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begin to practice truancy, itself a delinquency. From this it is but a step 

 to the gang with its series of petty thieving. The feeble-minded boy is 

 often the oldest and largest boy in his room and consequently a leader. 

 Under his guidance the younger normal boys learn to play truant, to 

 smoke cigarets, to steal and to practice sexual vices. It is through the 

 moral deterioration of these unfortunate followers that this defective does 

 the greatest damage. 



Not being capable of being aroused by the interests that are presented 

 to the normal boy, our defective is looking about for excitement, and this 

 he finds in stealing or other delinquencies. We often find in a good home 

 a boy of this kind, who, although his parents do all that seems possible, 

 is continually getting into trouble and eventually finds himself in some 

 serious situation. Such a case is particularly hard for our juvenile courts, 

 as it is not easy to take the boy from his home, yet the parents are seldom 

 able to deal with him. A mother will overlook the faults of this boy 

 because she feels that he is not to blame, yet she will not acknowledge 

 even to herself that his is an incurable deficiency. She makes allowances 

 and covers up his faults instead of enforcing the discipline that she would 

 give a normal son. The feeble-minded boy is even more in need of strong 

 and rigid discipline, for even this child may learn the effects of fire if it 

 is hot enough. 



Space will not permit a discussion of what is called Moral Imbecility, 

 but a few words are necessary at this point. By moral imbecility is meant, 

 to quote Tredgold, "that class of persons who are so constituted that they 

 are utterly devoid of any real moral sense, and of the consciousness that 

 any obligation is morally due from them to their fellows. Such defect is 



inherent and it may rightly be called moral deficiency Their 



moral defect is in fact, latent .... But although latent, moral de- 

 fectives of this kind are not of necessity actual criminals: they may well 

 be described as potential criminals." 



Many psychologists declare that moral imbecility does not appear in- 

 dependent of grave mental deficiency, some say that it may appear with 

 a deficiency which is slight, while others say that it may be present with- 

 out accompanying defect of mentality. That portion who have unques- 

 tionable mental defects fall within the range of this paper. The moral 

 sense, sympathy, benevolence or social instincts may be lacking, and if 

 the boy is without the intelligence to simulate these instincts or to de- 



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