HERITABLE BASIS OF CRIME AND DELINQUENCY gi 



minded according to the latter was 29 per cent and according to 

 the former 57 per cent. Hauck and Sisson's studies of 201 boys 

 and girls of the Idaho Industrial Training School show 24.6 per 

 cent of feeble-mindedness among the boys, and 35.3 per cent of 

 feeble-mindedness among the girls. In their study of young 

 repeated offenders Drs. Spaulding and Healy found epilepsy or 

 mental deficiency in 245 out of 668 cases in which a thorough 

 study could be made; 152 cases showed moral defect in a preced- 

 ing generation often combined with a psychopathic or neuro- 

 pathic inheritance. Of the transmission of criminal traits as sueh 

 the authors could find little evidence. An individual study of 

 fifteen cases in which a peculiarly criminal inheritance was sug- 

 gested convinced the authors that "various physical or mental 

 factors are the real inheritance, and that criminalism may be 

 implanted on these in successive generations." All told, the 

 indirect influence of heredity on criminalism appears to be that 

 in 35 per cent there is predominantly a transmission of mental or 

 physical defect, and that in 9 per cent such inheritance is partly 

 responsible. This makes a total of 44 per cent in which bad 

 heredity is indirectly responsible for crime. 



The percentage of mental defect reported among juvenile 

 malefactors naturally varies greatly in different groups, according 

 to the basis upon which they are selected, and the kinds of tests 

 applied. Travis, in his book on The Young Malefactor attributes 

 the chief causes for juvenile delinquency to unfortunate environ- 

 mental influences. While recognizing the importance of bad 

 heredity, Travis opposes the views of the Italian positive school 

 in claiming that "there are no stigmata of either crime or types of 

 crime, but only of abnormality or degeneration. ... A study of 

 the delinquent with respect to his physical, mental and ethical 

 conditions, shows that at least 90 per cent and probably 98 per 

 cent of first court offenders are normal." 



With due appreciation of the value of Travis' studies of the 

 various factors which contribute to juvenile delinquency, and 

 without opposing his contention that these offenders fail to show 

 the physical stigmata of the so-called "born criminal," I am by 



