THE CRIMINAL MIND

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 151, 27 June 1914, Page 12

THE CRIMINAL MIND

ACCIDENTS AND MORALS SOME ABNORMAL CASES. In dealing with the English Mental Deficiency Act and some of its shortcomings, the Times points out that persons who become moral imbeciles, a3 the result of accident or from other cause, may be placed in what is called an intermediate class. Criminals of this intermediate class may be divided into two main groups — the feeble-minded and the morally deficient. The former are by far the most numerous, though the morally deficient have become better known to the public as a result of the efforts of various crime novelists. Gentlemen like Arsene Lupin and Raffles, who take to crime for the love of it, and who appear to lack all sense of social obligations, do exist, but they are rare. Feeble-minded criminals, on the other hand, abound. Here are a few typical instances: — A boy, aged sixteen, was admitted to an asylum with the history that he had been subject to mania and moral insanity. His father stated that he took a shovelful of live coal, and asked the baby to pour paraffin on it. After leaving school he was a vanboy, but .was unable to keep his place. A nursegirl, aged eighteen, underwent a sentence for attempting to set fire to a dwelling house. > In three cases there had been mysterious fires in houses in which she was employed, and once a child was burned to death. She was generally discharged from her places for dishonesty, ahd once for cruelty to a child. There was a history of a. fit in childhood. She was a girl of pleasing appearance, and had passed the fourth standard education. In employment congenial to her she worked well, but at other times was idle and mischievous. The criminal tendency in these cases seems to depend to some extent on the tact that tho criminals are not able to cope with ordinary people in earning a living. They commit all kinds of crimes, but appear to retain, in most instances, enough moral sense to know that they are doing wrong. THE MORALLY INSANE. Quite different is the case of the moral "lunatic" (or, as he is sometimes erroneously called, moral imbecile). Hero we are dealing with persons of intelligence, and, frequently, great personal charm. They arc insane upon one point only— social obligation. They recognise no moral law ; more, they are unaware of moral responsibility. The amazing careers of these people make strong appeal to the imagination. Many of the great adventurers of the world, e.g., Joseph Balsamo, and, if certain of his critics are to be believed, even perhaps Napoleon the Great, have belonged to this class. Writers of all ages have delighted to recount their doings. Rare aa they arc, modern life probably contains more of them than is generally suspected, their success — for to be immoral is too often to hold a patent of success in a moral communityshelters them from detection. Nevertheless, cases which seem to suggest an aberration of this character — on a smaller scale— are^ not infrequently mot with. Recent criminal records contain names with lists of previous convictions standing against them which are little short ot amazing.