63 



The Feeble-Minded and Delinquent Boy. 



Franklin C. Paschal. 



In an examination of the relation of feeble -minclediiess 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 tbe difficult problem to the student of delinquency, for when 

 those of tbe 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. 



