The psychology of the criminal / by M. Hamblin Smith.

  • Maurice Hamblin Smith
Date:
[1922]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The psychology of the criminal / by M. Hamblin Smith. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    grades thereof, that the difficulty begins. So far as the mental age of 9 years, or under that standard, there is but little uncertainty. If an individual defi¬ nitely grades below that age there is strong ground for saying that he requires permanent care. It is of interest that the U.S. Army found it to be of little use retaining men of a “ mental age ” below 9 years in the ranks. But above that standard all is uncertain. It must be remembered that, in Court work, we are not grading people from the point of view of scientific information. A definite suggestion as to treatment has to be made, or should be made. And very serious results may follow on calling a person mentally de¬ fective. The Royal Commission defined feeble-minded persons as those “ who were capable of earning a living under favourable circumstances, but were incapable, from mental defect existing from birth or from an early age, of (a) managing themselves or their affairs with ordinary prudence, or (b) of competing on equal terms with their normal fellows.” The mental Deficiency Act defines them as persons “ who by reason of mental defectiveness existing from birth or from an early age require care, supervision, and control, for their own protection or the protection of others” Both definitions contain the proviso that the mental defect must have existed from an early age, thus excluding such cases of weak mentality as may supervene in later life. The author was at one time of opinion that these words were a bar to the full usefulness of the Act. But he has seen reason to change this view. We certainly have cases of early senile dementia which cannot perhaps be certified as amounting to definite “ insanity, and which are the cause of delinquency. And the author is also of opinion that there is a definite type of what may be called “ alcoholic feeble-mindedness, pro¬ duced by the prolonged action of alcohol upon a pre¬ viously normal person, although in the majority of