An Arabic numeral after a Roman numeral indicates the number of cases, when more than one case occurs at any position in the table. Parentheses indicate cases testing presumable deficient or doubtful. S is a satisfactory school grade.
The summary of the Binet scale testing of this group according to the valuation which we have adopted, shows two clear cases of tested deficiency. One boy who was 13 years of age tested VIII and was the only case sent to the State School for Feeble-Minded from this group. The other was 16 years of age and tested IX. Besides the two presumable deficients, seven other boys were uncertain according to our interpretation, as judged by the Binet tests alone. One of them was 13 and tested IX, the others were 14, 15 and 16 and tested X. This would make a total of 7% possibly socially deficient, since they were all delinquent. This seems to be the largest estimation of deficiency which would be justified on the basis of these test results. To show, however, how important is the interpretation of the results obtained with Binet examinations when treated in gross, it need only be stated that a few years ago, when this study began, it was not uncommon to count all who were retarded three or more years and testing XII or under as feeble-minded. On that absurd basis, there would be 45 such cases (37%). As we have considered at length the reasons for not counting a person as even of doubtful intellect who tests XI or above or is less than three or four years retarded, we do not need to rehearse them here.
B. Comparison of Tested Deficiency Among Typical Groups of Delinquents.
Using our conservative basis for interpreting the results of Binet examinations, let us now review the evidence of the proportion of delinquents which is intellectually deficient. We shall compare the available data on groups of tested delinquents which have not been subjectively selected, provided that the data permit of restatement on the basis of the borderlines we have adopted. The evidence of tested deficiency on over 9000 objectively selected delinquents has thus been assembled under approximately the same interpretation of the borderlines. This should help to make it clear how extensive the preparations must be for dealing with this problem of the defective delinquent and where the needs are most pressing. It should also enable us to discover when the estimates have been excessive. We shall confine ourselves to the reports of objective test examinations, so that the estimates do not depend upon the judgment of the examiner alone. A bibliography of these studies is given at the close of the book. How much more has been accomplished in this field in the United States than abroad is illustrated by the fact that repeated search has failed to discover any reports of Binet examinations on representative, randomly selected groups of delinquents in any foreign country. Binet examinations have been made of juvenile delinquents in Breslau ([34]) and in Frankfurt a. M., and in London ([56]); but only upon selected cases.
Those who wish to compare the results as to tested deficiency with the subjective opinions of various estimators should consult the reviews of this literature by Bronner ([6]) and by Gruhle ([121]). The effect of such a comparison is an increasing conviction that it affords dubious evidence of the relative amount of deficiency in different groups of delinquents. Without objective tests, there is no means of telling what amount of mental retardation the different experts would class as feeble-mindedness.
(a) Women and Girl Delinquents in State Institutions.
Women in state penitentiaries are a small group among delinquents in institutions. According to one study by Louise E. Ordahl and George Ordahl[[15]] the frequency of tested deficiency is smaller among them than among women committed to reformatories, who in general commit less serious crimes. All except one of the 50 women prisoners enrolled were tested with the Kuhlmann 1911 revision of the Binet scale. About half were negro women. Only 6 (4 negroes) tested IX or below and were in our group of presumably deficient by the tests. Twenty others (13 negroes) tested one Binet age higher and were in the doubtful group.
If we consider the worst condition so far as intellectual deficiency is concerned, we find it in the reformatories and training schools for women. Dr. Weidensall applied the 1908 Binet scale to 200 consecutive women, 16 years to 30 years of age, as they were admitted to the New York Reformatory for Women at Bedford. Seventy-seven tested IX or under and were within our presumably deficient group. An additional 74 tested X and were in the uncertain group, although if we regard them all as deficient because of their persistent delinquency, we have a total of 75% ([59]). These results were duplicated by Dr. Fernald ([16]). She tested 100 other consecutive cases with the 1911 scale and found 41% tested below X, our presumably deficient group. She regards these as “feeble-minded with certainty.”
Dr. Katherine Bement Davis, the former superintendent at Bedford, estimated herself that among 647 prostitutes who were inmates there, 107 were “feeble-minded (distinctly so);” 26 “border-line neurotic;” 26 “weak-willed, no moral sense;” 11 “wild, truant, run-a-ways.” This makes a total of 26% of this group whom she apparently thought might possibly be classed feeble-minded or of questionable mentality because of deficient intellect or will ([11]). It is quite clear that the objective tests give a much better basis for comparison of the Bedford group with those which are to follow.
The professional prostitute confined in institutions for delinquents has been carefully studied and tested by the Massachusetts Commission for the Investigation of the White Slave Traffic, So Called ([36]). Three groups of 100 each were examined “without selection, except that all had a history of promiscuous sex intercourse for pecuniary gain.” One of the groups consisted of young girls under sentence in the State Industrial School for Girls, the House of Refuge and the Welcome House. A second group consisted of those just arrested and awaiting trial in the Suffolk House of Detention in Boston. The third was made up of women serving sentence in the State Reformatory for Women, the Suffolk County Jail and the Suffolk House of Correction. “These three groups represent the young girls who have just begun prostitution, the women plying their trade on the streets at the present time, and the women who are old offenders.”