To deal successfully with the prodigious problem of moral reform, no
one thing seems more essential than a scientific study and a
systematic treatment of the mentally deficient delinquent. Obviously,
a classification of evil doers based upon their mentality is of vast
importance. Before the work of reform can intelligently be begun there
must be such a complete diagnosis of each individual case that the
cause of the moral malady may be discovered, if possible. Mental
deficiency is without question a cause of moral delinquency, and the
reform of a large number of delinquents cannot wisely be undertaken
until the existence of feeble mindedness is established in each case
where it exists.
In the work of reform, too little attention has been given to careful
diagnosis; too much guessing has prevailed as to the criminal’s mental
character, or too much ignoring of mental ability. Criminals, whether
mentally normal or subnormal, have all been subjected to the same
system, with the hope that the weak-minded and strong-minded alike
would be made into good citizens. The reason for this has been,
perhaps, that there have appeared to be few if any standards by which
it has been thought the mental character of the criminal could be
accurately judged. But certain systems recently have been developed
that render guessing no longer a necessity, and hence a great mistake.
Doctor Sante de Sanctis of Italy, Doctor De Croly of Germany and
Doctor Alfred Binet of France have established admirable systems in
dealing with this problem.
Classification of the mentally deficient delinquent may be perhaps
most easily arrived at by the psychological standards of the Binet
system. This system has been in use in some of the feeble-minded
institutions of the country, and has been used by the New Jersey
Reformatory the past year; there may be some other reformatories that
have also used it with most satisfactory results. Each inmate in the
Reformatory of New Jersey, received during the year, has been subjected
to the Binet tests, and this determining of a psychological age has
established the fact that 46% of the inmates received during the last
year are mentally subnormal.
The physical age at which delinquents may be legally committed to the
reformatory is sixteen to twenty-five years. But by examination it has
been discovered that the mental age for nearly a majority was below
twelve years, while in one case it was less than five. In other words,
46% of those received had minds which in knowledge and ability were
only equal to the minds of the child from five to twelve years old. By
the system employed, they have been classified in the precise year
between these two limitations, to which they mentally belong.
There is, however, without question one point at which the system
needs to be taken with a considerable degree of care. Of the 46% who
were mentally deficient, according to the tests, it was found by a
study of the history of these cases that 17½% had received only a
year’s schooling or less. What their minds would have been if they had
not had this misfortune could not be determined by the system, but
could only be arrived at when they had been given the opportunity of
an education. From this data, it would seem wise to divide the 46%
mentally defectives into two classes.
First: The hopelessly defective or feeble-minded delinquent, of whom
there were 28½%.
Second: The hopeful cases of defectives, possibly capable of
development into normals with proper training, of whom there were
17½%.
After diagnosis of the deficient cases, the next natural step is that
of observation. Our observation, covering only a short time and
therefore not very dependable, and perhaps of only slight suggestive
value, has shown that these mentally deficient delinquents, while
under discipline, seem to be inclined to commit only offenses that may
be called neglects, and not offenses that are vicious in character,
unless some one of a stronger mind has inspired the more vicious deed.
The great number of their failures are failures of omission, due to
lack of apprehension. They fall below the standard because their minds
are below it. It is also most apparent that there is need of a special
method of treatment of the delinquent who is defective. There should
be a separation of him from the normal. His mind is slow. He does not
grasp instruction as quickly as the normal, and to subject him to the
same standards under the same rules is inhumane. In discipline he is
seriously interfered with by those who are bright and yet wilful, and
who make him the butt of their jest. He cannot be taught the same
subjects that can be taught to the average mind. It is a waste of time
to undertake to teach him more than the simplest rudiments of the
lower grammar grades. In work he is most successful in that which is
purely methodical, in which there is little intelligence and
initiative required. He can rise very little above the laborer, and to
expect him to be a real mechanic or to try to train him for such will
only mean failure, and the reformatory system that recognizes these
limitations will certainly be most apt to succeed.
The reformatory needs to be most discriminating in dealing with this
class when they are dismissed. The character and influences of the
place to which they are paroled is a vital matter. These delinquents
amid evil surroundings, or in the hands or under the influence of
unscrupulous people are most dangerous. Unhesitatingly and almost
without knowing it, they become the tool of the vicious. They are like
the weather vane, which sways instantly in the direction of the power
that is exerted upon it. The best people, those who are interested in
helping the unfortunate and who will seek to carry on through the
years the work which the institution has but begun, ought to be sought
to help them when these individuals are dismissed from the
institution. If this class is wisely dealt with, a percentage of this
by-product of humanity, large enough to make it worth while, will be
changed from mere animal things into individuals of value in the world.