| Per Ct. | |||||
| Mentality | Good | 43 | cases | 20.9 | 32.6 |
| ” | Fair | 24 | ” | 11.7 | |
| ” | Dull | 30 | ” | 14.6 | |
| ” | Subnormal | 62 | ” | 30.3 | |
| Moron | 45 | ” | 22.5 | 52.8 | |
| Imbecile | 1 | case | |||
| ----------- | |||||
| Total | 205 | cases | |||
About a third of the cases showed fair or good mentality. These cases have been studied in detail for evidence of other mental and nervous defects aside from mental deficiency. The results will be given later. Over half of the cases studied were found to be defective mentally. This corresponds to the results of the investigation of the White Slave Commission[2] made recently in Massachusetts, in which 51 per cent. of 300 cases studied mentally were found to be defective and represented segregable types. We should consider at least one quarter of our own cases segregable from a standpoint of mental defect alone, and besides these perhaps, another 20 per cent., candidates for a defective delinquent institution, if such a classification should include those cases which show marked psychopathic tendencies associated with subnormal mentality. The cases which are considered segregable types appear to be unable to care for themselves in the community. Besides the harm that may be done to them on account of their weakened resistance they become an active menace to others; first, through the spread of venereal disease; second, through their immoral influence in the community; and third, through bringing into the world children who will grow up to be as much a menace to society as they themselves have been. It should be the responsibility of representative members of society to see that provision is made for the care of such individuals, and that they are not punished for offences for which they can in no way be considered responsible.
Besides the cases showing mental defect alone, there are many cases both among the mentally defective and those showing normal mentality, which show other mental or nervous defects, such as epilepsy, hysteria and psychopathic tendencies. In the study of criminality of all kinds, such abnormal mental and nervous conditions play an important part. This is especially true of the class of women which is arrested on account of sex offences. In the environment of mill towns and certain sections of large cities, from which a large part of this population comes, the temptations which appeal to sex are tremendous, even to the individual who has a normal mentality and is well balanced. If through such conditions as slight mental dullness or extreme nervousness, the equilibrium is disturbed, the power of resistance is lost and the individual is unable to cope with the temptations which are usually about her.
Eighteen cases or 7.5 per cent. of the 240 cases studied have been epileptics; 16 cases or 6.6 per cent. have hysteria. Both conditions are very important as factors of social instability. The variability of epileptics and the extremes of which they are capable are well known to students of criminology. Many times we find cases suggesting a latent epilepsy among individuals in whose families there are other cases of the same disease. In these cases we see only what appear to be psychic manifestations or great irregularity in tests and behavior.
The cases of hysteria are also interesting on account of their extreme suggestibility. It is only necessary to watch the manifestations of this characteristic in an institution, to realize what an important factor suggestibility has been in the outside world in leading to their delinquencies. Mental imagery in such cases is of immense importance. One case of hysteria which we had under observation would while in her attacks of unconsciousness, often repeat (naming a woman who was living a life of prostitution outside), “Mary, I will come to you; I will give up my child; there is nothing else for me in the world and I will come to you and do as you say.” In studying her mental processes, the pictures which had been drawn for her of luxury and gaiety in such a life were continually before her, too strongly contrasted with any reasonable pictures which it was possible for us to conjure up for her.
Another important class is that which includes the borderline cases, which have perhaps never been satisfactorily classified. Many of these would be in the group termed by one authority “control defectives.” The term expresses well their explosive natures which may be seen when, without provocation they attack any person who happens to incite their enmity, whether she be officer or other inmate, or when by unreasonableness and loss of temper they bring unruliness and the necessity for discipline into an otherwise peaceful and well-behaved group. Many of these cases come from families in which there are many cases of insanity, and although they themselves show no signs of a definite psychosis, there appears to be much inherited instability. Other cases show the results of a meningitis or an encephalitis which they have had in childhood. Occasionally we see cases in which the instability apparently followed a head injury.
Besides these cases there are many who have previously been confined in hospitals for the insane, and who represent very unstable types. They may or may not have defective mentality, associated with the defect in self-control. They are one of the hardest classes of cases to deal with in institutions of any kind. The officers of penal institutions recognize their abnormality, and feel that they should be confined in insane hospitals because of their dangerous character. On account of the lack of a definite psychosis the insane hospitals naturally take them very unwillingly. Even though they show marked mental defect, institutions for the feebleminded are unwilling to admit them because of the demoralizing effect they produce on the more amenable types and the upsetting influence they have upon the institution routine. Many of these cases will doubtless be sent to defective delinquent institutions when those institutions shall at last be established. Whether the defect is a mental one or a nervous one matters little in their menace to society. The following case may be cited as an illustration of such a type:
A woman was arrested for assault after trying to throw vitriol in her lover’s eyes. At that time she was taken from the jail to a hospital for the insane because she had marked hallucinations of sight and hearing. These at the time were thought to be of alcoholic origin, and disappeared quickly. She was transferred to the reformatory where she had previously served a sentence. At various times since her confinement there she has assaulted other inmates and matrons, often violently. Recently, after such an attack on a matron, she apparently seemed ignorant of what she had done. While she acknowledged having attacked people in the past, she felt that this time they had attacked her. A few days later she was found in a vague although rather savage mental condition, with marked delusions. She had had hallucinations of sight and was not oriented as to time or place. The woman is subnormal mentally and it would have been hardly possible for her to have feigned the condition. That evening, becoming annoyed at something, she flew into a tremendous rage, which was much more characteristic of her usual self than the previous dazed condition had been. Her violent temper seemed to bring her to herself, and the next morning she could recall but faintly what she had said the day before, although she remembered vaguely being much more frightened at what she thought she had seen in her room. Two days later she laughed at what she was told she had said, realizing the ridiculousness of it and could hardly believe that it was true.
Although the condition and its quick recovery suggested an hysterical basis (no evidence of epilepsy has been found, and alcohol was ruled out by her long stay in the institution) nevertheless, the condition while it lasted made her wholly irresponsible, and it can easily be seen what a menace such an individual would be in a community. Thirty-seven per cent. of the 240 cases studied represent aberrational types of greater or less intensity. It can readily be understood what a factor such types would be in furnishing individuals of weakened resistance to help fill the demand of prostitution.
The 67 cases showing apparently normal mentality when studied further have revealed the following characteristics: