63 
THe FEEBLE-MINDED AND DELINQUENT Boy. 
FRANKLIN C. PASCHAL. 
In an examination of the relation of feeble-mindedness to delinquency. 
we find ourselves in the realm of the higher degrees of mental defect, the 
moron and the borderline cases. These, not the imbeciles, are the ones 
who present the difficult problem to the student of delinquency, for when 
those of the lower grade come into contact with the law, their antisocial 
behavior is recognized as but a manifestation of the deficiency. But the 
delinquent whom we classify as a high grade defective is not so easily 
disposed of, and it is this class with which this paper deals. 
Only within the past few years have the courts begun to recognize that 
each case is an individual case and that an understanding of the violator 
is fully as important as an understanding of the law violated. This has 
come about largely through the appreciation that a great Many of these 
persons have grave mental defects which were not of a sufficient degree to 
be recognized by the community. As a result, the juvenile courts of the 
larger cities and many penal institutions are depending upon the findings 
of the clinical laboratories to guide them in the disposition of the cases 
which appear before them. ‘These institutions are finding extremely diffi- 
cult, almost hopeless, the task of readjusting in society those who from 
congenital or early developmental causes are equipped with inadequate 
mental machinery. 
A delinquency is an abnormal reaction to stimuli furnished by the en- 
vironment. There are many conditions which operate to produce abnormal 
reactions, such as mental depressions, a craving for excitement, insta- 
bility and, very frequently, a mind not completely unfolded. If judgment, 
foresight. and moral appreciation are undeveloped, then inhibitions are de- 
ficient and the resulting anomalies of behavior will quite likely become 
criminal acts or delinquencies. The feeble-minded boy is the tool of his 
environment. He can not see his way forward in the situations that arise, 
nor can he control his environment. The more complex the situation in 
which he is placed, the less liable he is to solve his own problems and the 
greater the probability that his reactions will be construed as antisocial. 
