The Detroit times., 1917-10-01
Reform of Criminals
nv ". ADDINGroN BRUCE
Author OF The Riddle OF Person
atty" "PhyeholoEy and
IpaTsnthood." etc.

In a recent number OF the Boston
! Medical and Surgical Journal Or Y.
v Anderson issues a report bearing
| uluminatingly on the important
/ problem OF reforming criminals
Or Anderson. who Is connected
with the Boston municipal court as
/ director OF medical service. recog
mixes the necessity OF dealing with
criminals not as a class hut As In
! diyiduals. lie recognizes further
thar many criminals are mentally
| disordered and that in all such
cases special treatment is needed
II the individual problems they pre-.
sent are 90 be satisfactorily and
Justly solved
In the present report he insists
more particularly on the import.
ance OF carefully discriminating be-
tween criminals who are feeble
minded and those OF abnormal rath-
or than subnormal mentality To
aid court authorities I'm discriminat-
ing between the two types he has
made a comparative study 81 a hun
drei feebleminded criminals and q
hundred psychopathic ones
Here. briefly. are his endings.
a majority OF the feeble minded
SIS per cent-never got beyond the
hfth grade IN school while 50 per
cent OF the psychopaths got beyond
hat grade
The feeble minded as a class are
In the majority OF these cases la.
dustrially inefficient. and are not
capable OF holding down positions
FOR any length ~ time
Bat the psychopsths As \ cNss
are In the majority OF these cases
fairly efficient industrially capable
- holding positions for much longer
periods and. when they lose yuch.
DO so morc because q their tenn
Pc F=fl4aFaial F~tttti rttt-.-. tA1rir- RHO
tional install ility etc. than any real
lack OK industrial efficiency"
Continuing Dr Anderson notes
that the hundred feeble minded
criminals studied by him were ar.
rested 1895 times, OF an average
of 1875 arrests FOR each The hun
dred psychopafhs were arrested
only $50 times or an average %
q ga arrests for each psychopathic
criminal
In tho Hight % these findings II
becomes eylden, that " wrong
doer's mentality Is. under suspicion,
and II his lie history shows he was
an extreme dullard in hoyhond was
1nemployable IN manhood. and has
been repeated offender ne
chances are that ne Is OF defective
rather than aberranf mentality
In which case. according 10 Tr
Anderson Y is OF little use 20 put
him on probation OF the feeble
minded criminals studied By the
Massachusetts specialist. only Z6
could be considered satisfactory
probation cases"
But with The psvchopathic type
the situation e reversed Says DT
Anderson
Twenty one per cent ~ the PFC.
bation periods OF The feeble minded
were successful. while more than
twice that number 80 per cent? Of
The probation periods ~ tho psychic
paths were successful
THE chances are better than two
20 one IN favor Of the psychonaths
and this without any special effort
directed toward training them 70
counteract The difficulties % per
sonality most responsible for their
failure
~ is quite likely that more can
be- done for the psychopeths thru
rotation than thru any other
agency. provided their treatment be
-nided ~ a knowledge Of their tenn
peramental pecnliar.tcs. their per
( eonality maladjustmenfs so that
their environment can be suitably
Influenced or chosen for them and
hey themselves trained 20 inhihit
'heir Impulses
In fhls report clearly. there is
food for thought By those who as
lawyers Judges penal officials or
social workers come much into con
tact With offenders against society