It was easily to be seen at the beginning of the work that there would be value in both extensive and intensive studies. The former would give a survey of the field which might lead to establishment of definite knowledge of the larger needs of the situation, would perhaps point the way to better legislation and public provision for various classes of offenders. The intensive work would furnish better understanding of types and the possibilities of their treatment. Then we soon realize that the careful and prolonged study of individual offenders was a rational preliminary to working up statistics from which general conclusions could be safely drawn. Time has justified this opinion. Nothing is rasher than to make general statements about social needs upon the basis of tests, observations and figures that have not been proved to solve the point at issue.
As an incident to the work with offenders the psychologist in court is occasionally asked about the reliability of witnesses. We have been gathering data upon this point in hundreds of cases by some tests, and find the matter a very difficult one to generalize upon. In this we agree with various foreign students of the subject. The ability to be a good witness is a highly individual matter, and frequently involves the conditions of a given occasion, upon which tests do not throw any light. Occasionally from psychological study one can render a strong positive or negative opinion concerning individual capacities, but much more frequently it seems to us that no safe opinion can be rendered.
We would still maintain, as we ever have done, that the greatest hope for amelioration of the heavy burden of delinquency is in very early studies and early understandings of individual cases. Not only for scientific purposes but also for practical treatment the young individual with delinquent tendencies is best handled. Not entirely, since some social offences may first arise in late adolescence, but in a large share of cases some of the most valuable criminological work can be done by specialists in child study. Even in early periods of life intensive studies must be made, especially of children of the psychopathic type. We are more than glad to see the purpose all over the country.
One word more about method. Those who early suggested to us that intensive, continued study of a dozen offenders of a dozen different types would be worth more than a thousand short examinations spoke from a strong standpoint. Continuation studies are most valuable. They are necessary not only for giving understandings of types, but also for so understanding the individual that proper social adjustment of his case can be made. Our work shows plainly that except in the case of the grossly defective a short cross-section study is absolutely inadequate for the work in hand, namely, scientific treatment of the offender.
As we continue to see it, then, the purpose of psychological work with offenders is nothing more or less than the understanding of the causes of misconduct. By no other methods will such causes be known, and those who fail to reckon with the fundamental psychical conditions and processes which underly delinquency will never get far in developing better methods of treatment. Psychology in this field is perfectly willing to be judged by results, and that is the best self-recommendation that it can offer.
The application of well-rounded and safe psychological studies in court work (not the pseudo-psychology that our friends decry) offers to the law the important addition of a scientific method. It presumes to gather in all the available facts that bear on the conduct in question, to set down opinions of diagnosis and prognosis, and then to follow these up in connection with any treatment given to see how correct they may have been, and to offer the chance of such readjustment as may be necessary. There is a direct study, then, of predictability. Now this is exactly the method of every science that aims at self-improvement. Unfortunately, this scientific endeavor at self-improvement has heretofore not been the standpoint of the law. Nothing has been any more striking to us than our observations on this point. Now through the opening avenue of practical studies of mental life and conduct applied to offenders in connection with court proceedings, we see every reason to believe that the outlook may be much better for dealing with the whole problem of delinquency and crime.
THE EASTERN PENITENTIARY OF PENNSYLVANIA
[The following article from The Umpire, a paper printed at the Eastern Penitentiary, gives a graphic description, from a prisoner’s standpoint, of that century-old prison, where once the rule of perpetual solitary confinement was imposed. Today it is noteworthy for the liberality of its rules.]
Sometime in the early “Forties,” Charles Dickens, the eminent author, visited this institution, and the result of it is found incorporated in his “American Notes” published in 1842.
He strongly criticised the methods in force at that time and depicted conditions well calculated to arouse the indignation of every one with a spark of kindly feeling in their make-up.