Miscellmiea 
307 
convictions for intoxication were omitted the user of alcohol is more often guilty of misde- 
meanors and felonies than the non-user. It is interesting to note that foreign white women 
have a smaller percentage in each institutional group tlian they have in the population as a 
whole in view of the prevailing opinion that foreigners in New York aie largely responsible for 
crime in that city. The foreign-born arc however more pi'onc to commit serious ottiences 
than the native-born. We do not consider that much can be gained by discussing the numbers 
age, etc. of native coloured delinquents in the institutions since some of them, such as the 
Magdalen, take no negro women, and as we said before, a combination of institutions does not 
seem to be justifiable. 
A very careful record was made of the home conditions, coml)ining the economic condition, 
moral standard and adequacy of parental supervision, and it was found that there was a signifi- 
cant correlation between the condition of the home and the age at first conviction ('31), the 
women from the poorest homes being first convicted at an earlier age, but there seems to be no 
correlation between the number of previous convictions and the home conditions though here 
also we should like to see a correction for age. It is very luifortunate, as the authors point out, 
that there is no control series, so that no comparison with the normal population can be made. 
Neither, for the same reason, is the hereditary aspect considered, and we feel that we must 
protest against the form in which the data available are given. On p. 241 it is stated that in 
15'9 per cent, of families, which means here jiarents and sil:)lings, some member had been con- 
victed of crime, but there is no statement as to the number of siblings, and one criminal in a 
family of eleven for instance is a dift'erent matter from one criminal in a family of four. This 
information about the number of the family is available and we should have thought that by 
taking estimates of criminality in New York State the hereditary side could have been dealt 
with. A study of the educational opportunities of these women is practically limited to a study 
of their age at leaving .school and the years they were at school, and here again only a comparison 
within the group can be carried out. There seems to be no clear relationship between age at 
leaving school and age at first conviction. As far as educational attainments are concerned, 
school attainment does not seem to have kept pace with length of time at school but we do not 
know how far the two are connected in the non-delinquent population. The older women were 
found to have reached a lower standard and to have been fewer years at school than the younger 
women, but probably this would be the same in the general population. There is no correlation 
between number of convictions and the grade reached even when age is made constant. 
As far as the occupation of these women is concerned there seem to be more domestic 
workers among the delinquent women than in the general population not necessarily as the 
investigators state that domestic work causes delinquency but it may be that those who go into 
domestic service represent the unskilled untrained women from whom the delinquents are 
drawn. The domestic workers appear to have reached a lower grade than the women employed in 
other occupations. There was no evidence of a connection between earning capacity and 
number of convictions. The women seem to be earning a low and irregular wage but they 
belong largely to un.skilled workers and judging by the low grade reached at school they were 
probably for the most part incapable of better work. The authors do not think that the delin- 
quency is the result of the low and irregular wage ; an elaborate investigation would be needed 
to enable us to discuss this point ; judging by the accounts of the individuals one wonders that 
some of the women were ever employed at all and in the worst cases work and character were so 
unsatisfactory that dismissal occurred soon after employment. 
In connection with intelligence there is a good deal of comparison with Dr Goring's work but 
we are doubtful as to how far such a comparison is useful considering the differences in sex, type 
of offence, etc. The women delinquents' intelligence is judged by the test aggregate and no figures 
are given showing the percentages found in the grades which correspond to those used by 
Dr Goring. As judged by the test aggregate, delinquent women are 1-6 to 2'0 years behind the 
army group. If we take Table 165 and cou.sider army men and delinquent women as samples of 
the population and work out the correlation coefficient we find it is "38 ± '02 (where "02 is the 
probable error not the index of reservation) between delinquency and a low intelligence. The 
actual figures are not given so that I have had to restore the table to its original form by multi- 
plying the colunuis by 447 and 653 respectively, never a very satisfactory business. 
In a work of this kind it would be an enormous advantage if the summarized data for each 
individual were given as Dr Goring gave it in Part II of his work for the criminals he studied ; 
this woidd enable those interested to work out other correlations and test fresh points for them- 
selves. More than half of these delinquent women are guilty of sex offences and since the 
correlation between mental defect and sexual crime was found by Dr (4oring to be 46 we do 
not feel that there is any great disagreement in these conclusions though we know that we are 
not comparing data that are strictly comparable. There are certainly some differences between 
English male criminals and these delinquent women but these may be due to a dift'erent defini- 
