacity more serviceable both to the clinician and to the
amateur tester. The latter may use the scales for his own information or
may wish to discover whether an examination by an expert in mental
development is desirable, without attempting to make a diagnosis
himself. The scale may thus take a place in the study of child mentality
analogous to the familiar Snellen chart in the testing of vision. For
every teacher familiarity with a development scale may thus become as
essential and desirable as the knowledge of the chart for eye testing.
It should find a place in all progressive schools which do not have the
services of a clinician.
The Binet system of tests was used for obtaining new data on groups of
juvenile delinquents in Minneapolis and Pittsburgh. The use of this
scale, around which the discussion centers, grew out of the necessity
for immediate practical results for the clinic at the Minneapolis
Juvenile Court which I was called upon to serve. In 1912, when that work
began, there was practically nothing approaching norms with children for
any other scale of tests. Even today it is plain that there is more data
available for interpreting results with the Binet scale than with any
other system of tests. While my experience would make me unwilling to
advocate the Binet tests as an ideal method for building up a measuring
scale, I still feel that it remains the most useful method at present
for discovering the fundamental symptoms of intellectual deficiency. The
percentage method, here advocated, as the best way available for
determining the borderlines with a scale, would be quite as serviceable,
however, with any other testing system. It has been my aim to contribute
to the interpretation of the results of the tests as they are, not to
perfecting the arrangement or details of the separate tests.[2] It
happens that one of the main objections which has been raised to the
Binet scale, the inadequacy of its tests for the older ages, loses its
force so far as the _diagnosis of feeble-mindedness_ is concerned for
those who accept the borderlines described in this paper.
Some diagnosticians may hesitate to use the Binet scale because of the
criticisms it has received. Yerkes and Bridges state: “Indeed, we feel
bound to say that the Binet scale has proved worse than useless in a
very large number of cases” (_226_, p. 94). So far as this objection
arises from the attempt to use the descriptions of the borderline of
feeble-mindedness published with Binet scales, it will meet with a wide
response. The difficulty is hardly less, as I shall show, with other
scales. The definition of the borderline is certainly the vital point
with any objective method for aiding diagnosis. Only by improving
methods for determining the borderline can this weakness be attacked.
The central contribution of this paper is directed, therefore, to this
problem of the interpretation of the borderline, so that objective
scales may be made more reliable for purposes of diagnosis.
In Part Two I have added an intensive discussion of the measurement of
development and a comparison of the different objective methods for
describing the borderline. This may well be omitted by those who are not
interested in the technical aspects of these questions. To those who
care only for accounts of individual lives, let me say that I am
contributing nothing herein to that important field which has been
covered in authoritative form by Dr. Healy (_27_) and by Dr. Goddard
(_112_). They will find instead, I hope, the fascination of figures, a
picture book in which probability curves take the place of photographs
and biographies, in which general tendencies are evaluated and attention
is focussed upon the problem of properly diagnosing deficiency and upon
plans for the care of the feeble-minded, whether they be potential or
actual delinquents.
-----
Footnote 1:
Numbers in parenthesis indicate the references in the bibliography at
the close of the book.
Footnote 2:
Those concerned with other features of the Binet scale will find an
admirable bibliography by Samuel C. Kohs, Journal of Educational
Psychology, April, May and June, 1914, and September, October,
November, and December, 1917. Other references are contained in the
Bibliography by L. W. Crafts (_9_).
PART ONE
PRACTICAL CONSIDERATIONS