X chromosome errors in female criminals.

Abstract

<h3>To the Editor:—</h3> Since W. M. Court Brown¹first raised the broad question of whether individuals with abnormal sex-chromosome complements "could be held in law to suffer from diminished responsibility," much attention, both lay (<i>New York Times</i>, April 21, 1968) and scientific,²has been accorded the legal status of criminal XXY and XYY males. We are not aware that the same question has been asked with explicit reference to criminal females; we would like to ask it and to demonstrate its relevance. In Pennsylvania correctional institutions for women, we have recently performed buccal smears on 117 juvenile delinquents, confined largely for chronic truancy, and 133 adults incarcerated for more serious offenses including murder, larceny, and burglary. Only one abnormality was found; among the adults, a 22-year-old woman held as an incorrigible, guilty of defiant behavior and prison breach, repeatedly gave buccal smears containing nuclei displaying two, and occasionally