The Review; Vol. 1, No. 4, April, 1911

by Various

MENTAL DEFECTIVES AND MORAL DELINQUENTS

Frank Moore, Superintendent New Jersey Reformatory

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.