39^ HUMAN BIOLOGY 



tfonal institutions for juvenile offenders there is a much 

 larger proportion of defectives. But the curious discovery 

 was made by Doll, a very careful investigator, that in the 

 penal institutions in New Jersey there is a smaller pro- 

 portion of mental defectives than in the juvenile correctional 

 schools. 



The essence of the figures now available from many sources 

 is that while mental defect in an undue proportion is found 

 among inmates of prisons and correctional institutions of the 

 several types, nevertheless we cannot conclude that feeble- 

 mindedness is at all the large factor in the causation of 

 criminahty that at one time was supposed. 



To come back, as we must in scientific spirit, to the problem 

 of antisocial conduct in general as not differing funda- 

 mentally from crime, we can easily beheve that no such 

 biological defect as may be imphed by feeblemindedness 

 plays any great part in it. Further, in the discussion of 

 crime itself, we are bound to consider those who commit 

 larcenies and other crimes, but who "get away with it." 

 The thieving that goes on from transportation companies 

 and warehouses in this country, amounting, if Prentiss is 

 right, to over $100,000,000 a year, is certainly crime, but 

 as I have already said, extraordinarily few of those who 

 commit such offenses are taken into custody. Can anyone 

 suppose that in a criminal practice apparently as common 

 as this, the perpetrators represent much else than the average 

 run of the population, that they are individuals pecuhar 

 from any biological standpoint? 



But another important problem of biological import 

 has to be met concerning criminals. Among them is there 

 not an undue proportional representation of other varieties 

 of deviations from the mental norm? We can at once say 

 that some exceedingly important facts bearing on this matter 

 have been brought to hght recently as we have gained 

 better knowledge of certain types of such deviations. I 

 speak, particularly, of the finding that among dehnquents 

 and criminals there are many cases of what, in general 

 terms, might be called abnormal personahty. The interest 

 in abnormal personality Hes not only in the statistical 

 findings, but also in the facts of the incorrigibility of this 



