ANTISOCIAL behavior: DELINQUENCY AND CRIME 395 



have good legal defense, not energetic enough to move olF 

 to another state after they have committed a crime, and 

 that, above all, they probably represent an undue pro- 

 portion of mental defectives, as compared to criminals 

 in general. That biological anomaly exists among mental 

 defectives in greater proportion than among the mentally 

 normal is an acknowledged and easily observable fact. 

 Taking up mental defect next as possibly representing a 

 biological anomaly (perhaps imperfect structure or func- 

 tioning power of brain cells) correlated with criminahty, 

 we may say that here, too, we are at once introduced to 

 complexities far greater than were earher seen. Some critics 

 have recently called attention to the ludicrous differences 

 in findings of mental defect among groups of dehnquents 

 and criminals as made by various examiners. This is thought 

 by Sutherland to be due largely to the varieties of attitudes 

 and training of the mental examiners, showing that mental 

 tests are not yet to be utihzed as entirely safe criteria. I 

 hardly think he is on safe ground in this opinion because 

 different groups as selected for imprisonment, for example 

 in different communities, vary tremendously according to 

 the attitude of the community toward probation, reforma- 

 tion, and other modes of treatment, and may thus well 

 vary in average mentality. But still one must acknowledge 

 that probably the earlier large statements of the proportion 

 of mental defect among delinquents and criminals was 

 the result of unskilled and uncritical work by mental testers. 

 (As a matter of fact, the significance of good mental testing 

 rests largely on the frequency with which findings are 

 corroborated by different examiners, perhaps in different 

 institutions and at later periods.) At any rate, the upshot 

 of the whole matter seems to be, fairly stated, that among 

 caught delinquents and criminals, there is, undoubtedly, a 

 much greater proportion of mental defect than among the 

 ordinary population. Suppose we say that i to 3 per cent 

 of the population would rate as defective according to the 

 standard age-level tests now in vogue; then we find by the 

 same criteria from 10 to 15 per cent of delinquents defective 

 as they appear in the juvenile court. As might be supposed, 

 there is at once a process of selection going on. In the correc- 



