Twelve Thousand Criminals

Abstract

A study by our psychiatric department of the criminals admitted to the Virginia State Penitentiary has revealed findings that should be of value in a more logical handling of this major community problem. It is fair to say that the criminal as a whole is an inadequate personality. He is inadequate in some phases of his personality development. He cannot or will not meet the problems that present themselves as his adequate neighbor does. In his attempt to maintain security and to carry on his self-preservation, he has not been able to play the game according to the rules and customs that have as their purpose a social orderliness which in turn will give to the individual and to the mass the greatest happiness. The psychiatric department is concerned about the forces motivating abnormal reactions, or crime, in these cases. We have constantly attempted to keep before us the problem of the individual as an organism. Thus, in our present civilization this organism is constantly in a state of reaction to its environment. The way in which one reacts to environment is, as I have observed, more dependent upon the organization of the individual than the stimulus to which one reacts. The monotonous repetition of the stress and strain of unusual circumstances-broken homes, foreign born, feeblemindedness, worry, and financial difficulties-is recorded and tabulated with the greatest exactitude as causative factors of crime. We cannot overlook the large number of individuals who have gone through all of the above so-called causes of crime who have never committed crime. Furthermore, we cannot close our eyes to the fact that the individual who has committed crime continues frequently to commit crime. Thus I cannot help but conclude that criminal reaction is not wholly explained by the nature of the stimulus, but is dependent primarily upon the individualhis original endowments plus the changes which have been caused by past experiences and disease. Crime is motivated by processes of mentation and the forces operating to produce these reactions are to be attacked if we are to prevent crime.