Idaho County free press., 1924-08-21
|CRIME CAUSED BY
DEFECT IN BRAIN
Irregularities in Ductless
Glands Also Factor,
Say Scientists.

WasnlngtOn.-lne tendency 10 re
gard criminals as irresponsible persons
more to be pitied than punished, grow
with every discovery Of science. No
L 70 long ago we were surprised to lear
= that individuals with a criminal ben
are victims Of irregularities in theil
ductless glands. Now we are told tha
v crime Is caused by physical defect II
Y the brain.
: The man who puts arsenic In hiI
y wife's tea. or the woman who shoots 8
q recalcftrant lover, cannot be regarded
! as a normal Individual. According tc
the new dictates of science neither
: could help committing murder any
more than he could help breaking out
Into a rash II he had chickenpox.
Character, mood and conduct are
largely determined by the performance
Of the endocrine glands" the gland ad-
vocates assert. The thyroid gland. es-
pecially. Is held responsible for the sort
Of emotional instability which finds
outlet In romantic homicide. In other
words, the shooting Of sweeties, they
say, can almost always be explained by
a defective thyroid The pituitary is
another gland of the endocrine system
which plays an important part in the
conduct of homo sapiens. Let ii get
out Of order and criminal impulse Is
apt to be the result.
Criminal Victim o. Glands
Among the champions of the gland
theory Of crime is DR.. Charles B. Dav-
export, director Of the eugenics record
office, who declares that society should
not hate or desire vengeance on a
criminal, since he is so clearly the vic
tim Of his glands. He favors locking
up the criminal out of harms way, but
treating the man with pity as the prod
uct OF unfortunate chemical reactions
not under his control.
On the other hand, the Idea that
emotional instability Is almost always
due to defect In the lower brain has
many learned exponents. 1t has been
suggested by such widely separated
authorities as Lombroso and william
James, but 1t has remained for two
weil7known criminologists of Chicago
to give 1t practical application. They
are Harry Olson, chief justice of the
Municipal court of Chicago, and DR..
William Hickson. head of the psyche
pathic laboratory attached to the GRIM
inal division Of the Municipal court.
Experiments covering a period of ten
years and dealing with over 10000
cases, have convinced these experts
that the lower brain holds the key to
antisocial behavior
Brain Two-Story Affair.
Their proposition is very simple. The
human brain, they point out, is COM
posed of two principal parts-upper
and lower. The upper part is the seat
Of the intelligence; the lower part is
he seat of the emotions and will.
When the mechanism of a mans lower
,rain is imperfect he is unable to exer-
Use normal control over his emotions,
md his moral judgments are confused.
his upper brain may be nor
nal or greatly above the normal In in
diligence, the defect in the actual gray
natter of his lower brain enfeebles
lis conscience so that he has a faulty
of right and wrong. Just
s there are all degrees Of intelligence
o there are all degrees of immortality.
Some authorities believe that one
art of the brain is highly developed
My at the expense of the other. Thus
ersons of exceptional intellect often
isplay little or no moral sense, while
ersons of great moral virtue are fire.
uently dull.
The Chicago experts have such firm
elief in their theory that they are
1xious to have certain morality
sts" introduced into the public :
'hools. An expert examination of
hool children would show, they claim, :
no would become criminals and who
ould not. Furthermore, it would be !
'ssible to predict, they say, what par {
cular line of crime the potential GRIM I
ais were headed for-arson, SWIM [
ing, burglary or murder (
While neither the gland theory nor
e lower brain theory has as yet been 4
piled in the schools, both are gain =
g headway In the criminal courts.
by doctors of medicine
pecially doctors of mental therapy !.
are now almost as common in impor- :,
ut criminal cases as cross-examlna- :.
n by doctors of law. A recent mur- =
r case In Chicago, for instance, Is
ID to be employing about five times - :,
many doctors as lawyers. -
With the growing acceptance of the
ysical basis Of crime, II is becoming
re difficult to secure conviction of 8
rider in the first degree. Always In II
mlnal cases the law presumes that oi
persons are sane. Hence, when the ~
minal or his counsel admits the 10
ual commission Of the act but de- u
S responsibility on the ground of in 81
Iity, the burden of the proof rests
N them. In short time, however, T.
nay be the other way about One
LIST predicts that the law will come
regard every criminal insane from
er brain or gland defects, and he lie,
have the devil of a time proving
sanity and thus retaining his liber- TO
,n bail, as he does at present. Da
nts.. II