The evening times., 1911-06-08
MOST Y0UNG CRIMINALS ARE
MENTALLY sUBh0MAL FOR AGE
Much Of the Recurrence of Crime In
Children Is Due to Mental Defect
j and Custodian Control Is the Only
! Method Of Dealing With Them.

punishment or reform, was urged
" Superintendent Frank Moore of the
Few Jersey reformatory in an address
Iefore the section on Law Breakers"
4 the national conference of charities
md correction here this morning. Mr..
doore described q number of systems
Fhich have been developed recently,
bhich Is applied to each prisoner in
10 institution will determine whether
10 is mentally normal or sub-normal.
bach inmate Of the reformatory Of
Few Jersey received during the past
|ear has been subjected to one Of
hese tests, and by thus determining
lis psychological age, 1t has deter
hining his pathological age, it has
jeen established that forty-six per
,ent Of the inmates so received are
mentally sub-normal. The physical
|ge at which delinquents may be
egally committed to the reformatory
from sixteen to twenty-five years,
Tut by examination, according to Sup
rintendent Moore, it has been dis
overed that the mental age Of al
host one-half of the prisoners was
lelow twelve years, when in one case
was less than five. In other words,
orty-six per cent of those received
lad minds which In knowledge and
lbility were only equal to the mind
q child from Ave fo twelve years
I'd.
Life Sentence jt4l
Life sentences or permanent guard
anship by the state was urged for q
ertain class Of offenders against law
" DR.. William Healy, director Of the
hvenile psychopathic institute Of Chi
ago. The institute is a part Of the
aachinery Of the juvenile court Of
:hicago and DR.. Healy as its director
las had wide opportunity to analyze
he causes which bring children into
hat court. He made certain COM
arisons between the manifestations
( delinquency in children and GRIM
hality in adults and pointed out that
hildren who came back to the juven-
le court again and again are usually
Z the same type as older offenders
nd who are committed to prison re-
eatedly.
While DR.. Healy did not subscribe
the theory that all criminality is a
hsease or due to q diseased condition
e stated most emphatically that in
lis judgement, very many cases OF
ecidivism or the recurrence OF un-
awful acts is due to some discov-
rable mental defect in the offender.
But" said he, mental defect Is to
b considered simply as one Of the
auses of crime, but It is q cause 80
bvious, so readily determinable in
lost cases and so certainly irremedi-
BILE and provocative of recidivism
nd moral contagion that one Of the
rst steps of reform in dealing with
timinals ought to be directed toward
bis. The mental defective is suit
BILE neither for probation. reform
tory education nor punitive meas
res; custodial care alone Is Of SER
Ice and in the case Of the criminal
Itically inclined defective the courts
hould directly commit and the state
rotect itself by permanent guardian
hip"
Mentally Defective Children.
Ernest K. Coulter, clerk of the
hildren's court Of New York in an
hdress said that the most important
tep to be taken by the state in its
low abandonment Of antiquated
Methods Of treating child offenders
nd victims of bad environment and
eglect must be the establishment OF
hstitutions for the special treatment
{ mental detectives Of this class.
The speaker, who has seen at close
ange more than $4,000 children pass
trough the largest children's court
the world, denounced as sentimen-
ilists those who claim that most
hvenile delinquents are mentally de-
tctive, but concluded that the most
onservative observers must agree
Nat there are certain well-deflned
hses Of exceptional children, victims
environmental or congential causes
thich irristibly pre-dispose them to
rime. Some Of these children" said
tr. Coulter, II have seen come back
) the court five or six times after
ley had spent years In the ordinary
efornIatories adj before they have
cached the age of sixteen. In fore
ig the commitment Of the defective
Lid IN the ordinary reformatory, the
late is blind to it's cruelty to the
hildren, the injustice to the institu-
- - - =