Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-02-23
CRIME ANALYSIS
BLAMES PARENTS
More Urchins Than Petted
Children Go Straight, DR..
Lind Declares.

The criminal is frequently the prod
net Of the nursery, in the opinion of
DR.. John z. Lind, who for the past
IS years has been in charge Of the
criminal department at st. EliSabeth's
Hospital.
The too tenderly nurtured child. DR..
Lind told the District League OF Amer
lean Pen Women last night, more often
becomes a criminal than the urchin Of
the street corners and back alleys,
which are the reputed breeding places
Of crime.
DR.. Lind's opinions are based on OBJ
servation Of the mental processes and
personal histories of hundreds Of Fed
eral prisoners sent to st. ElizabethS
for mental disorders. He now has more
than 200 under his observation, rang
ing from the violently insane to the
milder cases of psychopathic person.
atty.
Escapes Harsh Realities.
The too indulgent parent, DR.. Lind
said, does not give the child q chance
to overcome for itself the little obstacles
that arise in the life Of the nursery.
Everything Is done for the little one,
who has only to cry for assistance.
The child never is allowed to come in
OOIlJdLb Will AAdACl ACSSAAOACo Va
life. which must be faced sooner or
later.
Then the petted child goes out in
the world, where 1t no longer can pass
on its troubles to loving parents. It
has had no experience in Eolving the
problems Of life, as has the child
brought up in harsher and saner
background Consequently such q per-
son Is more or less helpless in the
unusual situations which arise in the
workaday world. It finds the solution
Of its difficulties In the most obvious
way-by turning to drugs, drink and
crime.
On the other hand, Dr. Lind said,
unreasonable harshneSs of parents leads
to q feeling of rebellion in children.
Later on, when the source Of authority
Is transferred to law and organized gov
eminent, the same reaction is trans
ferred to these institutions. In this case
the criminal breaks the law because he
has been conditioned to hate it from
the feeling which he formerly held
toward his parents. In both cases the
individual transfers his characteristic
behavior in the more or less unreal
world Of childhood to the real world Of
adult life.
HomicIdes Logical Legacy.
The background Of American life,
Dr. Lind said, also furnishes an ex-
PLANTATION Of the reptIted crime wave"
Of the present generation. I'VE are"
he said, IAN adoleScent Nation and are
taking those wild and reckless filings
which have ever been the prerequisite
Of youth. The pioneer days, with their
memories of Indians, highwaymen and
vigilantes, are just behind us. while the
great war, with its bloody heaps of VIC
tins. is thing Of yesterday. The pres
ent daily crop Of homicides is their log
zeal legacy"
DR.. Lind blamed the mounting num-
Der Of laws for considerable part of
the crime wave. 1.-THE Federal prisons
are overcrowded today" he said. chief
~ because of four laws which create what
might be called artificial crime. These
are the Harrison act, the Mann act, the
prohibition act and the Dyer act.
"A criminal Is easily created when an
Intelligent person realizes that q GER
tain law is not a capitalization Of pub
lie opinion, and when he sees it vio-
lated about him every day, or when a
person with natural criminal tendencies
no longer feels the deterrent effects of
fear, but sees how easily the processes
OF the law may be delayed and finally
evaded altogether"
Preventive Measures Urged.
Based on his study Of the criminal
insane at st. Elizabeths, DR.. Lind in
sisted that the way to end the crime
wave Is not by indiscriminate punish
ment after crimes have been commit
tea, but by preventing them before they
take place by getting at the causes
which underlie criminal behavior,
First he urged q wider application of
mental hygiene in the nursery. schools,
colleges and factories, by which mistakes
FAV1rR 49,
recJed before they have led to their
logical results. He urged that behavior
ana mental hygiene clinics be available
everywhere. The first of these In Wash
lngton soon Is to be established. Psychi-
artists and social workers, he said
should be attached to every juvenile
court, where the future criminal often
makes his first public appearance for
some minor crime. When such cases are
dealt with without full understanding
OF the primary causes Of the behavior
he pointed out, the condition often Is
aggravated and the future criminal
made more certain.
FavOrs Parole System.
For the rest Of his program he urged
that the criminal laws represent more
accurately the current state of morals
ana etnlcs. A crime should not be what
rev persons consider wrong but what
appeals to the great majority Of indi-
viduals as wrong. This, he indicated.
would result in much less law than is
now in the books. Once these few and
fundamental laws are agreed upon, he
said, they should be enforced without
fear, favor or technical delay. Society
should convince the criminal that be-
yond certain ethical line upon which
there should be practically unanimous
agreement, no trifling will be tolerated
AS his concluding measure, he urged
parole system under which the fitness
OF an offender to return to society would
be determined by trained pSychiatrists,
who, able to analyze the behavior into
its primary causes and trace its prog
ress from these causes, would decide
with considerable confidence whether a