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 qualities 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 
mentality. 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 convicted 
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. 
Stearns 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 4g per cent for 
juveniles.? 
Recently Dr. Ordahl has made a series of mental tests of 53 
male prisoners from the penitentiary at Joliet, Ill, selected in such 
a way as to secure a fair representation of the prison population. 
1Dr. 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.” 
