Dr. Goring is led to the conclusion that there is not any significant relationship between crime and what are popularly believed to be its "causes", and that crime is only to a trifling extent the product of social inequalities or adverse environment, and that there are no physical, mental, or moral characteristics peculiar to the inmates of English Prisons: that one of the principal determinants of crime is "mental defectiveness," and as this is a heritable condition, the genesis of crime must to this extent be influenced by heredity.
Putting aside the part played by the different circumstances affecting criminal man, biologically and otherwise, and without subscribing to the different views and doctrines which, in the opinion of the author, result from the inquiry, the broad and general truth which appears from this mass of figures and calculations is that the "criminal" man is, to a large extent, a "defective" man, either physically or mentally, or, is unable to acquire the complex characters which are essential to the average man and so is prone to follow the line of least resistance. This truth may not be new or startling. It is advanced now by Dr. Goring as a truth which is scientifically demonstrable and so commanding respect and possessing a value which would not belong to statements based on purely empirical observation. This result may be regarded as modest and even disproportionate to the labour involved, but it is worthy of attainment, for much is gained everywhere and especially in the realm of penology, when definite ideas as to the nature of the problems dealt with are substituted for vague notions, or even illusions, as to the nature of the criminal: notions which, in the absence of detached and scientific inquiry, undertaken, as this has been, from a single-minded desire to search out what is true, may have their origin in two quite contrary sources, viz.: an undue pity for the offender or an undue desire to be revenged on him.
Quite apart from general incapacity to live up to the required social level which brings them within the meshes of the criminal law, Dr. Goring even suggests that the physical aptitude of evading the police may affect statistics, and the fact is that the weaker and not the stronger man is "run in," although the "criminal diathesis" may be equally strong in each. In any case his conclusion on this point is very emphatic, viz.: that English criminals are selected by their physical condition, and that the one significant physical association with criminality is a generally defective physique; and that the one vital mental constitutional factor in the etiology of crime is defective intelligence.
This general theory of defectiveness as a general attribute of criminality may be regarded by some as confirmed by the fact that persons convicted of crime are mainly drawn from the lowest social scale; and it is plausible to infer that physical and mental inferiority is allied to a low economic scale of living. This theory, however, must not be pressed so far as to affect the liability to punishment of the offender for his act. Penal law is, through its prohibitions, the expression of the social standard of life in the country. Where that standard is high, there must be a residuum of individuals whose mental and physical state does not enable them to live up to that standard. They fall below it through constitutional incapacity, which manifests itself in weakness of will and power of resistance. This inquiry goes to show that it may be predicated that with regard to the great mass of offenders coming within the meshes of the criminal law, this defectiveness, in its economic sense, is a predisposing cause, and has no necessary relation to definite physical or mental disease. It is a relative term only, relative to a high standard of social requirement to maintain which the law exists. Penal law, wisely and humanely administered, as in a highly civilized State, should apply its sanctions only with regard to the varying characters and capacities of those who come before the Courts. In other words, punishment must be individualized. The tendency towards the individualization of punishment is making marked progress in all the countries of the world, and nowhere more than in this country. In addition to the absolute discretion vested in the Courts and Tribunals, there is a careful classification for purposes of prison treatment, the object of which is to adapt, as far as practicable, the nature of the punishment to the character and antecedents of the offender. Although, therefore, the fact brought out by the inquiry that, on the average, the English prisoner is defective in physique and mental capacity, would seem to call in question the whole responsibility of any person guilty of an anti-social act, yet, if fully and properly understood, it does not mean more than that in a perfect world where the faculties of each would be fully and highly developed, the problem of punishment would not exist; and it would be a cause of rejoicing if the crime of the country could be demonstrated by statistical methods to be the result, not of a general perversity pervading all classes, but a tendency only on the part of persons living on a low economic scale to fail, on account of physical or mental defectiveness, to conform to the restraints of the criminal law. I regard this as a fair and reasonable explanation of crime generally in this country. It is, at least, an explanation which must fortify and stimulate all those who desire that there shall be fewer persons suffering from those incapacities which predispose to crime, or that, where incapacity is obvious and can be defined, special steps shall be taken not to expose such a person without care or oversight to the conditions of free life, which are likely to be not only ruinous to himself, but dangerous to the community.
It is satisfactory to note that incidentally to its general purpose, the inquiry (1) confirms the idea to which practical effect has been given in recent years by the institution of the Borstal system that the effective way of dealing with crime is to attack those between the ages of 16 and 21, which is shown to be the probable age for enlistment in the criminal brigade, (2) it demonstrates by statistical method that imprisonment does not have the adverse physical and mental results which are often alleged, (3) it confirms the opinion held of the necessity for better care being needed for the mental defective, and (4) it shows that it is by consideration of the individual men and women who make up the criminal population that the best solution of the criminal problem is to be found.
Those who agree with the opinion of Dr. Goring that the principal determinant in crime is mental deficiency will be encouraged by the passing of the Mental Deficiency Act, 1913, in the belief that this important measure constitutes a great step forward in the rational and scientific treatment of the criminal problem.
However much opinion may differ as to the exact proportion borne by heredity and environment, respectively, in the formation of the criminal character, whether any or no predominant part can be ascribed, as by Dr. Goring, to mental defectiveness, the fact remains and is known to all those concerned in the administration of prisons and in the actual treatment of crime, that a considerable number of adult persons in custody cannot be regarded as fully capable of dealing with the ordinary affairs of life. The provision, therefore, that has now been made for the detection and diagnosis of all forms of mental defectiveness from childhood and early youth justifies a general hope and belief that if this Act is effectively administered, a great impression will, in course of time, be made on the figures of imprisonment; and this hope can be held not only by those who take an extreme view of the influence of heredity, but by plain men and women, without scientific training or knowledge, who are now profoundly moved at the sight of persons of both sexes and of all ages coming to prison in the expiation of offences which, had they been mentally conscious of their obligations to society, or adaptable to their social environment and standard of living, they never would have committed.