Seward daily gateway., 1925-08-26
CHICAGO POLICE URGE
 PSYCHOLOGY AS CURE
 FOR CAUSE OF CRIME

CHICAGO, Aug 25.(P)-The psy. chologist and the policeman make a battery against criminals which ex- perts anticipate eventually will re- duce outlaws to a no-hit game in Am erican cities.
 Through the Psychopathi Labora- tory of the Municipal Court of Chi cago, the old-line, hard-shelled criml- nologist whose faith was in brass knuckles and the hangman's rope gradually is being replaced by expo nents of a new dispensa tion, who re- gard crime as an effect of psychic IT, regularities and work for it's eradica- tion thru science rather than shot guns and sentences.
 A brief summary of the major con clusion of the laboratory directors, based on the eleven years history of the institution, is the statement that the whole American system of crim- inal jurisprudence is long overdue al the junk pile.
 For the present order in criminal procedure they would substitute a scheme, based upon the accepted fun damentals of psychology, wherein the offender is a patient instead of a prisoner.
 The laboratory is a branch of the Municipal Court, which is unique as the largest court in the world. In 1924 there went on this courts docket 94,00O civil and 225,00O crim- inal cases for the consideration of its 37 justices.
 Chief Justice Harry Olson estab- l;shed the laboratory after 20 years experience as assistant prosecutor and Criminal Court judge in Cook County, to test his hypothesis that crime is fundamentally a problem of the mental and emotional disorders As prosecutor of thousands of crim- inals he had observed that most of lenders were repeaters, and that large majority of men sentenced to the gallows suffered various de- grees of mental debility.
 Dr. William J. dickson, widely known criminal psychologist, and his wife, Mrs. Marie Hickson, have been directors of the laboratory since it's foundation in 1914.
 As the largest clearing house for criminal mental defectives in the word, the clinic attracts police mag istrates and students of criminology from all parts of the world. Its rec ords constitute a veritable gold mine of source material for psychologists. Thousands of personal histories cor related with criminal records, have been characterized by reputable au- thorities as "the largest body of data on crime which ever has been put together under scientific auspices.'
 Here are the conclusions Dr. Hick- son draws from his eleven years ex- perience in the laboratory:
 CD Mental debility is the primary factor in crime, and the elimination of the criminal is a problem more in psychology than in the efficient ad- ministration of thousands of police with quick trigger fingers.
 CD Virtually all criminals are short-changed on mental equipment or emotional stability.
 (3) In reference to the number of offenses, 90 per cent of the crime in Chicago is attributable to some form of mental debility, usually not apparent to laymen.
 (4). In more than 80 per cent of the criminally inclined mental weak lings, the delinquency is manifested before the period of adolescence.
 (5) Crime could be completely wiped out in one generation by prop erly caring for youths of criminal in- clinatons
 (6) A large majority of persons convicted of major crimes, such as murder, robbery and assault, have been in court previously, some many times, for some minor offense. In most cases they have been fined, sentenced to short terms, or put on probation, only to return soon to face some more serious charge.
 CD Punishment is not deterrant to crime in the eyes of most crimi- nals.
 (S) Criminal inclinations in mental weddings is a dominant impulse quite as irresistible as the healthy social impulses of normal individuals and the criminal, because of his de- bility, does not regard punishment as retribution, but merely as a conspir- acy of society to rob him of his right to self-expression.