HERITABLE BASIS OF CRIME AND DELINQUENCY 87 



in the social scale. Families of bad inheritance, although they 

 may be endowed with wealth and social standing, tend after a 

 time to sink into lower social strata. The quahties that count 

 in the long run are mental ability, energy and reliability. It 

 is in these traits that the notorious families we have been con- 

 sidering have been so conspicuously lacking. People devoid of 

 these qualities form the ne'er-do-wells, the people who through 

 lack of initiative and energy drift into a bad environment and 

 hence are led into crime. 



It is now fairly well established that criminals, or at least those 

 of them who are sent to prison, are, on the average, of subnormal 

 mentahty. Here and there, of course, a man of superior ability is 

 convicted of crime. But the men who make up the bulk of our 

 prison population and especially men who have been con\dcted 

 on two or more occasions (and these constitute the greater part of 

 our prisoners) are distinctly below the general level of intelligence. 

 Dr. Fernald states that "at least 25 per cent, of the inmates of 

 our penal institutions are feeble-minded." According to Dr. 

 Steams nearly one-fourth of the population of the State Prison 

 at Charlestown, Mass., are mentally defective. Dr. Haines 

 reports that of 100 offenders examined as they entered the Ohio 

 Penitentiary 20 were mentally incompetent. Of the homicides 

 five-sevenths were feeble-minded. The same writer states that 

 of 33 female prisoners of the same institution, 10 were feeble- 

 minded but all the others were of "good mentality." H. B. 

 Donkin states that 20 per cent of the prisoners of England are 

 feeble-minded. The percentage of feeble-minded at Pentonville 

 was found to be 18 per cent for adults and 49 per cent for 

 juveniles.^ 



Recently Dr. Ordahl has made a series of mental tests of 53 

 male prisoners from the penitentiary at Joliet, 111., selected in such 

 a way as to secure a fair representation of the prison population. 



^ Dr. Wey of the Elmira Reformatory says, "It is a mistake to suppose that 

 the criminal is naturally bright. If bright it is usually in a narrow line. Like the 

 cunning of the fox his smartness displays itself in furthering his schemes and 

 personal gratification and comfort." 



