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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    subjected to them do not become delinquents. So it is clear that there must be some additional cause at work. The majority of people are, comparatively speaking, poor, and come from undesirable environment. Bad heredity often implies poverty and bad environ¬ ment. It has been found that children with very bad heredity often do well when removed early from bad environment. It is doubtful how far lack of formal education can be considered a cause of delinquency. Poverty may sometimes predispose to offences of a dishonest character. 6. Defective Intelligence. The bearing of mental defect on delinquency will be more fully considered in Chapter V. The question as to what standard (if any) of intelligence may be considered as the “ average for the general population in this country has not yet been determined. 7. Crime has also been considered as a “ disease There are very strong reasons against using the word disease in this connexion. One of these reasons is that this use of the word implies the existence of some cause acting from without the offender, and so distracts attention from the offender as an individual. All the above theories tended towards the considera¬ tion of the offender as a constant factor in the problem. Lombroso’s anatomical theory will be touched on later. Anyone who commences the study of offenders very quickly finds the weakness of the “ general ” causation theories. If he starts with the idea that there is a definite “ criminal type ”, he will soon be undeceived. If, rejecting this view, he proceeds on the assumption that there are a few general classes into which offenders can be divided, he will have to dismiss this idea also. For it will soon be found that the individual offender can only be fitted into these predetermined pigeon-holes by manipulation of the facts. This is the essential weakness of the many attempts which have been made