The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1918-08-17
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
INFORM ALTON
Blu RE AU
FREDERIC J. HASKIN, Director.
Washington. D. c.
CRIME AND TAXEs.
Warrington. D. c.

by the layman, and so is defective in
telligence when it amounts to idiocy
or imbecility. But there are many
forms of insanity which render man
dangerous to himself and to society.
and which only a trained psychiatpist
can identify, while defective intelli-
gence in its milder forms often passes
for mere stupidity.
This state of affairs. combined with
the fact that we have neither the
trained men nor the machinery for
identifying and isolating these dor
derland cases." constitutes the problem
of crime in America-the reason why
we spend such enormous sums, to sup
press it without the slightest success.
Such is the ignorance of the abnor-
mality in this country that a man
showing symptoms of dementia prae-
cox, nnmistakable to a psychiatrist,
has been known to occupy an impor-
tant public position, exhibiting an
utter lack of ethical sense Gin itself
| a symptom of his disease) without
even having his sanity publicly chai-
| lenged.
The psychopathic labo- ator'- of the
| Chicago municipal courts is a scien-
| tific institution for the Identification
of these detectives. 1t IS not an ex-
| pertinent. 1t is applying methods
which have long been successfully
| used in Europe.
This laboratory to the criminal, Is
| simply a comfortable room of ordi-
nary appearance. where he Is treated
kindly, examined, asked some ques-
| tons and required to draw few pic
lures. When he gets out, he has been
put thru the Binet-Simon tests, the
/ split association test, the drawing test.
! has been subjected to a neurological
and psychiatrical examination, and his
| personal history and heredity have
| been learned both by research and by
questioning him. These tests end ex-
| aminations cannot we'll be explained
within the compass of this article
| Suffice it to say hat they show in
| faIlibly the grade of his intelligence,
what mental and physical diseases he
| is suffering from, if any. and what his
reaction to his environment has been
that is, how he has faced the trials
and responsibilities of life.
] These tests prove. by overwhelm-
ingly cumulative evidence % that
nearly all criminals are persons of de-
fective intelligence; Cd that nearly
| all of them in addition suffer from
some specific mental disease, such as
| dementia praecox. psychopathic con-
| stitution. or paranoia; CD that very
| large percentage of them suffer also
from alcoholism, drug habit. or de-
| generacy; (4) that they have nearly
all been punished for crime again and
again without being deferred from
I
1 proved mentally or physically Cor
both) incapable of earning living by
| honest work.
| Upon these facts rests the case for
| the scientific treatment of crime-for
| isolation as opposed to punishment
You may question the scientists dag
| nosis of the criminal mind You may
| say that he underestimate the GRIM
inal intelligence, that pretense i'm
pairs his tests. and that he finds in
sanity where there is none; altho a
| reading of the Chicago report would
convince any logical mind that the
scientific diagnoses are correct But
even If you reject this scientific evil
dence that the criminal is an alb
normal man, there remains the prac-
teal proof that the punishments of
the law repeated again and again;
have no deterrent effect upon him,
and that he has failed again and again
to make a living by any other means
! than crime.
Here is a typical report made by
the Chicago psychopathic laboras
tory. to judge. Man, 38 years old,
denfentia praecox hebephrenia, drug
addict, has been arrested eighteen
times, seven for burglary, eight for
larceny. twice for picking pockets, and
once for disorder1y conduct; has
served two terms in the Pontiac re-
formatory. two in the Chester GRIM
ina1 insane asylum. three years IN the
Mississippi penitentiary. three years in
the Wisconsin penitentiary: two years
in the Tennessee penitentiary: one
year in the house of correction; six
months in the Cook county Jail; six
months in the Ontario reform school;
and terms of varying lengths in four
insane asy1ums. He was sent by the
Chicago court to a psychopathic hos
pital.
Here is a man who has been a
criminal from his early boyhood, who
suffers from a kind of insanity well
known to psychiatrists. and which
drives him inevitably to crime. He
the law can devise except death, with
out being even temporarily deferred
Eighteen times various states and
cities have put him in prison, and
each time they have released him
they were in effect committing a
ally criminal. Eighteen times Judges
solemnly sentenced him for periods
varying from ten days to three years
! and eighteen times he came out the
same social menace that he was wher
he went It. Four times he has beer
identified as insane and sent to-asy-
. lums, only to be released as cured
{ when modern science knows that such
case is incurab1e. He has destroyed
and stolen property and probably
taken life. and five states have spent
many thousands of dollars just tc
catch and incarcerate him, only tc
start him anew on his career of mis-
cry and destruction. Before he got
out OF school he showed himself ar
} irresponsible wretch. unable to live as
other men, and yet in middle age, he
Is still pawn OF courts and law
yers, asylums and jails, police and de-
tectives. each of these guardians OF
society passing him helplessly on te
! the other. Surely anyone can read
the lesson of such a story as this II
might be named the Shame of the
Law.
) Nor is this an exceptional case
From the boys court to those
branches of the criminal court which
get the old offenders. the reports are
monotonously the same, except thai