The Measurement of Intelligence | Page 6

criminology.
The criminologists have been accustomed to give more attention to the
physical than to the mental correlates of crime. Thus, Lombroso and his
followers subjected thousands of criminals to observation and
measurement with regard to such physical traits as size and shape of the
skull, bilateral asymmetries, anomalies of the ear, eye, nose, palate,
teeth, hands, fingers, hair, dermal sensitivity, etc. The search was for
physical "stigmata" characteristic of the "criminal type."
Although such studies performed an important service in creating a
scientific interest in criminology, the theories of Lombroso have been
wholly discredited by the results of intelligence tests. Such tests have
demonstrated, beyond any possibility of doubt, that the most important
trait of at least 25 per cent of our criminals is mental weakness. The
physical abnormalities which have been found so common among
prisoners are not the stigmata of criminality, but the physical
accompaniments of feeble-mindedness. They have no diagnostic
significance except in so far as they are indications of mental

deficiency. Without exception, every study which has been made of the
intelligence level of delinquents has furnished convincing testimony as
to the close relation existing between mental weakness and moral
abnormality. Some of these findings are as follows:--
Miss Renz tested 100 girls of the Ohio State Reformatory and reported
36 per cent as certainly feeble-minded. In every one of these cases the
commitment papers had given the pronouncement "intellect sound."
Under the direction of Dr. Goddard the Binet tests were given to 100
juvenile court cases, chosen at random, in Newark, New Jersey. Nearly
half were classified as feeble-minded. One boy 17 years old had 9-year
intelligence; another of 15½ had 8-year intelligence.
Of 56 delinquent girls 14 to 20 years of age tested by Hill and Goddard,
almost half belonged either to the 9- or the 10-year level of intelligence.
Dr. G. G. Fernald's tests of 100 prisoners at the Massachusetts State
Reformatory showed that at least 25 per cent were feeble-minded.
Of 1186 girls tested by Miss Dewson at the State Industrial School for
Girls at Lancaster, Pennsylvania, 28 per cent were found to have
subnormal intelligence.
Dr. Katherine Bement Davis's report on 1000 cases entered in the
Bedford Home for Women, New York, stated that there was no doubt
but that at least 157 were feeble-minded. Recently there has been
established at this institution one of the most important research
laboratories of the kind in the United States, with a trained psychologist,
Dr. Mabel Fernald, in charge.
Of 564 prostitutes investigated by Dr. Anna Dwyer in connection with
the Municipal Court of Chicago, only 3 per cent had gone beyond the
fifth grade in school. Mental tests were not made, but from the data
given it is reasonably certain that half or more were feeble-minded.
Tests, by Dr. George Ordahl and Dr. Louise Ellison Ordahl, of cases in
the Geneva School for Girls, Geneva, Illinois, showed that, on a

conservative basis of classification, at least 18 per cent were
feeble-minded. At the Joliet Prison, Illinois, the same authors found
50 per cent of the female prisoners feeble-minded, and 26 per cent of
the male prisoners. At the St. Charles School for Boys 26 per cent were
feeble-minded.
Tests, by Dr. J. Harold Williams, of 150 delinquents in the Whittier
State School for Boys, Whittier, California, gave 28 per cent
feeble-minded and 25 per cent at or near the border-line. About 300
other juvenile delinquents tested by Mr. Williams gave approximately
the same figures. As a result of these findings a research laboratory has
been established at the Whittier School, with Dr. Williams in charge. In
the girls' division of the Whittier School, Dr. Grace Fernald collected a
large amount of psychological data on more than 100 delinquent girls.
The findings of this investigation agree closely with those of
Dr. Williams for the boys.
At the State Reformatory, Jeffersonville, Indiana, Dr. von
Klein-Schmid, in an unusually thorough psychological study of 1000
young adult prisoners, finds the proportion of feeble-mindedness not
far from 50 per cent.
But it is needless to multiply statistics. Those given are but samples.
Tests are at present being made in most of the progressive prisons,
reform schools, and juvenile courts throughout the country, and while
there are minor discrepancies in regard to the actual percentage who are
feeble-minded, there is no investigator who denies the fearful rôle
played by mental deficiency in the production of vice, crime, and
delinquency.[1]
[1] See References at end of volume.
Heredity studies of "degenerate" families have confirmed, in a striking
way, the testimony secured by intelligence tests. Among the best
known of such families are the "Kallikaks," the "Jukes," the "Hill
Folk," the "Nams," the "Zeros," and the "Ishmaelites."
The Kallikak family. Martin Kallikak was a youthful soldier in the

Revolutionary War. At a tavern