Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1926-02-04
'BLAMES |DLENESS
FOR GIRLS ERRORS
New York Police Woman's
Head Denies Excitement
Is Chief Cause.
BY Consolidated Press.

|
NEW YORK, February 4.-"Why
girls leave home is no secret to Mrs.
Mary Hamilton, New York'S first
woman cop, who has just resigned as
head of the women's bureau of the
New York police department. In her
nine years on the force women and
girls of every class and condition have
passed under her sympathetic obser-
walton and she is an authority on why
girls go wrong.
Most Of them are not bad" she
said today. THE ma jority are the UNI
fortunate product of their environment
and physical imperfections Idleness.
either voluntary or involuntary. and
the need of money are the great
causes which lead women into trou-
Bile. These are more potent factors
than desire for excitement. TO which
so many crimes and misdemeanors
are attributed"
Has Faith i'm Her SEX.
Mrs. Hamilton has enormous faith
in the inherent goodness of woman
kind. She believes that prevention
and removal Of basic causes are far
more efficient in achieving results for
the benefit of girls and women than
punishment after the acts have been
committed. She boasts that in her
nine Years ON the force she has never
made an arrest. She declares she is
not in the least weary of her work
Tor the unfortunate of society. and is
about to embark on a business which
VIII give employment to about 300
women and part-time work to many
more. In this new line of endeavor
she VIII attempt to put many of her
theories into practice.
The most critical periods in the
n she
come at the ages of % and 80. More
women get into trouble at those ages
than at any other times during their
lives. When girls, especially those of
foreign parentage. have just passed
the legal age of discretion and the re-
Stralnt of parents has been removed
Tor a short time, they think they can
step out and live their own lives-do
just as they please. Then they are in
discreet and get into difficulties.
Thirty Is Dangerous Age.
AT 30. if a woman is neither mar
rIed nor engaged in a definite career.
she is likely to become a problem for
the police. She finds jobs hard TO get
friends are increa singly difficult to
make and she gets into a state Of
mind in which she don't care what she
does"
Mrs. Hamilton holds firmly to the
theory that the glands of the body
account for n large proportion of the
acts which constitute a danger 10 the
community. She believes that proper
treatment of the thyroid gland would
do much to obviate social problems
Her theory holds that so per cent OF
criminal Effectiveness is emotional
not intellectual. y hypo-thyroid per
son, or one whose glands do not func-
ton sufficiently, is likely To be lazy
and indolent, while hyper-thyroid or
one whose glands are oyeractive is
sure to be overenersiZed and unstable
Mrs. Hamilton is grandmother and
her experience is not therefore con
fined to departmental work
Many girls" the veteran police
woman declares. gets the credit for
going wrong without ever doing 50
Some of these little brats couldn't bc
bad if they wanted to. 1t takes a Ger.
tain amount of attractiveness TO lead
a life of sin. Nobody is going to take
the trouble to lead the homely. dirty
little girls of the crowded districts
astray. They stay out late and are
afraid to go home.
Are Accused Wrongly.
when they live on roofs and in
the subwayS and vestibules until they
are found by their parents or the pc
lice, then they are generally accused
of having violated moral laws, and
become outcastS. They are treated so
by the police in many instances. al
though common sense would indicate
that no one could possibly want to
lead them down any primrose path"
Prohibition is blamed by Mrs. Ham
ilton for an increase in crime among
young girls.
Girls drink now who never would
have touched it in the old days" she
added, land the stuff they get is so
drugged and adulterated that they are
not responsible for their actions after
they have consumed it.
''One crying need of every city is
system of adequate Identification.
believe the foot print and thumb
prints of every baby should be taken.
as we'll as the finger prints of the
mother. BY this means abandoned
babies could be traced and kidnapped
children identified. Many foreign
mothers are afraid to go to our hos
pitfalls for fear their offspring would be
mixed and some other child substi.
tllf ed