New-York tribune., 1919-02-15

By Arthur Woods
Former Police Commissioner of New
York City
Lombroso. long regarded as an au-
thority, believed that some of US are
born to be criminals. | used to be-
leve that this was so, although | al
ways instinctively rebelled against it.
My belief was shaken one day when,
fresh from prolonged study of the
book. I looked into mirror and was
confronted with more of the criminal
characteristics than ! cared to con-
fess to. My instructive and hopeful
reaction against it has been supported
by later study and by the researches
OF modern criminalologists. 1t must
be recognized, on the other hand. that
some babies come into the world with
poorer endowments than others, and
that the deficiencies may be so serious
as to start the unfortunate child on
the Journey of life wholly incapable of
weat herlng its storms and trials. Such
an individual more easily falls a prey
to temptation, has less power of re-
slstance, is comparatively unable to
hold to the ways ordered by the law
abiding majority.
There are many of these detectives
IN the criminal ranks, and thew con-
stitute a big class of criminals which
mas not been clearly recognized, We
all OF us know people who, we think
are bit queer, and possibly some of
our acquantances think we NAV be q
little unusual in some Of our ways and
manners and customs. We don't
bother much about this, and it GER
talnly almost never occurs to any of
us to connect our queer acquaintance
with the idea that he might be
criminal
We are right in not so connecting
him, for it would be very far from the
fact to state that all persons who are
little queer, a little abnormal, are
CRIMINALS. 1t is not SO far from the
tact, however, to state that persons
who are queer to the extent of being
abnormal probably lack strong wills
and are without the power of inhibi-
ton, which would keep them from
yielding to strong temptation. l can
not discuss this as an expert psychia-
trlst, but it seems to me that roughly
1T is matter of power of character,
the defective being 50 under equipped
mentally as to weaken his will, and
thereby his character, making him
more yielding to the impulses of the
moment than the normally equipped
human being.
Child Is Not to Blame
A mental defective is person whose
brain development halted at some time
during his young life, so that he grew
up with the body of an adult, but the
mind of a child. Detectives are classi-
fled according to the age at which the
brain stopped growing. Every one re-
alizes that a child is not responsible,
and must be watched and taken care
of and treated with kindness and pa
tlence until 1T grows up and can take
care of itself. No one would think of
turning a child loose on its own re-
sources, and no one minds particularly
If children do things which are char
acteristc and tolerated in children,
but which would not be expected Of
grown ups We know how easily chill
dren are led, We know how their char
acters have to be formed. how crude
their ideas of truth telling and re-
the full recognition of these facts,
making allowances, and accepting the
job of bringing them up.
The defective has the limited brain
development of a child, with all its
lack of sponsibility, its failure to
understand the obligations of telling
the truth, of duty to others, of re-
straint, of consideration. But where
as in the child limited physical power
accompanies this limited character de-
velopment, it is quite otherwise with
the grown-up defective, in whom we
find the dangerous combination of the
mind Of child governing the body of
an adult
What we should never call crime if
done by a child becomes crime when
done by an adult. These mental defcc-
tlves, with capable bodies, are often
experts in crime, but are no more re-
! sponsible for what they do than a child
would be.
The most dangerous class is, I sup
pose, that which is nearest to the nor
NAL, for an insane person or person
who is extremely defective is easily
distinguished and looked out for
Although the progress of scientists in
the study of mental abnormality has
been rapid, it is still very difficult to
determine borderline cases, to tell
surely whether a patient is little de-
fective mentally, or perhaps only a
little stupid. In many country dis
tricts we find the village idiot, whom
every one knows and tolerates and has
kindly word for. But if defective
is close to the borderline he is hard to
distinguish, and all the more menace
1t is probably true that a large number
of persons are somewhat mentally de-
fective, but are fortunate enough to
grow up under conditions where they
have such a careful education and are
exposed to so few tempta tions that the
deficiency is never noticed. I cannot
emphasize too strongly that the mental
defective is not ipso facto a criminal
If subjected to temptation, however, he
falls more easily, and therefore is more
likely than the normal man to become
a criminal.
What Records Showed
A little while ago a man was brought
into the psychopathc laboratory which
we started at Police Headquarters. He
had been arrested on the charge of rob
berry. His fingcrprints' record showed
that in 1910 he had been convicted OF
felonious assault and sentenced to FL
mira Reformatory. In 1913 he was con
victed of grand larceny and sentenced
TO the city penitentiary. In 1916 he was
convicted Of disordcrly conduct and sent
to the workhouse. Here he was again
after three terms in prison. Before
arraigning him in court this time we