The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1918-11-20
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
INF ORM ALTON
BURE AU
FREDERIC J. HAsKIN. Director.
Washington. d. c.
THE PSYCHIC AFTERMATH OF
WAR
Washington. d. c,

the need Tor coping with the wave OF
mental and nervous disorders which
follows in the wake of war will init
ate Vast reforms in the handling OF
problems of crime and insanity in this
country, is the belief of leading psyche
log.sts and psychiatrists in the employ
of the government. For one thing.
many trained minds will be focused
upon the problem. and for another,
the public will arrive at better un-1
derstanding of the nature OF mental
disease and its relate to crime and
social unrest.
THIS is one regard in which America
is conspicuously behind the times.
Long after leading European coun-
tries had effected scientific treatment
of crime, this country was stumbling
along with statutes modelled after the
archaic covenants of the Old Tesla
ment and impregnated with tAlexan-
drian theories of good and evil.
Only recently has a change in the
trend of American criminal jurispru-
dence become apparent-wlthln the
last four or five years. Before this, II
is true, juvenile courts were estab-
| lished in some cities. but not until a
short time before the war was any
provision made for dealing scientif-
| cally with the adult male or criminal.
Crime, science has shown, is a mani
| 1eSIdIlOn OIL lu6 dDHOIlidl VI
NAL resulting from abnormal or sub
normal conditions in the criminal or
his environment. Not ali who COM
NIT crimes have mental arrangements;
| but experts are agreed that vast ma
| jority of recidivists, or habItual
criminals, are mentally defective and
should be treated accordinglyc This
premise must be recognized before any
| adequate methods for the elimination
| of crime can be developed.
md
Psychiatric clinic at Sing Sing prison.
after study of $50 prisoners admitted
up to December 1, 1917, states that
| "66.S per cent were not merely pris-
| oners, but individuals who have shown
| turnout life a tendency to behave in
manner at variance with the behavior
of the average normal person, and this
| deviation had repeatedly manifested
itself in criminal acts" Eighty-six per
| cent of all the prisoners were recidi-
visits, who had spent from one term
to seven in some corrective institution.
Twelve per cent were paranoiac or
| otherwise mentally diseased. Yet with
in five years all of these prisoners will
be discharged again into the COM
munity.
Doctor Glueck in a report to the
| committee on mental hygiene presents
a sketch of a typical "old offender"
| The subject is fifty-seven years old,
| serving a seventh term for burglary.
| His father was a chronic alcoholic. AS
a boy, the subject had comfortable
| home surroundings, but he early mani
| Tested insta bility and an inclination to
| trunacy which resulted in his expul-
| sion from school at the age of II.
When he was 16 job was found for
him. but in a short time he gave 1t
up and began to frequent pool rooms
| and saloons. At 10 he took to drink,
and shortly afterward was committed
n ant fnY NJ
then he has been convicted six times
4 for various offenses.
In the fabric of this mans career
the strand of mental instability is
| clearly shown. There is little likeli-
hood that he will ever revert to a nor
NAL relationship to society. Punish
ment" will have no effect besides keep
ing him for short periods from doing
harm to others.
| The abortiveneSS of the present
American legal machinery in dealing
with SO serious problem as the pre-
vention of crime is becoming obvious
to sociologists. In no other country
would the silly and futile third de-
gree" and the insidious ''gentleman's
agreement" between prosecutor and
defendant be tolerated.
1T is esirable,' Doctor Glueck
comments. that the agitation which
one meets on all sides for reform in
tillS important social problem should
occupy itself with the agencies which
handle the prisoner before his arrival
in Prison, as much as it concerns itself
at present with prison reform.
Il have in mind a hardened and
thoroly experienced burglar who has
already served in number of penal
institutions. He deliberately tells me
that he has no intention whatever to
do anything but thieving on his re-
lease and disdainfully refuses the Of
FER which might tend to change his
mode of living. Yet we are compelled
to release this man within few weeks
because his sentence expires. :"
Inquiry reveals the unsavory
ract that the prosecuting attorney to
whom this mans criminal record lie
well known, deliberately enters into a
bargain with, for example, a seventh
offender, to plead guilty as a second
, offender in return for which the ha-
bitual criminal escapes with a definite
sentence of two or three years.
This deliberate participation In q
crime thru sanctioning perjury on the
part of the offender neither serves tc
protect society nor to instill into the
criminal respect for the law. In.
stances of this nature are not at all
rare IN our experiences at Sing Sing
. 1t must be remembered that the fac
tors of heredity and environment tho
tremendously important. are not the
S only ones responsible for crime. Mere.
ly establishing the fact that many
criminals are insane or defective, Doc
tor Glueck points out, will avail moth.
: ing if we remain blind to the physi
t cal as we'll as the social factors respon
sible. -
There are unquestionably more de
fective and insane outside of prison
walls than within. Because an indi
t viduaI is defective or insane does no
+ mean that he is destined to be crimi
nal. But an unintelligent and some
times vicious handling of such per
sons may well serve to make crimi
S nails of them. To that extent tn
= psychiatrist's concern with problem
j. of administration is not only justified
| but Imperative
The point is that a very consider
i able proportion Of our population i